732 EEPTILIA. 



Batagurs by the presence of two strong palatal ridges, the inner, however, being 

 much smaller than the outer ridge. 



The female referred by Theobald to B. trivittata had no trace of black bands 

 on the shell, which, instead of being greenish above, as in the male, and yellow below, 

 was uniform brown, above and below. Now, in Batagur duvaucelli, which is a very 

 nearly allied form, and the sexes of which are well known, and which has its 

 shell with three black dorsal streaks, as in the males referred by Theobald to 

 E. trivittata, there is no such difference in the colour of the shells of the two sexes, 

 which are both black-streaked. There is this to be said, however, that these males 

 referable to the species B. trivittata diifer from the males of B. duvaucelli in 

 attaining to a much greater size ; the males of B. duvaucelli, as far as my observa- 

 tions go, seldom exceeding 9 inches in length, whilst some females are 16 inches 

 long ; the largest male, B. trivittata, from the Irawady attained to 17"'90. Be- 

 sides these differences in size subsisting between the sexes of B. duvaucelli, there 

 can be no doubt but that among some species, at least of Batagur, the male, as 

 in birds, is a much more brilliantly coloured animal than the female, if not at all 

 times, at least during the breeding season. This is the case in. the species known as 

 B. lineata, in which the head and neck of the male are brilliantly coloured, black, 

 scarlet and yellow, and it also holds good in B. baska, in which the male has the area 

 around the nostrils waxy-blue, the anterior portion of the head, behind this, deep 

 black, followed by brilliant scarlet, extending over the neck even to the fore limbs. 



The male of B. lineata is a small animal compared with the female, but in 

 B. baska there is no great disproportion between the sexes. In another sub-genus, 

 {Hardella) there does not appear, as far as my experience goes, to be any difference 

 in colour between the males and females of this very common river tortoise B. (BLar- 

 delta) thurgi, but the largest female of it which I have measured was 19"- 10 com- 

 pared to 6"- 20, the length of an adult male ; and a proportion between the sexes 

 somewhat similar to this prevails among the so-called Pangshures, and a great dis- 

 proportion also occurs between the sexes of the sub-genus Morenia, all of these 

 forms presenting more or less one type of structure. In the Pangshures, in which 

 the males are small, the lineation of the shell, if it occurs in one sex, is always pre- 

 sent in the other, and in Bardella the shells of both sexes are more or less lineated 

 and, in Morenia, the shells of the males and females are alike ocellated. There are 

 however, such great differences between the colours of the soft parts of the sexes in 

 such species as^. feV^eate, in which the head and neck are brilliantly streaked red and 

 black, these parts in the female bemg duU oHve, that the difference of colour sub- 

 sisting between the males and females referred by Theobald to B. trivittata, even in 

 view of the conformity of colouring in the male and female of B. duvaucelli and the 

 other forms mentioned, should not have deterred me in unreservedly accepting 

 Mr. Theobald's conclusion regarding the specific identity of these males and females 

 had there been a strong similarity in the form of the shells, and had I not received 

 from the Irawady a young male tortoise (PI. Ixiv), resembKng the females in 

 question, and to that degree that it may ultimately prove to be the male of the 



