750 



REPTILIA. 



baska, the broader head, much shorter snout and one-ridged palate of the animal at 

 once serve to distinguish it from B. basTca. 



The male of B. lineata is known to me only from two specimens, one a 

 perfect animal in the flesh which I had alive, and the other a shell procured at 

 Allaliahad by Mr. John Cockburn, who informs me that he has noticed the remark- 

 able difference in size between the sexes of this and other species of fresh water 

 tortoises. 



The male is not adult, but its shell is in the same stage of growth as a female 

 having a shell 16 inches long, and yet this male is only 9 inches long, about haK 

 the size of the female. 



Measurements of male and female examples of B. lineata. 



Extreme length of carapace, straight line 

 Extreme breadth across seventh marginal 

 Length, plastron to middle of anal notch 

 Greatest |depth through second vertebral 

 Axillary breadth .... 



Inguinal „ .... 



9 

 Inches, 



22-75 

 22-0 

 21-20 

 10-00 

 7-3 

 8-0 



The vertebral plates of the two males are exactly ahke, and have the exact form 

 of the same plates of those females with the broader vertebrals. The vertebral ridge 

 can be traced along the back, culminating in the hinder end of the second and third 

 plates as a more prominent ridge not continuous along the two plates and not so highly 

 prolonged on to the fourth vertebral. The ridges along the sides of the plastron are 

 yet distinctly visible. The shell is a moderately long, rather regularly oval, and the 

 posterior margins are slightly reflected, and the caudal notch is small, but distinct, 

 and the dentation of the hinder margin of the shell is still decidedly present. In 

 life, the shell was a dark ohve, with a shghtly rufescent tinge over the anterior 

 portion of the dorsal surface, the under surface being rosy-red, the margins on 

 the same sm'face being suffused with bluish. The limbs were of the colour of the 

 upper surface of the shell, but the large plates running along the external margin 

 of each limb were bright red. The upper surface of the head, from the nostrils back- 

 wards between the eyes, to near the occiput, was brilliant red, and from the hinder 

 margin of this area, four broad similarly coloured lines ran backward, two on either 

 side of the mesial line, diminishing in intensity and size from before backwards. 

 A broad deep black band arose from the posterior half of the upper and posterior 

 borders of the eye, disappearing a little behind the head on the side of the neck. 

 Prom the broadest part of this black band, another red band proceeded alono- the 

 side of the neck to the shell. A yellow band occurred immediately below the black 

 band and ran a short way along the side of the head, with a narrow black band 

 below it, under which was a still narrower yellow line from the angle of the 

 mouth, with a broad bluish-black area below it again, tending to become linear 

 posteriorly. The front of the nose, below the nostrils, was red, and the rest of the 



