CHELONIA. 761 



+ Batagur (Morenia) Petersi, Andr. Plate LIX. 



Etvys ocellata, Blyth., Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxvii, p. 281, 1854; id., I. c, vol. xxxii, p. 82, 



1859 ; Theobald, Cat. Kept. Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxxvii, ex No., 1868, p. 13, plate. 

 Morenia ocellata, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept., B. M., 1870, p. 63. 



The adult female is slightly smaller, and more elongately and narrowly oval 

 than the female of B. (M.) ocellata. The shell is more arched, with much 

 greater fullness over the fourth and fifth vertebrals than in JB. (M.) ocellata, and like 

 the latter it has a vertebral ridge. The post-inguinal portion of the plastron also 

 is much broader than in the last mentioned species. The nuchal is long, 

 due to the cncumstance that the anterior margin of the shell is hardly, if at all, 

 emarginate, the nuchal thus having more the appearance of a narrow marginal, 

 than of a nuchal plate. The proportions between the anterior and lateral margms 

 are the exact opposite of what prevails in B. ocellata, because the first marginal has 

 much greater antero-posterior breadth than the sixth marginal ; this plate in 

 £. ocellata being much broader than any of the other marginal plates. The length 

 of the nuchal itself equals the breadth of the sixth marginal, whereas in B. 

 ocellata, the length of the nuchal is less than one-half the breadth of the sixth 

 marginal. The lateral marginals also are not so outwardly directed as in B. ocellata, 

 and in this they follow the more arched character of the shell, but the anterior 

 marginals are more upwardly reverted than in B. ocellata. The fourth marginal 

 in JB. ocellata is applied to the whole of the outer surface of the axillary plate, 

 with the exception of a small surface, anteriorly to which the third marginal 

 touches, but ia JB. petersi the fourth marginal is only applied to the anterior half 

 of the outer surface of the axillary, and the third only touches the anterior 

 angle of the axiUary. This character is persistent throughout a large series in. JB. 

 ocellata in which the fifth marginal is always largely excluded from articulating 

 with the axillary by the fourth marginal, whereas in B. petersi the fourth and fifth 

 marginals are nearly equally divided between the axillary. The vertebrals are of 

 nearly equal breadth ; the first is longer than broad, with a posterior concave margin 

 and its anterior margin convex. The second, third and fourth shields are broader 

 than long, the length diminishing as they are traced backwards ; the fifth shield has 

 a broad anterior border like the other vertebrals. The ridge terminates on the 

 posterior border of the second, third, and partially on the fourth vertebral, in an 

 abrupt eminence. The outer margins of the post-gulars and of the preanals are some- 

 what expanded ; the gulars, anteriorly as in B. ocellata, form a nearly straight line, and 

 each plate is triangular. The post-gular suture is relatively longer than in B. ocellata, 

 and the mesial preanal suture is very much shorter than in that species (see Dumeril 

 and Bibron's figure of type) ; the suture in B. pietersi equalling less than one-half of 

 the mesial anal suture, while in B. ocellata the preanal suture nearly equals the 

 length of the anal suture. The pectorals also of B. petersi are relatively larger 

 than in B. ocellata. In B. ocellata the inguinal plate forms a suture with the sixth 



z4< 



