1870.] Indian and Malayan AmpMhia and Reptilia. 227 



large a size, as in Bengal or the plains of India ; the largest Hi- 

 malayan specimen I measured was only 32 inches. The coloration 

 and other characters are, however, very constant, there are dark 

 brown oval spots encircled with black and then with white ; the 

 tail in yonng specimens is brown above, yellow below. 



I observed the species np to 5000 feet in Kulu, and np to 6000 

 feet in Kashmir, but its usual habitat is between 2 and 4,000 

 feet. It is generally found in sunny places near the foot-paths, 

 while Halys himalayanus is met with on the path itself, generally 

 after rain, and in shady places between overhanging forest trees. 



CHELONIA. 



Of this class I have obtained, along the Burmese and Malayan 

 coast, only very few species, and those do not, with a single excep- 

 tion, call for any special remark. 



84. Ernys crassicollis, Bell, (Gr ii n t h., 1. cit. p. 28). 



I found this species common in the small fresh water streams of 

 Penang. 



The coloration during life is blackish brown with a slight greenish 

 tinge, on the carpace and on the feet, sometimes the lower side is 

 irregularly marbled with a paler color. The head has in young 

 specimens a small interrupted pale orange or whitish spot somewhat 

 in front above each eye, a pale large spot on each side of the neck, 

 two spots behind the angle of the mouth and the greater posterior 

 portion of the lower jaws are also whitish. In full grown specimens, 

 the pale spots become indistinct and more or less confluent. It does 

 not appear to be generally known that in the adult (8 inches long) 

 turtle the costal ridges* which are very distinct in young specimens 

 often perfectly disappear, and the vertebral ridge also becomes 

 indistinct, as observed by Dr. Cantor (Journal Asiatic Society, 

 Bengal, 1847, XYI, p. 609). The last vertebral plate is in younger 



* Dr. J. E. Gray quite lately (Proc. Zool. Soo., Lond. 1869, p. 197) pro- 

 posed for Emys crassicollis (apparently as the type) a new generic name Bellia. 

 In the generic characteristic the author states " back three-keeled." It is 

 perhaps fortunate that Dr. Gray had not the carpace of an adult crassicollis 

 with a detached skull for examination; he would certainly have made of it a 

 new species, and under favorable circumstances perhaps a new genus ! In the 

 old turtle as compared with the young, the snout is more obtuse, the webbing 

 of the feet a little less distinct, and the plates on the upper side of the feet 

 more subdivided into single shields. 



