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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIII. 



In none of the species of the Chelonia, which develop 

 epidermic plates, do the vertebral scutes exceed five in 

 number, but in specimen No. 3 there are distinctly six ; 

 but this is evidently abnormal, the fifth being an outgrowth 

 from the posterior margin of fourth. There is also a projection 

 of the marginal plate, rising bet ween the third and fourth costals 

 on the right hand side. In specimen No. 4 there are also six 

 vertebral scutes, and an up-growth of a marginal scute, but 

 in this case on the left hand side, and placed between the 

 last marginal and last vertebral scute. 



There is no doubt that if the abberrations represented in 

 No. 6, or even in No. 5 and No. 6 together, were confined to 

 individuals from some particular locality, say Java, in 

 which the normal form did not occur, that they would be 

 universally acknowledged by all Zoologists to be a distinct 

 species. Would this be correct ? I think there can be no 

 doubt that Mr. Ferguson's specimen represents the young of 

 T. elegans. Taking this for granted, the species alters greatly 

 between youth and age. In the adult the carapace is much 

 longer than broad ; in the young the length and breadth are 

 almost equal, the margin is scarcely serrated, and the supra- 

 caudal is a broad truncated shield. There is not a trace of 

 a hump, the scutes forming a tessellation over the semi- 

 globular back. The areolae occupy almost their whole extent, 

 and are strongly granulated, the concentric striae being 

 represented by a narrow smooth margin. In the plastron, the 

 pectorals are much more developed than in the adult, and the 

 inguinal and axillary shields are large and distinct. Let us 

 suppose that our hypothetical species from Java had precisely 

 the same kind of young, should we be justified in calling 

 it anything more than an Island race ? 



In Dr. Boulenger's division of the genus Division 4 contains 

 those species with a very convex carapace and black with 

 yellow lines radiating from areolae, or brownish with black 

 radiating lines. No. 1 might be described according to the 

 first system of coloration, and No. 4 comes fairly under the 

 second. T. platynota of Burma differs from T. elegans in the 



