I 



481 



but they are somewhat differently arranged. I 

 counted three in the centre of the disk, and five 

 hexagonal on each side. The margins contain 

 twenty-four, all quadrangular, and much curved. 

 The upper shell is of a black colour inclining to 

 green; the feet and claws are like those of the arrau. 

 The whole animal is of an olive-green, but it has 

 two spots of red mixed with yellow on the top of 

 the head. The throat is also yellow, and fur- 

 nished with a prickly appendage. The terekays 

 do not assemble in numerous societies like the 

 arraus, or tortugas, to lay their eggs in common, 

 and deposit them upon the same shore. The 

 eggs of the terekay have an agreeable taste, and 

 are much sought after by the inhabitants of 

 Spanish Guyana. They are found in the Up- 

 per Oroonoko, as well as below the cataracts, 

 and even in the Apure, the Uritucu, the Gnarico, 

 and the small rivers that traverse the Llanos 

 of Caraccas. The form of the feet and head, 

 the appendages of the chin and throat, and the 

 position of the anus, seem to indicate, that the 

 arrau, and probably the terekay also, belong to 

 a new subdivision of the tortoises, that may be 

 separated from the emydes. From their cirri, 

 and the position of the anus, they approximate 

 the emys nasuta of Mr. Schweigger and the ma- 

 tamata of French Guyana; but differ from the 

 latter in the form of the scutels, which are not 



VOL. IV. 2 I 



