WRINKLED TORTOISE. 29 



longitudinal sulci or furrows, of various degrees 

 of obliquity ; the whole forming an appearance 

 less easy to express in words than by a figure. 

 The under shell is smooth, and of a pale or yel- 

 lowish white colour, thickly and beautifully mot- 

 tled with black. The length of this curious shell 

 is nine inches and a half : its w^idth, in the middle, 

 five inches ; in the widest or hind part, six inches 

 and a half, and its height, or convexity, three 

 inches, if measured from the bottom of the under 

 shell, and nearly two inches, if from the prominent 

 margin or edge of the upper shell. 



The annexed engraving is an accurate represen- 

 tation of the above-described shell of nearly half 

 the natural size. Its native country seems to be 

 unknown. 



VAR. 



In the Leverian Museum is a variety, perhaps 

 a sexual difference of the above. In this the shell, 

 instead of being speckled, is marked somewhat 

 obscurely with two or three yellowish horizontal 

 streaks on each scutellum ; while the under shell 

 is of a yellowish white, with a row of moderately 

 large, round, blackish spots along the whole cir- 

 cumference, one spot being seated at each com- 

 missure of the marginal pieces. A pair of similar 

 spots occur also at the tip or upper part of the 

 sternum, and a pair on each side the concavity at 

 the opening for the hind legs. 



