18 MARGINATED TORTOISE* 



dcrecl as the most common European species. 

 The Count de Cepede's description is as follows : 

 This Tortoise, which is described from the life, is 

 almost fourteen inches long, and ten broad, when 

 measured according to the curvature of the shell : 

 the head is an inch and ten lines long, an inch 

 and two lines broad, and one inch deep; it is flat 

 a^d triangular above : the eyes furnished with a 

 nictitating membrane ; the lower eyelid alone be- 

 ing moveable : the mandibles strong, crenulated, 

 and beset internally Avith asperities, which are 

 sometimes mistaken for teeth : the apertures of the 

 ears are covered by the common skin : the tail is 

 very short, being only two inches long : the fore 

 legs three inches and six lines long ; the hind feet 

 two inches and six lines : the skin is grainy, and 

 covered with unequal, hard scales, of a brown co- 

 lour, and covering the head, legs, and tail ; some 

 of these scales on the ends of the feet are large 

 and hard, and of a pointed form, so that they 

 might be confounded, at first sight, with the 

 claws : the feet are thick, and so covered, as it 

 were, by the investing membrane, that the toes can 

 only be distinguished by the claws which termi- 

 nate them. The Count adds, that the disk of the 

 shell consists of thirteen pieces, striated on their 

 margins, and the border of twenty-four pieces; 

 all of which, and especially the hinder ones, are 

 much larger in proportion than in other tortoises, 

 and from their position cause the circumference 

 of the upper shell to appear denticulated : it is ex- 

 tremely convex, being more than four inches 



