CASPIAN TORTOISE. 



63 



at the junctures with black brown, forming so 

 many crossings of that colour : the head is smooth ; 

 the neck extremely long, appearing, so far as 

 could be judged from the specimen described, to 

 be almost always in an exserted state (though 

 this is merely a conjecture) : its upper surface is 

 marked with oval scaly granulations, which give 

 it an extremely serpentine appearance : the fore 

 feet are short and tetradactylous ; softly scaled, 

 and as it were pinnated by a continuation of skin: 

 the hind feet are of similar structure, but some- 

 what longer, and more widely pinnated : the 

 claws on all the feet resemble those of birds, and 

 are four in number : the tail is so extremely short 

 as scarce to deserve the name, being merely a 

 slight prolongation, or rather rising, of the skin. 

 The colour of the whole animal above is deep 

 olive-brown ; beneath paler, or inclining to whit- 

 ish. Nothing particular is known of its manners 

 or history. 



CASPIAN TORTOISE. 



Testudo Caspica. T. testa orhiculari, palmarum unguibus quinis, 

 plantarum quateniis, capite sqmmato, cauda nuda, Lin. Si/st, 

 Nat. Gmel.pr 1041. 



Tortoise with orbicular shell, scaly head, five claws on the fore 

 feet, four on the hind, and naked tail. 



Described by Gmelin in his Russian Tra- 

 vels ; who represents it as a native of the region 

 of Hircania, inhabiting fresh waters, and some- 

 tinnes growing to a vast size, so that some men 



