FIMBRIATED TORTOISE. 71 



equal in length, and entire; the inferior being 

 furnished with a kind of lateral membrane : the 

 gape of the mouth is wide: the neck is seven 

 inches long, and four and a half broad; above flat 

 and warted ; and on each side furnished with six 

 fimbriated membranaceous appendages longitudi- 

 nally disposed, and alternately larger and smaller : 

 the under part of the neck is also beset with four 

 appendages of a similar kind, w^hich are placed 

 opposite to the two on the head, and are in- 

 creased by two longitudinal wrinkles: the fore 

 feet are scaly and warty, and have five indistinct 

 toes, with as many longish and sharp claws, which 

 are convex above and flat beneath : the hind feet 

 are scaly, and the toes are still less distinct, and 

 have only four claws, the fifth toe being unarmed 

 and very^ short : the tail is an inch long, slightly 

 bent, and covered with a granulated skin : the 

 disk of the shell is subconvex, and consists of 

 thirteen semicircular pieces, almost conical, mu- 

 cronated, and marked with three elevated lines, 

 most prominent on the hind part : all the pieces 

 are wrinkled, and are irregularly notched at the 

 hind part : the marginal pieces are twenty-five in 

 number, almost square, radiated on the surface 

 with oblique wrinkles, and toothed on the interior 

 edge. The colour of the whole is brown, some- 

 what paler beneath 



This animal is said to be a native of Guiana, 

 and to have been once common in the rivers of 

 the isle of Cayenne ; but has been so much thin- 

 ned by the fishermen, that it is now become rare, 



