SNAKE TORTOISE. 73 



great force, stretching out its neck and hissing at 

 the same time. Whatever it seizes in its mouth it 

 holds with great force, and will suffer itself to be 

 raised up by a stick rather than quit its hold. 

 The head is large, depressed, triangular, and co- 

 vered with a scaly and warty skin : the orbits of 

 the eyes are oblique ; the mouth wide ; the man- 

 dibles sharp ; the neck covered by scaly warts, 

 and appearing short and thick when the animal is 

 at rest, but when in the act of springing on its 

 prey, is stretched out to a third part of the length 

 of the shell : the toes of all the feet are distinct, 

 but connected by a web ; and are five in num- 

 ber on the fore feet, and four on the hind ; all 

 armed with claws longer than the toes themselves: 

 the tail is strait, and about two thirds the length 

 of the shell ; it is compressed, attenuated, and 

 crested on the upper part with sharp bony scales 

 directed backwards and gradually decreasing to 

 the tip, while the sides and under part are covered 

 with smaller scales : the under part of the body is 

 covered by a loose, wrinkled skin, beset with 

 smallish soft scales and granules : the shell is 

 slightly depressed, of an oval form, and consists 

 of thirteen pieces in the disk, each of which rises 

 behind into a kind of projection or obtuse point, 

 and is pretty strongly radiated and furrowed in 

 different directions : the general colour of the 

 whole is a dull chesnut-brown, lighter or paler 

 beneath. 



This animal conceals itself in muddy waters, in 

 such a manner as to leave out only a part of its 



