TESTUDO NIGRITA. 
71 
inwards or outwards. The general colour is a deep black, with a brownish tinge about 
the margins of the majority of the plates. 
As in the preceding species, the shell is thin and light ; in this specimen it is only 
4 niillims. thick in the middle of a costal plate. Specimens of the common Testudo 
qroeca only about 8 inches long have a carapace almost as thick as these gigantic 
Tortoises. 
The second specimen (Plate XXXI. fig. C), which is 22 inches long and the type of 
T. nigrita, is young, and probably a male, inasmuch as the sternum shows a slight con- 
cavity, and the passage between the hind margins of the caudal and sternal plates is 
of inconsiderable width. As in specimens No. 3 (15^ inches long), the carapace is 
deeply sculptured all over, the smooth areolse being very small. Its transverse circum- 
ference equals the longitudinal. The front margin, as well as the hind margin, is 
deeply notched, each notch corresponding to the suture between two marginal plates. 
The outer surface of the caudal plate is convex, the hind margin being curved inwards; 
its length is to its width as 3:4. The sternum terminates anteriorly in a thickened, 
rounded, double-headed transverse knob, with a slightly concave surface below ; and 
posteriorly in a deep rectangular notch. The colour is the same as in the adult 
example. 
Our very young emample, which is only 8^ inches long, and figured in Proc. Zool. 
Soc. /. c, agrees in every respect with those of more advanced age, differing from young- 
examples of the same size of T. ephiijpium by the greater relative width of the carapace. 
The principal measurements of the specimens described are as follows : — 
Length of 
carapace. 
Width of carapace. 
Sternum. 
Caudal plate. 
In str. line. 
Over curve. 
In str. line. 
Over curve. 
Length. 
Width. 
Length. 
Width. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
1. 
<s.... 
41 
52 
33 
53 
5i 
7 
2. 
22 
27 
16 
27 
18i 
15f 
3 
4 
3. 
151 
191 
11 
19 
12 
9f 
2| 
3 
16 
211 
121 
21 
141 
Hi 
2^ 
4. 
81 
101 
6 
lOi 
6f 
6 
li 
1 
The skull (Plates XLII.-XLIV. fig. D) is distinguished by its comparatively longer 
facial portion, and by the much-produced mastoid processes ; it is (see also Gray, Catal. 
Tort. 1855, 4to, tab. 34) 5J inches long, measured from the intermaxillary to the occi- 
pital condyle, and 4^ inches broad at its widest part, viz. between the tympanic pro- 
cesses. 1. Its frontal region is flat, narrow, its greatest width being two sevenths of 
the distance of the tympanic condyles. 2. Only the foremost part of the parietals 
forms a flat surface, the remainder being compressed into an almost trenchant crest, 
passing into the long narrow occipital spine, which is scarcely raised above the level of 
the skull (Plate XLIII. fig. D). 3. The tympanic case with the mastoid is produced far 
backwards, so that the paroccipital margin appears as a deep semicircular excision 
