TESTUDO AREOLATA. 
oblongo-quadrata; quartum quadratum, et reliquis minus : marginalia quadrata; 
primum et secundum horizontalia, plana 5 reliqua omnia ad marginem test* revoluto- 
carinata. Scutum nuchale minimum, lineare, antice acute prominens: caudale late 
pentagonum, apice revoluto. Sternum lutescens, badio nebulosum. Scuta jugalia 
parva, triangularia, extrorsum unidentata; humeralia subrhomboidea; pectoralia 
introrsum attenuata, extrorsum latiora, antice profunde sinuata; abdominalia magna, 
quadrata ; femoralia late quadrata, extrorsum latiora; analia rhomboidea ; axillaria et 
inguinalia minima. 
Testee osseae mensura . 
unc. 
lin. 
Longitudo dorsi . 
. 4 
2 
Latitudo ejusdem. 
. 3 
0 
Altitudo. 
. 1 
8 
Longitudo sterni . 
. 3 
7 
The variations in colour as well as in form, to which this tortoise is liable, 
have occasioned some former writers to describe its mere varieties as no less 
than three distinct species, in addition to the original Testudo areolata of Thun- 
berg. These are T pusilla of Daudin, or rather of Worm, (la Vermilion of 
Lacepede), T. Cqfra and V fasciata of the former author; and the descriptions 
are, fortunately, sufficiently clear to enable us to identify the whole of them 
with the first-mentioned species. The red horny protuberant scale above the 
nose, the bright colour of which, in an individual specimen, suggested to 
Lacepede the name of “Vermilion,” exists in all, though it is generally of a 
dull red or reddish brown. The colour of the plates also varies very much not 
only in intensity but in hue. Thus of seven specimens now lying before me, 
no two are sufficiently alike to answer perfectly to a single minute description. 
The disk and the extreme edge of each dorsal plate are always alike, being of a 
brown hue, varying from a deep pitch-colour to alight bay. The intermediate 
space is either bright yellow, dirty greenish yellow, or a bright pale green. The 
proportions of the two colours also differ in different individuals. Intermixed 
with the hues just mentioned, there are sometimes obscure traits of purplish 
brown and of other approximating colours, though I have certainly never seen 
