TESTUDO SIGNATA 
Cafra agrees so entirely with this species, that I cannot for a moment doubt 
their identity. The specimen from which that description was taken, was 
obtained by Levaillant in Cafraria. One of the natives had it suspended round 
the neck, to contain a portion of grease which he used for the purpose of 
anointing his body; it probably therefore wanted the anterior lobe of the 
sternum, as was the case with the one figured by SchoepfF, as well as that in 
my collection, which is the only specimen I have seen. I am consequently 
unable to ascertain the length of the sternum, and the exact figure of the ante¬ 
rior margin. It will probably be found to resemble that of Testudo areolata. 
The only species with which it can be confounded is that which I have just 
mentioned; and from this it differs in many striking characters. In T. signata 
the dorsum is more depressed. The vertebral and costal plates are all of them 
about as broad as they are long, whilst in T. areolata the first vertebral and the 
first costal scuta are much longer than they are broad, and the others much 
broader than they are long. The nuchal plate, in the present species, is rather 
broader than it is long, at least in my specimen, though Mr. Gray gives as a 
specific character, cc scuto nuchali angustissimo ; ” a character much more nearly 
correct if applied to T. areolata. The posterior margin only in T signata is 
revolute; of T. areolata the lateral margin is equally or even more so. The 
colours, too, are very different. 
Both these species are very liable to an accidental increase in the number of 
the dorsal and marginal plates. Some of these variations, which, however, are 
unimportant in themselves, will be found alluded to in the account of T areo¬ 
lata. SchoepfFs specimen of T. signata had twenty-six marginal plates, which, 
from his imperfect knowledge of the laws which regulate the respective number 
of plates in different forms of the Testudinata , he considered as a specific 
distinction. Mr. Gray, in his Synopsis, has copied this obvious error, retaining 
as a specific character ec scutellis marginalibus xxvi.”! This is the more sur¬ 
prising as my specimen, to which he alludes in the very next line as having 
seen it, possesses only the natural number of all the Testudmidce, namely, eleven 
pairs, exclusive of the nuchal and caudal ones. The specimen which Daudin 
describes had twenty-seven marginal plates, besides an additional pair of costal 
ones. 
