TESTUDO TENTORIA. 
specimen, which consists only of the shell, and even this mutilated by the 
absence of the anterior lobe of the sternum. I am therefore unable to say 
anything respecting the head, limbs and tail, upon which so much depends 
in ascertaining the characters of approximating species. I cannot however 
avoid considering this as distinct from T geometrica , of which Mr. Gray states 
it to be a variety. The extraordinary elevation and conical form of the 
vertebral plates; the minuteness of the areolae terminating the apex of the 
cones; the extreme shortness of the nuchal plate; the projecting direction 
of the caudal ; the sternum extending backwards as far as the margin of 
the dorsal shell, and the remarkable colouring of this part, are all so many 
characters distinguishing it from T. geometrica , and appear to me to be 
sufficiently important, taken together, to warrant the opinion which I have 
adopted, that they are distinct species. It must however be acknowledged 
that it would be far more satisfactory if we could examine a number of 
specimens, and particularly living ones. 
