20 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Smooth ovate Tortoife with extremely long neck. 
THE Tortoife here reprefented is a fpecies never 
before figured or defcribed. The plate expreffes the 
natural fize of the fpecimen from which the figure was 
taken. Its colour on the upper parts is a deep olivaceous 
brown. The fhell is nearly fmooth, but in fome parts 
bears a refemblance to the grain of common black 
leather. The head is fmooth. The neck extremely 
long, and (as it fhould feem) always exferted: its upper 
furface is marked with oval granulations, which give it 
an extremely ferpentine appearance. The fore feet are 
fhort and tetradactylous ; foftly fcaled, and, as it were, 
pinnated by a continuation of {kin. The hind feet are 
of afimilar ftructure, but fomewhat longer and more 
widely pinnated. The claws on all the feet refemble 
thofe of birds. The under furface of the animal is of a 
pale whitifh yellow ; that of the fhell more deeply fo, 
and {ftained at all the junctures with black-brown, fo as 
to form fo many crofflings of that colour. The tail is 
fo extremely fhort as fcarce to deferve the name, being 
merely a flight prolongation, or rather rifing of the {kin. 
