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Show 620 MR. STANLEY S. FLOWER ON THE [May 16, short distance, and then trend outwards again and are continued back on to the neck, gradually getting thinner and fainter ; the fifth dark line is median, commencing in the fork of the Y, but without joining it, aud running back on to the neck, gradually getting fainter and disappearing considerably in front of where the inner pair of dark lines cease. Iris pale gold. Size. This Penang specimen measured, after death :- Length of dorsal leather-shield 190 mm. Breadth „ „ 145 „ Length from snout to tip of tail 340 „ When it was alive the dorsal leather-shield bad been about 202 mm. long. Hab. Mergui, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. 20. TRIONYX HURUM Gray. Gymnopus gangeticus, Cantor, p. 8. Trionyx gangeticus, Giinth. Rept. Brit. Ind. p. 47. Trionyx hurum, Blgr. Cat. Chel. etc. p. 249 ; Blgr. Fauna Brit. Ind., Rept. p. 13 (young fig.). This species does not seem to have been met with in the Straits Settlements since Cantor's time, who says " it is of fierce habits, desperately defending itself by biting, emitting when excited a low, hoarse, cackling sound." Hab. Ganges and Malay Peninsula. N.B.-Dr. Hanitsch (Rep. Raffles Libr. & Museum, 1897, p. 9) records Trionyx hurum from Ulu Legeh. I saw the specimen, but could not identify it myself. 21. TRIONYX PHAYRII Theob. Trionyx phayrii, Blgr. Cat. Chel. etc. p. 251 (skull fig. p. 252). Phayre's Soft Turtle was recorded from Penang (Anderson, J. A. S. B. 1871, p. 30), and in September 1897 I obtained one specimen in a stream among the foot-hills of Gunong Pulai, Johore. Hab. Burma, Malay Peninsula, Java, Borneo. 22. TRIONYX CARTILAGINEUS (Boddaert). Gymnopus cartilaginea, Cantor, p. 9. Trionyx ornatus, Giinth. Rept. Brit. Ind. p. 48, pl. iv. fig. B. Trionyx cartilagineus, Blgr. Cat. Chel. etc. p. 253 (skull fig.). Localities. This is apparently the most numerous species of Soft Tortoise, both in the Malay Peninsula and Siam, living in rivers and ponds. The British Museum Catalogue mentions specimens from Penang (Cantor), and from Siam and Cambodia (Mouhot). The only specimens I obtained were from Bangkok. Habits. This Trionyx is very fierce and bad-tempered; one that I kept for seven and a half months, and tried to tame, remained just as intractable as when first caught, biting at anything that approached it. They can bite hard, too, and it is very diflicult to get them to let go of anything they have seized, unless they |
