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Show 656 DR. J. E. GRAY ON NEW TORTOISES. [June 23, 4. PELTASTES TENTORIUS. The back of the shell black, with twelve or more narrow rays ; underside white, with a large brown spot occupying the middle of the whole length of the sternum ; underside of anterior and lateral marginal plates white, with a black anterior ray ; posterior marginal shields all white ; nuchal plate very small. Testudo tentoria, Bell, Zool. Journ. iii. p. 420, t. xxiii. & xxiv.; Testud. t. T. geometrica nigriventris, Gray, Cat. Sh. Rep. p. 8. Hab. South Africa. 5. PELTASTES VERREAUXII. Shell depressed, chestnut-brown, broader and slightly dentated behind ; dorsal shields with narrow black-edged radiating streaks; areola small, black, and pale-varied ; sternum brown, especially in the middle of its length ; sternal shields with diverging pale rays, especially on the margin ; nuchal shield small. Testudo verroxii, Gray, Cat. Sh. Rep. p. 8. Hab. South Africa. 6. PELTASTES SEMISERRATUS. Thorax oblong, the hinder margin more or less serrated ; dorsal shields black, deeply concentrically grooved ; areola pale, large, sub-central, with a pale-brown broad radiating band, which sometimes becomes very wide, and often divides into two near the margin of the plates; the central ray of the vertebral and costal plates forms an uninterrupted streak on the back and sides ; the marginal shields with one or two broad pale rays ; the sternum white, with a few very broad black rays ; nuchal plate elongate, triangular. Young. Hinder edge very acutely serrated. Var. Back depressed. Testudo semiserrata, Gray, Cat. Sh. Rep. p. 9. Hab. South Africa. **** Dorsal shields horn-coloured, black-varied; nuchal plate distinct. 7. PELTASTES ELONGATUS. This Tortoise is very variable in colour; some older shells are nearly uniform in colour, some others are nearly black, with a more or less pale edge to the dorsal and ventral shields ; others are pale whitish, with a more or less broad black ring round the areola. Testudo elongata, Gray, P. Z. S. 1856, p. 181, t. 9, and 1861, p. 139; Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1861, p. 218; Gunther, Rep. Brit. India, p. 8 ; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. vol. xxii. p. 639, xxiv. pp. 7-12, xxv. p. 448, xl. p. 75; Theobald, Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool. vol. x. p. 6, 1868. Hab. India. |