| OCR Text |
Show 1869.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE TORTOISES. 197 about as large as the small circular tympanic cavity behind, but attached to the temple rather below the upper margin of the tympanic cavity. The upper jaw (with the sheath on) has a sharp edge with a broad internal groove edged on the inner side by a slight ridge. Palate rather concave, especially in front. The sheath of the upper jaw with a slightly bidentate notch in front, and simple straight sides. The lower jaw strong, erect on the sides, shelving, convex, and rounded in front, covered with a horny sheath, and with a central acute point. 15. BELLIA. Head very large, short, covered with a thin and hard skin, over the orbit and other fleshy parts covered with very small granular scales. Nose high, truncated in front; nostrils in the upper edge of the horny beak. Beak of the upper jaw high, convex, with broadly arched dependent sides and a central notch. Lower jaw strong, convex in front, with a central acute sharp-edged point. Thorax oblong ; back three-keeled ; vertebral plates elongate sub-trigonal, areola of discal shields with a narrow longitudinal ridge. Toes strong, expanded, with transverse band-like shields, united, to the claws, by a narrow scaly web. Asiatic. Skull solid. Nose-hole square ; the front and sides of the upper lips shelving inwards. Orbit large, oblong, subquadrangular, lateral. Palate flat, internal nostrils anterior, with a short oblong concavity behind each. Alveolar plates moderate, baud-like, rather wider behind, rather concave. Lower jaw short, strong, convex in front, and wide and thick behind, with a conical central prominence and a broad flat alveolar edge that is broader behind and with a very slightly raised outer margin. Bellia has the large head, with dependent lips, of Damonia ; but the alveolar surface of the upper jaw is not so wide, and the inner nostrils are anterior. BELLIA CRASSICOLLIS. Emys crassicollis, Bell; Gray, Cat. Shield Rept. B. M . p. 20. Skull (as seen through the skin of the stuffed specimen) broad, depressed, ovate, sides shelving outwards; orbit subsuperior, on the lateral edge of the crown; crown flat, rhomboid, broader in front, rather produced and narrow in the middle of the hinder edge, which is almost as far from the back edge of the orbit as that part from the end of the nose; zygomatic arch short, broad, convex, forming part of the crown, and wider than the back edge of the orbit in front, not quite so wide as the front edge of the tympanic cavity behind ; edge of tympanic cavity rounded; sheath of the upper jaw very strong, and high in front and on the sides, lower margin truncated in the middle, and larger and arched on the sides ; the lower jaw strong, short, broad in front, covered with a broad horny sheath. Toes strong, short, webbed to the claws, covered with band-like shields. Feet like those of the American Emydidee. Skeleton of a half-grown specimen in the British Museum, re- PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1869, No. XIV. |
