| OCR Text |
Show 1869.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE TORTOISES. 219 spots on the flap of the upper lip. The hinder part of the head is encircled by a broad black-edged white band or collar, which is interrupted by a small olive spot in the middle of the back of the neck. The collar is broader and more diffused on the sides of the throat; it gives off a horizontal streak from its hinder side nearly as broad as itself, which is extended for a short distance on the sides of the neck. The alveolar surface of the lower jaw broad and slightly concave. Hab. Pegu. In its young state this Trionyx is one of the most ornamental species, the dorsal shield being decorated with four large eyed spots, each surrounded by several concentric rings of different width, and the white interrupted collar on the neck is very striking. It has the four large spots on the dorsal shield so common with the young state of Trionyx gangeticus, figured in that state in m y ' Illustrations of Indian Zoology' as Trionyx ocellatus, which is copied from Dr. Buchanan Hamilton's drawing of Testudo ocellatus. But in this species and in the more advanced state of the young animal figured in m y ** Indian Zoology' as Trionyx hurum, from another of Dr. Buchanan Hamilton's drawings, there is a yellow spot on each temple just behind the eyes; while in T. ornatus the temples are olive, and the white collar is much further back-as far from the back edge of the eyes as the eyes are from the tip of the nose. The upper part of the head is olive, very closely and minutely dotted with black ; the underside is uniform greyish white. The nostrils are very close together, with a slight lobe on the inner side of each. This may be the species indicated as a Trionyx phayrei by Mr. Theobald (Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc. vol. x. p. 18), but so indistinctly described as not to be recognizable. 4. FORDIA. Head short, broad ; face short, forehead convex. Anterior palatine groove narrow, linear, deep. Alveolar surface of the beak of the upper jaw very wide, flat; of the beak of the lower jaw very broad, as wide in front as on the sides, acute, flat, granular, with a very indistinct indication of a longitudinal central ridge. The hinder pair of costals about half as broad as the pair of costals before them. Skull ? Hab. Africa. Known from Trionyx by the flatness and width of the alveolar surface of the beaks. I have named this genus after Mr. Ford, who has illustrated so many of m y papers. FORDIA AFRICANA. The head and neck (and most likely the other parts of the body, limbs, and dorsal shield) olive, minutely and regularly speckled with small white spots. The hinder sternal callosities triangular, rather longer than wide, straight in front and on the inner side, very acute behind. Hab. Upper Nile, Chartoum (Petherick, adult male and female in the B. M.). |
