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Show 708 DR. J. E. GRAY ON INDIAN TORTOISES. [Nov. 1, 2. TESTUDO ELEPHANTOPUS. (Plate XLI.) B.M. Testudo elephantopus, Harlan, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. v. 284, t. xi. (bad). Testudo planiceps, Gray, P. Z. S. 1853, p. 12 ; Cat. Sh. Rept. p. 6. Testudo californica, Ferussac, Bull. Sci. Nat. 191. Testudo nigra, Quoy & Gaim. ; Frey. Voyage Zool. i. 174, pl. 40 ; Meyen, Nov. Acta Akad. Leop. Carol, xvii. 188, t. xiii. Geocheloneschweiggeri, Fitzinger, Wiener Sitzungsberichte, x. 403 (1853). These are probably all synonyms of this species. Shell and animal black. Head with one pair of frontal and a square crown-shield, with a flat crown. Thorax oblong, rather depressed, black; shields irregularly concentrically grooved ; areola central. The beak slightly keeled in front and slightly bidentate. The fore legs covered with rather large scales, with a spur-like tubercle on the inner side of the elbow-joint; hind legs covered with numerous small scales, with larger scales on the soles, those on the hinder margin being prominent; fifth vertebral shield as broad as the two caudal and two hinder marginal shields. This species is exceedingly like Testudo indica, but is distinguished from it by the flatness of the crown and the absence of a nuchal plate. Length over the back 10 inches; width 9| inches. The sternum truncated in front; gular plates small; pectoral plates narrow; anal plates small, notched behind. There are two young specimens and several shells of a black Tortoise in the British Museum without any nuchal plates, which have hitherto been recorded as varieties of T. indica. They are all without any special habitat, and therefore may be from Chili. This species is probably the Elephant-Tortoise of the Galapagos Islands, Testudo elephantopus, Harlan, who described his specimen as having "twenty-three marginal scutes-that is, having eleven on each half of the shell and a single one posteriorly." I also think, from the flatness of the head in the living animal, that the skull I figured under the name of T. planicepts is of this species. This I formerly doubted, because there was a specimen in the Zoological Society's Gardens, said to come from the Galapagos Islands, which had a very convex forehead, like the Indian specimens ; but perhaps the habitat in this case was a mistake, or might not have belonged to the example which I examined. 4. Descriptions of two new Tortoises from India, in the Collection of T. C. Jerdon, Esq. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. Mr. T. C. Jerdon has kindly sent me for examination the Tortoises which he collected in various parts of India. The collection consists of:-1st. Batagur thurgi, showing that the shell of this Tortoise, which has usually been classed with Emys, has a contracted front and hind margin of the cavity of the shell, as well as the masticating- |