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342 Zoological Society : — Notice of some Indian Tortoises (including the de-scription OF A New Species presented to the British Museum by Professor Oldham). By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., etc. The most interesting specimen of the very curious series of Indian Tortoises presented to the British Museum by Professor Oldham, is a fine full-grown example of a species which so strongly resembles the South American Testudo tabulata, in size, form and colours, that it might easily be mistaken for a specimen of that species which had been taken to India in some vessel. But on a closer examination it is easily distinguished from the American kind by the following particulars : — First. It belongs to the Old "World division of the genus, or the true genus Testudo, characterized by the last vertebral plate being only as wide as the caudal and the hinder half of each of the hinder marginal plates, instead of being of the width of the caudal and the hinder marginal plates, as is the case with the American " Gophers/^ including the species Testudo tahulata and Testudo gopher. Secondly. It has a large, elongated, well-marked nuchal plate, which is never found in Testudo tahulata. Thirdly. The hinder notch is more angular and acute. The specimen sent from India has the deeply concave sternum, which is supposed to mark the male animals, as is the case with many specimens of T. tahulata. It is sent under the name of ' Testudo elongatay which I willingly adopt ; as it may have been noticed under that name in some Indian periodical which has not yet come under my observation. I. Testudo E long ATA. Thorax oblong, rather depressed, truncated in front, rounded be-hind, black ; shield yellow-edged. Sternum rather narrow, trun-cated in front, angularly notched behind, yellow, largely black-varied. Nuchal plate elongate. The hinder vertebral plate as wide as the caudal and the hinder half of the hinder marginal plates. Hah. India, " Mergui." Note. — Since the above was written, I have received a Part of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1856, and I find the following observations on this species, which appears to have been mentioned in a preceding volume : — Testudo elongata, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, xxxii. 639. Vol. XXV. 1856, Ixxxiii. 712. Mr. Blyth states, " A number of living specimens have been re-ceived from Captain Berdmore. *' Colour of naked parts olive-grey varied with dull yellow," Mergui, Tenasserim River,

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Notice of some Indian tortoises (including the description of a new species presented to the British Museum by Professor Oldham)

J E Gray
Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist (2) 19: 342-344 (1857)

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