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Descriptive Catalogue of the Reptiles of British India
Descriptive Catalogue of the Reptiles of British India Author:William Theobald Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Length 7 inches, and perhaps more in old individuals. Inhabits Kachar (P. A. S., B, March 1870, p. 68) and Cochin China. Notochelys, Gray. N. platynota, Gr... more »ay. Singapore. This species has not hitherto been recorded from British India —vide Proc. As. Soc., Bengal, March 187't, p. 82. Family Emydid.e. Freshwater chelonians of small or medium size with sternum and thorax united into a solid case, without either lateral or transverse cartilaginous or unanchylosed divisions or joints. Aquatic. Sternum flat in both sexes or feebly concave in the males. Feet webbed; claws five before, four behind. Habits active, carnivorous. Zygomatic arch complete. Bellia, Gray. Shell solid, depressed, three-keeled in the young. Feet webbed ; claws strong; five anteriorly, four posteriorly. Inner nostrils aubanterior; zygomatic arch strong. E. crassilabris, Gray. Cat., S. R., 20 ; P. Z. S., 1861, p. 140. E. nigra, Blyth. J. A. S., B., 1855, p. 713. Bellia crassilabris, Gray. P. Z. S., 1869, p. 197. Nuchal plate very minute, triangular, with base in front plates variable in shape with age. Vertebrals much contracted behind, first 5-sided (Glinther says triangular), second, third, and fourth 4-sided, mushroom-shaped in the adult; front side semi-circular as long as a side and base. In young shells the vertebrals are lozenge-shaped, quite unlike the adult form. Shell in adults depressed, keelless; in the young, three-keeled. Colour, deep clouded olive brown, tending to blackish above; and below without markings, but paler in spots. Grows to 7'50 inches. Inhabits Tenasserim, Siam, and Sumatra. A scavanger in its habits. chapter{Section 4The young only of this species are three-keeled, hence the character cannot be used as generic. Bellia is nearly allied to Damonia but ...« less