Long-necked Tortoise, Chelodina longicollis

Plates 92-93. Long-necked Tortoise, Chelodina longicollis

This handsome Tortoise is as common in the rivers of Southern Gippsland as the Chelemys Macquaria is in the Murray and its tributaries; and although it also inhabits the more northern Australian rivers, the Chelemys has not yet been found in those flowing south. Although the yellow upturned sides of the carapace are usually marked with square brown patches on the edges of the plates, and those below have usually broad brown edges, some rare examples have the brown so extended as almost to obliterate the usual, yellow ground colour. The detailed measurements I have given show how the individual plates, as well as the general outline of carapace and plastron, vary; in none of my specimens do the anterior edges of the 2nd and 11th marginal plates coincide with sutures of the costal plates, as mentioned in Dr. Gray's examples. There are certainly no barbels under the chin of this tortoise.