Britiish Museun (Natural History)
D,pt. of Zoology
Catalogue od shield reptiles

Catalogue of Shield
Keptiles.

Appendix.

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INTRODUCTION.

THE chief object in preparing the Appendix has been to give an account of the specimens
of ‘Tortoises which have been received since the Supplement was published in 1870, and to
embody the various improvements that have been proposed for the arrangement and
determination of the species, and particularly to illustrate the characters that are afforded

by the examination of the skull and other parts of the osteology of these animals.

JOHN EDWARD GRAY.

British Museum, May 15th, 1872.

APPENDIX

TO THE

CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES

IN THE

BRITISH

MUS BU) ve.

Fam. TESTUDINIDE.
(Supplement, p. 3.)

The knowledge of the animal of the genus Scapza ren-
ders it desirable to make an alteration in the arrangement
of the genera of this family which is given in the ‘ Supple-
ment to the Catalogue of Shield Reptiles,’ the alteration
being more in the characters given to the two chief sections
than in the sections themselves, which remain nearly the
same, except in removing Scapia to the second section.

Synopsis OF THE GENERA.

Section I. Head short, broad.
plates united into a broad caudal plate.

The two central hinder marginal
Sternal shields 12
arranged in pairs on each side. Pectoral plates large, like
the others. Rarely abnormal specimens occur in which the
two united caudal plates are marked by a central groove ; and

more rarely they occur separate.

A. The nostrils in a square fleshy nose between the upper edge of
the beak and the frontal plates; thorax solid. The inguinal

plates moderate or wanting.

* The alveolar surface of both upper and lower jaws with a distinct
submarginal groove. Testudinina.

1. Testudo, Gularplates separate. Claws 65. 4.
with two ridges.

Alveolar plate
Lower jaw narrow, with a deep groove

extending the whole length of the edge; front of upper
jaw with a central notch and two deep prominences.

2. Peltastes. Gular plates separate. Claws 5.4. Alveolar

plate with an indistinct ridge.

3. Testudinella. Grular plates separate. Claws 4. 4.

4, Pyxis. Gular plates separate. The front lobe of the sternum

mobile.
5. Chersina. Gular plates united and produced.

** The alveolar surface of the upper jaw with a distinct submar-
ginal ridge, of the lower jaw simple. Homopina.
6. Homopus.

B. The inguinal plates very large; the nostrils in a notch on each
side of the middle of the upper edge of the beak; thorax,

hinder part mobile, Kinixyina.

7. Kinixys.

Section II. Head oblong, elongate. The two central hinder mar-
ginal plates on the tail separate, as in the generality of the

Freshwater Tortoises and the Turtles. Manourina.

8, Manouria. Sternal shields 10, arranged in five pairs. The
two pectoral plates small, short, triangular on the hinder
side of the axilla.

9. Scapia. Sternal plates 12, regularly arranged in pairs on
each side of the central line.

2 APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

TESTUDO (p. 4), add :—

ectoral plates trianguar, truncated or slightly rounded mm
front; the anal plates quadrangular, with a deep cen-
tral notch. ‘'T. elephantopus, T. indica.

Gular plates produced, forming a large rounded lobe; anal

plate oblong, transverse, short. 'T. radiata.

Gular plates produced, quadranguar, truncated in front ;

anal plate quadrangular, produced. 'T. pardalis.

Gular plates produced, quadrangular, inner front edge
shelving, forming a deep notch ; anal plate quadran-

gular. TT. chilensis.

The marginal plates of Land-Tortoises and most Terres-
trial Terrapins have their edge often much produced; and
as the plates cover part of two bones, these projections are
often double; these dilatations are usually more or less
obliterated as they reach the adult age, so that the young
For this reason
the young of Ainixys has been called Testudo erosa, and
the young Geoemyda has been called Emys spinosa ; but this

and full-grown differ very considerably.

latter species has a spine-like projection in the middle of
the areola or plate which exists when the animal is in its
egg, and which is obliterated when the animal becomes
older; a similar projection is to be observed, but in a
much more rudimentary state, in one or two other exotic
species.

Testudo tabulata (p. +), add :—

Gray, Tortoises, Terrapins, and Turtles, tab. 1, 2, 3,
4, 5 (different varieties from life).

Testudo (Gopher) chilensis (p. 5), add :—

ee (Gopher) chilensis, Gray, P. Z.S. 1870, p. 706,

pl. 41.

Testudo suleata, D’ Orbigny, Voy.dansV Amér. Mér. Rept.p.6.

Burmeister, Reise durch die La Plata-Staaten, i. p.521.

Testudo mauritanica, Démoussy, Descr. de la Confédération
Argentine, i. p. 38.

Testudo argentina, Sclater, Ann. § Mag. Nat. Hist. 1870, vi.
p. 470; P.Z.S. 1871, p. 480.

Hab. Chili (Weisshaupt); N. Patagonia (D’Orbigny) ;
Mendoza and the Pampas (Burmeister) ; Monte Video and
Buenos Ayres (Démoussy).

Beak keeled in front and strongly bidentate. Shell de-
pressed, oblong; middle of the back rather flattened, dirty
yellow; areola central; nuchal plate distinct; marginal
plates shelving, with a very short keel; front and hinder
marginal plates reflexed, making a serrated edge; head
with one pair of supranasals; a hexangular (central) and

two triangular frontal plates between the eyes, with some
small shields between them and the supranasals, and a pair
of elongated occipital plates; fore legs with a large spur at
the elbow-joint, and numerous conical spines on the under-
side of the thighs, two of which are larger than the rest.
The scales in front of the fore legs very large, unequal,
convex.

Face very short; upper beak high, strongly three-keeled
in front, the keels ending in an acute tooth, the side ones
much the strongest ; the lower beak strongly dentated on
the edge; front legs covered with many very large convex
scales on the front and outer side.

Hind feet with very unequal-sized scales above and
below, and with three or four large, unequal-sized, recurved
scales on the hinder edge.

Sternal shields deeply concentrically grooved ; gular pair
yery small, triangular, produced.

This species is very like 7’. suleata from Abyssinia in
colour and general appearance ; but the shell is much more
depressed, and the marginal shields, which in that species
are very high, with a sharp, narrow keel beneath, are in
this species only moderately high and very sharply keeled.
The pectoral plates are narrow towards the centre, and gra-
dually spread out in a triangular shape, commencing at one
third from the centre; while in 7’. sulcata these plates are
narrow and linear for two thirds of their width and then
suddenly expand into pentangular disks. In this species
the last vertebral shield is the width of the caudal and one
half of the last and one half of the last but one of the
hinder marginal shields, whereas in J. sulcata it is only
the width of the caudal and one half of the last hinder
marginal shield.

The reception of specimens of Testudo elephantopus and
T. chilensis direct from South America, and the power of
comparing them with specimens of Testudo indica from
Seychelles and other localities in the Old World, and with
Testudo sulcata from Africa, have been very important, as
by the comparison of the actual specimens of these animals
it has been distinctly proved that, instead of the same
species inhabiting the Old and the New World (which
was an anomaly among the Testudinata), these species,
which have been regarded as the same, are perfectly
distinct ; indeed Testudo sulcata from Africa is not only
distinct from 7’. chilensis, but the two species belong to
two different subgenera, the one belonging to the Old and
the other to the New World. The only other instance, of
which I am aware, of a Land-Tortoise being supposed to be
common to the two continents, is a species of Kiniwys,
which was first received from Demerara and Guadeloupe,

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 3

but which is now known to be an African genus; and the
specimens must have been taken to Demerara by some
ships from Africa ; for I am informed that it has not even
colonized, much less is it naturalized, in that country ; but
it is probable that some of the negroes, who are fond of
living animals, may have taken specimens with them.

“My. Sclater, who gives the name of ‘Chilian Land-
Tortoise’ to this species in his list of accessions, P.Z.S.
1870, p. 665 (and I merely translated his name), objects to
my calling it Zestudo chilensis because there is a doubt of
its being found on the west side of the Andes. Though
his notes on this subject appear before my paper, which is
printed in page 706 of the same yolume, my paper was
sent to the Society before his observations were made. Mr.
Sclater declares all through his observations that the Tor-
toise observed by Burmeister, D’Orbigny, and others in
South America is Testudo stellata, one of the most common
Indian species, instead of 7. sulcata, which is the species
that these authors erroneously considered common to Africa
and America.”—Ann. § Mag. Nat. Hist. 1871, viii. p. 70.

Molini includes in his ‘ Natural History of Chili’ several
animals which are now said only to be found on the eastern
slopes of the Cordilleras ; and one or more of the species so
described has been named chilensis ; so that Chili did not ap-
pear formerly to haye the restricted sense which some modern
zoologists wish to assign to it. I agree with Temminck in
objecting generally to the use of geographic specific names,
as liable to this objection ; but one is apt to fall into the
fault, and the use of the name T'estudo argentina is doubly
objectionable.

Testudo indica (p. 5), add:—

“ Hab. Seychelles; often introduced into gardens in
Mauritius, where it is eaten.”—Blyth, Journ. Asiatic Soc.
Calcutta, xxii. p. 369.

« And it is from the Mauritius that we believe the few
in India have been imported. It is most assuredly not an
Indian reptile; nor have we even heard of its propagating
in this country.” —Blyth, 1. c.

Testudo gigantea, Schweigger, Prodr. pp. 327 & 362, and
Duméril et Bibron, Erpét. i. 120, may be an abnormal
specimen of 7’. indica with separate caudal shields and a
nuchal plate; orit may be founded on a specimen of Scapia
Phayrei. The specimen from which it is described is
without a head, in the Paris Museum.

“Mr. Theobald objects to the specific name of Testudo
There is a very large number he can choose from ;
for, unfortunately, this species has been described under a
number of names ; but I prefer not to change one which is

indica.

so well known, and which was the first given to it.”—Gray,
P. Z. 8. 1871, p. 515.

Testudo elephantina, Duméril et Bibron, Erpétologie
Générale, 1. 146, said to inhabit the islands in the Mozam-
bique channel, Bourbon, and Isle of France, is probably
only a variety of this species. It is characterized as having
le plus souvent une petite plaque nuchale, la sus-caudale
simple ou accidentellement double.”

Testudo elephantopus (p. 5), add: —

Testudo elephantopus, Harlan, Journ. Acad. Nat. Se. Phil.
vy. p. 284, t. 11 (bad).
Gray, P. Z.8. 1870, p. 708, pl. 41.
Testudo planiceps, Gray, P.Z.S. 1853, p. 12; Cat. Sh.
Rept. p. 6, tab. xxxiv. (skull).
Testudo californica, F¥érussac, Bull. Sci. Nat. p. 191.
Testudo nigra, Quoy & Gaim.
Frey. Voyage, Zool. i. p. 174, pl. 40.
Meyen, Nov. Acta Akad. Leop. Carol. xvii. p. 188, t. 13
(adult).
Gray, Tortoises, Terrapins, § Turtles, tab. 6 (from life).
Geochelone Schweiggeri, /%tzinger, Wiener Sitzungsberichte,
x. 403 (1853). (These are probably all synonyms of
this species).

Shell and animal black. Head with one pair of frontal
Thorax
oblong, rather depressed, black; shields irregularly con-

and a square crown-shield, with a flat crown.

centrically 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.

Hab. South America, Galapagos, and Jamaica.

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 94 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 8. America.

This species is probably the Elephant-Tortoise of the
Galapagos Islands, Testudo elephantopus, Harlan, who
described his specimen as haying “ twenty-three marginal

B2

4 APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

scutes—that is, haying eleven on each half of the shell
and a single one posteriorly.” I also think, from the flat-
ness of the head in the living animal, that the skull I
tigured under the name of 7’. planiceps is of this species.
This I formerly doubted, because there was a specimen in
the Zoological Society’s Gardens, said to have 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, but to another in the same pen which
I did not see.
Skull: basisphenoid triangular, small; basioccipital
much broader. See Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. tab. 2. fig. 19.
This Tortoise breeds and multiplies in Jamaica and other
West-India islands.

Mr. Cope says this species is found in Ecuador (Proc. |

Acad. Philadelphia, 1868, p. 96).

A specimen of a large black Tortoise without any nuchal
plate, in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, which
received it from the Academy of Sciences, has been de-
scribed under the following names :—

Tortues des Indes, Perrault, Mém. Acad. Sci. 1866, v. p. 172,
tab. 58.

Testudo indica, Schneider, Schildk. p. 355.
Gmel., Latr., Daudin, Cw., Gray.

Testudo indica Perraultii, Schepf. Hist. Test. p. 101. 22.
Shaw, Schweigg.

Chersine retusa, Merr. Amph. p. 29.
Fitz. Verzerch.

Testudo Perraultii, Duméril et Bibron, Erpét. Gén. ii. p. 126.

I do not see any thing in the description or figure that
separates this species from the usual Galapagos Tortoise,
T. elephantopus, except that, it is said, the last vertebral
shield is more prominent than usual. ;

Testudo Daudinii, Duméril et Bibron, Erpét. Générale,
ii. p. 125, described from a skeleton in the Gallery of
Comparative Anatomy, Paris, as having a very small
nuchal plate and double subcaudal plate, is probably an
abnormal Testudo indica, or it may be a specimen of T.
Phayrei, to which Prof. Strauch unites it; and he also
refers with doubt Z'estudo australis, Girard, U.S. Expl.
Exped. Herpetology, p. 470; but it is doubtful if the latter
is not rather Manouria emys; the description, however, is
not enough to settle the question. He observes, “ One must
decide from the description that 7. Phayrei, Blyth, belongs
as a synonym to this species; for both the form and colour
of the carapace, as weil as the number of the marginal
shields, among which there is a nuchal and a caudal plate
divided on its upper surface, and likewise the habitat, poimt
to this conclusion ” (p. 32).

Duméril and Bibron describe two specimens of Tortoises,
T. Vosmaeri and 1. peltastes, which have no nuchal plate ;
and the pair of gular plates united into one, but are
otherwise very like 7’. elephantopus, and are probably only
abnormal varieties of that species, but may prove to be very
distinet species when we are enabled to examine them in
a. perfect state.

Duméril and Bibron arrange them in a separate section
of the genus, along with 7. angulata and 7’. Grayii; and Dr.
Strauch refers them to my genus Chersina, with which they
have very little alliance. Fitzinger formed for one of them
his genus Cylindraspis.

Testudo radiata (p. 5), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. tab. 7 & 8 (from life).

Face short ; upper beak high, with three blunt keels in
front, the two outer keels ending in obscure lobes, the edge
divided into acute teeth.

The lower jaw acutely toothed on the edge and on the
upper part of the outer side.

Fore legs covered with unequal flat scales, with a few
large ones on the outer edge, and four or five larger thick
scales near the inner side.

Gular shields small, produced, united together the whole
of the length, and forming a projection which is rounded
on front and outer edge ; anal shield oblong, transverse, very
much broader than long. The adult male in the British
Musenm has the sternum and abdominal and femoral
plate sdeeply concave, and the anal plates very convex and
prominent.

Testudo pardalis (p. 6), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. tab. 9 & 10 (from life).

Face short; upper beak high, rounded in front, with a
very obscure indication of a slight, short, central ridge on
the lower margin; edge of the jaws obscurely denticulated
with a nearly entire edge.

Fore legs with small scales, and scattered large triangular
ones on the upper and outer sides.

Hind feet with unequal-sized scales on the upper part of
the hinder and on the lower side, with a few thick, tri-
angular, elongated, recurved scales on the hinder edge.

PELTASTES (p. 8).

This name has been objected to as haying been already
used. I do not consider this a valid objection; but those
who do may use Peltonia.

an

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. )

They may be divided thus :—
A. Pevrasres. Upper beak with three teeth on the front
margin. Asia,

* Beak keeled in front. P. elongatus, with a distinct nuchal
shield ; platynotus and stellatus, with no nuchal shield.

** Upper jaw bluntly keeled ; nuchal shield none. P.
Forstenii.

B. Currsryatra. Beak toothless, rounded in front ; thighs
unarmed. Africa. P. geometricus, tentorius, Ver-
roxli, semisulcatus, marginatus, Leithii, and grecus
(with a nuchal shield).

C. Ceytrocuetys. Beak rounded in front ; wpper hinder
part of the thighs with large conical spine-like scales.
Africa. P. suleatus, nuchal shield none.

Peltastes stellatus (p. 8), add :—

Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 654; Tortoises Fe. tab. 11 &
12 (from life).

For Testudo megalo read Testudo megalopus, Blyth.

Peltastes platynotus (p. 8), add :—
Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 655, tab. 33.

Hab. Countries to the east of the Bay of Bengal.

Peltastes geometricus (p. 9), add :—

Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 655; Tortoises &e. t. 13 (from
life).

Hab. §. Africa, Cape of Good Hope.

Peltastes tentorius (p. 9), add :—

Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 656; Tortoises &e. t. 14 (from
life).

Hab, 8. Africa.

Peltastes Verroxii (p. 9), add :—

Peltastes Verreauxii, Gray, P. ZS. 1870 (name changed
by the editor).

Peltastes semiserratus (p.9), add:—
Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 656.

Peltastes elongatus (p. 9), add :—

Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 656.
Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. xxxii. p. 83.

Hab. From Aracan to Mergui (Blyth).

“In a young specimen in the British Museum the hinder

v

| marginal lateral plates are produced into an acute triangular
lobe on the hinder part of the edge. The front margimal
| shields are also acutely produced, but not so much as the
| hinder ones; the caudal shield is produced on the middle
of each side, and the central part between the productions
is thin and ecrenulated on the edge.”—Gray, P. Z..S. 1872.

Peltastes Forstenii.

Shell pale yellowish brown, with a few black stains,
those on the costal and submarginal shields the smallest ;
oblong, rather broader behind than in front, rather depressed,
with a flattened centre to the back; the vertebral plates
broader than long, the first shortest, pentangular, produced
into an angle in front, the second, third, and fourth rather
oblong, four-sided, with the middle of the sides rather pro-
duced ; the last largest, as long as broad ; nuchal plate none :
marginal plates high, the first, second, and third strongly
produced, angular; the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh
rather produced at the edge and slightly recurved ; caudal
plate very broad, more than twice as broad as high, rather
produced on the hinder edge; the sternum brown, with a
large blackish blotch on the outer scales and abdominal
plates, flat, notched in front, and a very large deep notch
behind; three front pairs of plates narrow ; abdominal
plate very large ; anal plate small, triangular ; beak strong ;
upper jaw with three indistinct teeth on the front edge,
very obscurely prominent in the middle, between the nos-
trils ; crown covered with symmetrical small shields, the
supranasal shields being much the largest; the chin and
the throat covered with very minute scales; the fore legs

covered with large prominent scales above and below,
which are largest and conical and most prominent on the
outer edge; the hind legs and hinder part of the body
covered with unequal shields; tail short, conical.

Testudo Forstenii, Schlegel, Verhandl. p. 30, footnote.
Gray, Suppl. Cat. Shield Rep. p. 6.
Peltastes Forstenii, Gray, P. ZS. 1872, tab. (ined.).

Hab. Celebes (Veyer).

The specimen in the British Museum was received with
some reptiles in spirits from Celebes, collected by Dr A. B.
Meyer. It is somewhat like Pe/tastes elongata in general
appearance, but differs from it in the form of the shields
on the head, the depressed body, and the total absence of a
nuchal plate.

J have no doubt that this Tortoise is a specimen of the
Testudo Forsteni of Schlegel and Miiller, from Gilolo, men-
tioned in a note to the ‘ Verhandelingen over de Natuurl.

6 APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

Geschied. Nederland. overz. bezitt.’ Reptiles, p. 80, which
they state that they intended to describe and figure more
in detail; but I am not aware that the description or
figure has ever been published.

The following is an extract of all the particulars which
the authors give of this species :—

* Shield oblong and very convex ; no nuchal shield ; hind-
most sternal scutes small; tail unusually short, obtusely coni-
cal; soles with tubercular scales; scales along the outer
margin of the fore feet large, unguiculate. Snout above with
then follows a crown-shield, with a

the other shields on the

a pair of large scutes ;
moderate shield on each side;
head irregular. Light-brown above, with irregular larger
and smaller black spots; sternum with a large black spot

on each side.—Gilolo.”

Peltastes marginatus (p. 10), add :—
Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 657; Tortoises Fc. t. 15 (from
life).

Peltastes Leithii (p. 11), add :—

Gray, P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 657.
Peltastes grecus (p. 12), add :—

Gray, P. ZS. 1870, p. 658 ; Tortoises gc. t. 14 (from
lite).

Peltastes sulcatus (p. 12), add :-—

Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 658; Tortoises gc. t. 16 & 17
(from life).

Hah, Abyssinia.

The front of the face short, with the upper beak three-
keeled in front and with three teeth on the edge; the front
legs covered with very thick, triangular, convex scales, gene-
rally of a large size, with a few small ones intermixed ; the
hinder edge of the thigh with two large elongate conical
spines on each side, whence I call it Centrochelys ; gular
plates pentangular, elongate, rather produced on the hinder
outer edge; the anal shields triangular, produced, and sepa-
rated by a large triangular notch; the subcaudal plate very
broad.

TESTUDINELLA (p. 12), add:-—
Testudinella, Gray, P. Z.S. 1870, p. 658.

Testudinella Horsfieldii (p. 12), add :—
Gray, P. Z,8. 1870, p. 658.

CHERSINA (p. 13), add:—

Dr.Strauch refers Testudo Grayii, peltastes, and Vosmaeri
of Duméril and Bibron to this genus, because the pectoral
plate is said to be united into one plate in the specimens on
which these species are founded. 7, peltastes and Vosmaeri
are very probably only varieties of 7’. elephantopus. I do not
recollect the specimen on which 7. Grayii is founded, and
I believe it has not been figured. Schweigger regarded it
as a variety of Testudo tabellata ; but in my Synopsis, which
was published after my visit to the Paris Museum, I re-
garded it as a variety of Chersina angulata. It wants a

nuchal shield.

Chersina angulata (p. 13), add :-—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. t. 19 (from life),

HOMOPUS (p. 13), add :—

The caudal plate varies much in breadth in the different
it is generally broad, but sometimes narrow in
It is perhaps a sexual

specimens ;
specimens from the same locality.
character.

Homopus signatus (p. 13), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Fc. t. 20 (from life).

Homopus areolatus (p. 13), add :—
Gray, Tortoises §c. t. 21 (from life).

Kinixys Belliana (p. 13).

A specimen in the Zoological Gardens has the caudal
plate divided (P. Z. 8. 1871, p. 544).

This Tortoise only makes its appearance in the hot or rainy
season from October to May, and is said by the natives
to hide deep in the ground during the cool season, or rest
of the year. It is said to be confined to the barren and
very rocky ground at Musserra and the Benguella country
(P.Z.8. 1871, p. 544).

See also :—

Testudo hemispheerica, Leidy.
Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 146, tab. 31, 32, 83.
Testudo (Emys) nebrascensis, Leidy.
Nuchal plate short and broad ; caudal margin and shield
rather narrow ; pectoral plate very short.

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

Section II. at p. 15, replace with :—

Section II. Head oblong, elongate. The two central hinder

marginal plates on the tail separate, as in the generality
of the Freshwater Tortoises and the Turtles. The nasoid
bone not so prominent as in other Tortoises.

Manouria fusca (p. 15), change the name to Manouria
emys, and add :—

Testudo indica, Bibron’s MS. in Mus. Zool. Soc.

1844. Testudo emys, S. Miller, Verhandl. Reptiles, p. 34,
t. 4.

1847. Geoemyda spinosa (adult), Cantor, Rept. Malay
Penin.

1852. Manouria fusca, Gray, P.Z..S. 1852, p. 53; Ann. §
Mag. Nat. Hist. 1855, vol. xv. p. 68; P. Z. S. 1860,
p- 395; Ann. § Mag. Nat. Hist. 1861, vol. vii. p. 216;
Cat. Shield Rept. p. 16, t. 3, Suppl. p. 15.

1854. Teleophus luxatus, Leconte, Pr. Acad. N. Sci. Phil.

vii. p. 187 (Oct. 1854).

. Manouria emys, Giinther, Rept. Brit. India (not

Theobald).

Gray, P. ZS. 1871, p. 517.
. Manouria fusca, M. luxata, and M. emys, Strauch,

Chelon. Stud, p. 25.

18

18

Hab. Penang (Cantor).

«This animal has been curiously confounded with G'co-

emyda spinosa. Dr. Cantor, who first had it in a perfect

state, in his list of Malay Reptiles considers it the adult of |

that species. Being desirous of obtaining the types of the
species described by Solomon Miiller, we purchased from
Mr. Franks a series of specimens obtained from the Leyden
Museum, with the labels of that institution attached to
them. Having received in this series a young specimen of
Geoemyda spinosa labelled Testudo emys, in the ‘Catalogue
of Shield Reptiles’ I placed that species as a synonym of
Geoemyda spinosa, not considering it necessary, to consult
the figure in Miiller’s book, or I should have discovered
the mistake. Dr. Giinther corrected this in his ‘Reptiles of
British India,’ and properly changed the name from Ma-
nouria fusca into Manowria emys.

“Mr. Theobald names this species ‘ Manouria emys, Gray,’
instead of Schlegel or Giinther; but there are many in-
stances of want of accuracy of this kind, to which his note
to 7. elongata would be as applicable as to the oversight
for which he quotes it.

“M. A. Duméril, in his ‘Catalogue of Reptiles,’ p. 4. no. 7*,
and in the ‘ Archives du Muséum,’ described, under the
name of Testudo emydoides, a specimen which he received
from Leyden as Testudo emys of Miller; and his name is
evidently a translation of the French name given to that
species ; but he does not mention the peculiar form of the

7

pectoral plates, and it is very probable that he received, as
the British Museum did, a young specimen of Geoemyda
spinosa under a wrong name; and then his name and de-
scription will belong to the latter species and not to Ma-
nouria. They are very much alike, although belonging to
different families.”—Gray P. Z.S. 1871, p. 518.

Dr. Strauch, in his Chelon. Stud. p. 21, regards the three
specific names applied to this species as distinct species ;
in his ‘ Geographical Distribution of Tortoises’ he reduces
the number to two, Manouria fusca and M. emys, p. 41.

Testudo australis, Girard, Expl. Exped. Herpet. p. 470.—
Hab. New Zealand (Girard).—Strauch refers this species
with doubt to Testudo Daudinii; but it is probably Ma-
nouria emys, Which Mr. Gould received under the name of
the Murray-river Tortoise; but I believe that there is no
good authority for its occurrence in Australia or New
Zealand.

SCAPIA (p. 6), remove to this place; add to generic
character :—

“* Carapace oblong, subquadrate, its three marginal plates
reverted and moderately serrate. Nuchal plate broader
than long; caudal plate double; gular plates longer than
broad, moderately notched; anal broader than long, and
deeply notched. Beak not emarginate. Fore limbs covered
with very long, thick, and imbricate scales, much as in a
Pangolin. Claws elongate, strong, and thick ; similar great
elongated scales at the heels, and a group of five principal
obtuse spines on either side of the tail, the median of them
remarkably strong and thick; two or more smaller spines
or thick elongate scales above the tail.” —Blyth, Journal of
Asiatic Society, Calcutta, xxii. p. 639.

The genus Scapia is very nearly allied to Manouria,
and chiefly differs from it in the greater width and size of
the pectoral plates, in the same manner as Pelomedusa
subrufa differs from Pelomedusa Gehafie, which are the
types of the subgenera Pentonyx and Pelomedusa; but
the pectoral plate in Manouria is even further removed
from the centre.

Until lately Mr. Blyth and Mr. Theobald considered Tes-
tudo emys (the type of Manowria) and Testudo Phayret (the
type of Scapia) to be synonymous, until I pointed out the
difference in the skull; and then they observed the difference
in the pectoral plate. At the same time Mr. Theobald re-
garded Mr. Blyth’s typical specimen of 7’. Phayret as the
same us 7’. indica of Gmelin, thus confounding as the
same species the shortest and the longest-headed tortoises

S) APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

known. Mr. Blyth seemed to believe that the peculiarity
of the form of the skull was produced by a deformity
of the specimen from which he believed it was obtained ;
but this is evidently the character of the group to which

it belongs.

Scapia gigantea.
Testudo gigantea, Schweigger, Prodr. i. pp. 327 & 362.
Dum. et Bibr. Evp. Gén. ii. p. 120?
T. indica, var. v, Gray, Syn. Rept. p. 9.
T. Daudinii, Dum. et Bibr. Erp. Gén. ii. p. 125?
T. Phayrei, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xvii. p. 56, xxiii.
p. 639 (shortly described), xl. p. 77.
Theobald, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 675.
Gray, te Ag SY 1871, p- 51 if
Anderson, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 426 (diagram of sternum
and back).
T. indica, Theobald, Cat. Rept. Mus. As. Soc. Beng. p. 8.
Manouria emys, Theobald, Jown. Linn. Soc. x. p. 10, and
Cat. Rept. Mus. As. Soc. Beng. p. 9.
“Manouria, emys,” Theobald, Cat. Rept. Mus. As. Soc. Beng.
». 9.
Teatudo (Seapia) Faleoneri, Gray, P. Z.S. 1869, p. 169.
Theobald, P. Z.S. 1870, p. 674.
Seapia Faleoneri, Gray, Cat. Sh. Rept. Suppl. p. 6, f. 1
(skull).

Hab. Arracan (Blyth); Burmah (Theobald).

Hinder part of crown of head covered with small shields.
Pectoral shield short, much shorter on the inner side.

Consult for discussion about this species, the ‘ Atheneum’
for November and December 1870.

“Mr. Theobald observes ‘that in default, therefore, of
more exact information, the evidence before him pointed to
the conclusion that the skull whereon 7. Falconeri, Gray,
had been based was no other than the identical skull of
T. Phayrei, Blyth, missing from the Calcutta Museum.’
The only apparent evidence is, that there is a specimen
of 7. Phayre: without a skull in that museum. There does
not appear in the paper to be any attempt at comparing the
figure of the skull with the head of the other, perfect spe-
cimen of this species in the museum, which, one would
have supposed, a zoologist would have done before he made
such a suggestion. I should be very glad to hear that such
a comparison had been made, either with the head of the
perfect specimen, or, what would be better, with fresh skulls
of this Tortoise, which does not appear to be rare in ‘ Bur-
mah,’ or rather I believe, in Arracan; then I should be very
glad to adopt it, as it would erase a very imperfectly de-
scribed nominal species from the list.

‘The interesting part of his notes is where Mr. Theobald
says that Testudo Phayrei is a true Testudo, with a regular

sternum and separate caudal shield; therefore Mr. Blyth
was in error when he informed me and Dr. Giinther that
Manouria emys was the same as his 7’, Phayrei, an idea
adopted by Mr. Theobald in his ‘ Catalogue of the Reptiles
of Pegu,’ and in his ‘Catalogue of the Reptiles in the Mu-
seum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ where, after having
seen the specimens, he placed it as Manouria emys.

“Tt is to be observed that if the head should prove to be
the same as the one on which my genus Scapia is founded,
it will go to more firmly establish the propriety of having
formed the genus Scapia, as Testudo Phayrei has, according
to Mr. Theobald, the hitherto unobserved combination of
normal sternal shields, like Z'estudo, and separate caudal
shields, like Manourta and the Freshwater Tortoises, so that
it forms a section or genus by itself.

“Mr. Theobald believes that the skull on which Scapia
Falconeri was established belonged to this species. He may
possibly be right; for it is a head of a large Land-Tortoise,
of which we do not know the body, and which may perhaps
come from India, or rather Hindostan ; and Vestudo Phayret
is a large Land-Tortoise, the head or skull of which has not
been described, although we now learn that the typical spe-
cimen has the head on it, and the general form and external
characters of the skull are usually to be seen through the
skin. I should probably have made this suggestion myself
when I established the genus from the skull, and mentioned
the characters by which it was known from the skulls of
all the large Land-Tortoises then known ; but the necessity
of referring to the undescribed head of 7. Phayrei did not
oceur to me, as at that period I believed, on the authority
of Mr. Blyth and Mr. Theobald, who had the specimens at
their command, that it was the same as Manouria, with
which I did compare it.

“Mr. Theobald must excuse my not adopting his sugges-
tion till an accurate comparison has been made between the
skull of 7. Phayrei and Scapia, more especially as Mr.
Theobald has already, with ‘culpable haste,’ referred the
two typical specimens of 7. Phayrei to two species, indeed
I may say genera, to which he now says they do not belong.
It is to be hoped some competent zoologist will make the
comparison which Mr. Theobald and his friends seem disin-
clined to do. Mr. Theobald further suggests that the skull
which I described may have formerly belonged to a thorax
in the Indian Museum. I must say I see no evidence of the
fact worthy of a moment’s notice, and it is a curious idea
when they have not proved the identity of the two species ;
and the account of the state of the specimen and the mani-
pulation it had undergone is so contradictory as to be utterly
unworthy of credit. I must leave the question to the

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 9

former and present curators of that museum, who know
better their rules and manner of conducting the institution.”
—Gray, P. Z. S. 1871, pp. 515, 516.

Testudo Phayrei was described by Mr. Blyth from two
specimens in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta.
When he saw the specimens of Manouria fusca in the Mu-
seum he regarded them as the same species ; and on this
authority I placed Zestudo Phayrei as a synonym of that
species in the Supplement to the Catalogue (p. 15).

Mr. Theobald in the ‘Catalogue of the Reptiles in the
Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal’ places one of Col.
Phayre’s specimens under the name of Manouria emys, but
without referring to T’estudo Phayrei of Blyth, and, according
to the authority of Dr. Anderson, he entered the “ perfect
typical one” under the name of Zestudo indica from the
Galapagos Islands. Mr. Theobald acknowledges this state-
ment to be correct, and that it arose from ‘“ culpable haste”
(see P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 675).

On comparing the skull we received from Dr. Falconer
with the head of Manouria fusca (with which it agreed in
general form) I pointed out that the former differs in having
a broad well-developed zygomatic arch, the arch in Manouria
fusca being slender and weak. On this Mr. Theobald and
Dr. Anderson (who believe that Dr. Falconer’s specimen
was the skull of one of the typical specimens of Testudo
Phayrei) discovered that Messrs. Blyth and Theobald had
been in error when they regarded Testudo Phayrei as the
synonym of Manouria fusca.

Dr. Stoliczka, in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural
History * for September 1871, p. 212, states “ that there is
no generic or specific difference traceable between his [ Dr.
Gray’s| figure of S. Falconeri and the skull which Dr.
Anderson had extracted from the smaller type specimen of
Blyth’s Testudo Phayrei. I do not think that the identity of
the two (Scapia Falconeri, Gray, and Testudo Phayrei, Blyth)
can be questioned for one moment.”

Dr. Gray, in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural His-
tory ’ for November 1871, p. 320, states that he gladly adopts
“the previous specific name, and shall henceforth call it
Scapia Phayrei. This is very satisfactory to me, proving
the skull to belong to a species that has never come under
my observation in a more perfect state, and at the same
time shows that Mr. Blyth and Mr. Theobald made a great
mistake when they confounded it with Manouria emys;”
he further observes, this ‘fully confirms my belief that the
skull belonged to a very distinct form of Tortoise, which
had not come under my observation in a more perfect
state.”

Dr. Anderson has figured the shell, especially the sternum,

of Testwdo Phayrei to show that it was a distinct species
from Manouria emys, with which Mr. Blyth had con-
fused it.
that he has read a paper at the Zoological Society, not yet
published or seen by me) to have adopted Mr. Blyth’s

Dr, Anderson appears since (for I am informed

opinion, and attempted to prove that Testudo Phayrei and
Testudo emys are varieties of the same species, and, there-
fore, not distinct genera as I had made them, and that con-
sequently Testudo Phayrei was long before published under
If this is the case, and the
pectoral plates in the various specimens of Jestwdo emys

more than one other name.

vary so much in shape and position that I was induced to
regard them as two genera, it is an entirely new fact in the
history of Land-Tortoises. Hitherto the form and position
of these plates have proved to be very constant characters
for the different species. I by no means deny that this
difference may occur in certain species ; but the fact, so con-
trary to our general experience, should be established on
very good evidence, and done by a person in whom we
can place reliance, not liable to be influenced by preconceived
theories.

The skull described as Scapia Falconeri is no longer in
the British-Museum collection, for the reasons assigned in
the following correspondence (p. 10).

The skull only became important after it was described
and figured, and so became the type of a genus; for it re-
mained in Dr. Falconer’s hands for many years and in the
Museum from 1867 without being reclaimed; but after it
was figured, Mr. Blyth, Mr. Theobald, and Dr. Anderson
thought that the skull might be that belonging to a speci-
men in the Museum belonging to the Bengal Society, which
had been absent for more than twenty years. The various
accounts they give of this skull are very confused, and would
be amusing if it did not show the little attention they had
bestowed on the specimens belonging to the collection, and
how treacherous the memory becomes. At Dr. Falconer’s
death the Zoological Department received from Mr. G. R.
Waterhouse, the Keeper of the fossils, as a present from
his executors, the skulls of a man and of six common mam-
malia from various countries (three of them without the
lower jaws), and the skulls of nineteen reptiles, the ske-
leton of the common Greek Tortoise and the jaws, and the
young specimen of a Shark. They were all without any
habitat or any history attached to them, and were generally
in a poor condition; indeed they were of so little value,
that if they had been offered me originally I should have
declined them, especially if I had heard the conditions ; but
as they had been accepted with other specimens and trans-
ferred to the Zoological Department, they were retained,

c

LO APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

“21 Park Crescent,
“July 20th, 1871.
* To the Principal Librarian and Secretary, British Musewn.

“Srr,—In the year 1867 we presented to the British
Museum a large collection of zoological specimens, fossil and
recent, which were in the house of the late Dr. Hugh Fal-
coner at the time of his death. The collection necessarily
included a good many specimens which had been borrowed
by Dr. Faleoner from public museums and private friends,
and in transferring the collection to the British Museum it
was on the distinct understanding that any specimens after-
wards claimed by parties who had lent them to Dr. Falconer
should be given up. Mr. Waterhouse, who was good enough
to superintend, on the part of the British Museum, the
removal of the specimens from Park Crescent, was well
aware of this condition; and many fossil specimens have,
in accordance with it, been since restored to their proper
owners.

“ We have now to request that the skull of an existing
species of J'estw/o (among the specimens referred to), which
has been described by Dr. Gray under the title of Scapia
Falconer’, be given up to us, in order that we may restore
it to the collection to which we are satisfied that it right-
fully belongs.

«“ We are your obedient Servants,
(Signed) **Cnas, Fatconer,
“°C. Murcutson, M.D.,
“ Executors of the late Dr. Hugh Falconer.”
“ British Museum,
“July 27th, 1871.

“Dear Mr. Jones,—With regard to the request of the
Executors of Dr. Faleoner, I was not previously aware that
the specimens were given under any reservation. As the
executors state that they are satisfied that the skull of
Scapia Fuleoneri received from them rightfully belongs to
another collection, to which they wish to restore it, I can see
no objection to its being returned to them.

“« Believe me,
* Yours truly,

(Signed) «J. E. Gray.”

* British Museum,

“Nov. 20th, 1871.
“Dear Dr. Gray,—Will you be so good as to deliver to
the bearer of this letter the skull of Scapia Fulconeri, re-
specting which you wrote to me on the 27th of July last,
and which the Trustees have determined to return fo the
Executors of the late Dr. Hugh Falconer as requested,
haying received an assurance from those gentlemen that it

was never the property of Dr. Falconer, he having only

borrowed it.
* Believe me,

* Yours truly,
(Signed) “J. Winer Jonns.”
“ Dr, Gray, F.RS. §c.”
“Nov. 21st, 1871.
* Received, from the Trustees of the British Museum, for
the Executors of the late Dr. Hugh Falconer, the skull of
the Scapia Faleoneri.

(Signed)
Registered mark
68, 2. 12. 18.

« Witiram OLpHAmM.”

Cistudo carolina (p. 19), add ;—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. tab. 22 (from life).

Notochelys platynota (p. 21), add :—

Mr. Theobald in his Catologue confounds this species with
Geoemyda grandis (p. 10).

Cuora amboinensis (p. 21), add :—

Gray, Tortoises Sc. tab. 23 (from life).
Emys gastrotenia, Bleeker (young).
E. borneoensis, Willer, Verh.
Clemmys borneoensis, Strauch, Stud. p. 33.

The specimens vary in the size of the head, which does
not appear to be sexual, as there are males and females with
narrow heads, and a single male from the same locality
with a much wider head than the rest. One specimen is
deformed by having the dorsal shield very convex.

Dr. Meyer has sent home a very young specimen of Cuora
amboinensis which has three very distinct keels on the back
of the shell; our series of this species in the British Mu-
seum show that the young is always three-keeled, and that
the lateral shields gradually disappear as the animal reaches
the adult age.

Cyclemys dhor (p. 23), add :—
Gray, Tortoises dc. tab. 24 & 25 (from life).

Geoemyda spinosa (p. 25), add :—

Gray, Tortoises Sc. tab. 26 & 27 (from life, young
and old).
Clemmys spinosa, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.
Emys spinosa, S. Miller, Verhand. (from Borneo).

The reference to Duméril’s species is doubtful. See
observations under Manourta fusca.

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 11

Geoemyda grandis (p. 25), add :—
Clemmys grandis, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Nicoria Spengleri (p. 26), add :—
Clemmys Spengleri, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Geoclemmys guttata (p. 27), add :—

Gray, Tortoises &c. tab. 25 (from life).
Clemmys guttata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Geoclemmys marmorata (p. 27), add :—

Clemmys marmorata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

2*. Geoclemmys Wosnessenskyi.

Clemmys Wosnessenskyi, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 114,
tab. 1.

Hab. California, Rio Sacramenta.

Is probably only a variety of the preceding species. It
is described from a single specimen from the shell without
the rest of the animal.

Geoclemmys Muhlenburgii (p. 27), add :—
Clemmys Miihlenburgii, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Glyptemys pulchella (p. 28), add:—
Clemmys inseulpta, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

RHINOCLEMMYS (p. 29), add :—
Gray, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 189, 1870, pp. 658, 723.

Rhinoclemmys annulata (p. 29), add :—

Clemmys annulata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.
Rhinoclemmys annulata, Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, pp. 706, 723,
fig. 5 (head).

Animal black. The fore legs are covered with very large,
convex, unequal scales; scales black, tipped with white,
forming an interrupted band; toes very short, scarcely pro-
duced, covered with two or three convex band-like scales
above ; claws short, thick, black, white at the tip; hind feet
with short, thick, black claws; scales of the soles of the
feet large, convex, black, varied with white.

“Crown white, varied with black, forming rather a ra-
diating symmetrical figure on the back of the crown, and
with a white cross band on each side of the occiput; the
temples with a broad white streak from the back edge of

the orbit, and another from the front edge of the orbit,
which are united together on the tympanum by a perpen-
dicular streak behind, and then give off a streak that is
continued along the side of the neck ; the sides and back of
the neck black, with several broad white streaks, one arising
from the centre of the occiput, another, wider, from the outer
margin of each side of the occiput; two narrow indistinct
streaks in front of the orbit, on the upper edge of the side
of the nose; fore feet with two white streaks.”—Gray,
P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 723, fig. 5 (head).

A specimen in the Zoological Gardens, Mr. Sclater says,
was probably brought to Santiago from the coast of Peru or
Panama, as Gay says that no Chelonians are found in Chili
(P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 667).

Rhinoclemmys mexicana (p. 30), add :—
Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 659, fig. (head), 1871, p. 296,
. t. 28 (varieties).

“ Thorax oblong, slightly and bluntly keeled only in front,
over the vertebral plates, dark brown, slightly mottled; dor-
sal and marginal shields thin; the first vertebral shield
nearly square, four-sided, the second and third oblong,
transverse, six-sided; sternum slightly raised on the sides,
truncated in front and notched behind ; dark brown, with
an irregular yellow margin; head brown; throat and sides
of the head yellow, black-spotted ; crown dark brown, with
a narrow white streak over the nostrils towards the orbits,
with a broad white lunate band behind, with its front edge
just even with the eyes, and with an indistinct broad pale
streak on each side of the occiput.”—Gray, P. Z. S. 1870,
p. 659.

“Head brown; crown with a broad, uniformly wide,
semicircular band over the eyes; the sides of the head
varied with yellow, and dotted with black; the chin and
throat yellow, black-dotted.”’—Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 723,
fig. 4.

Hab. Mexico; San Juan del Rio (Rébouch).

“Tn the ‘ Proceedings’ of this Society for 1870, p. 659,
I described a species of Rhinoclemmys, under the name of
R. mexicana, from a specimen which we had received from
M. Sallé; and in the month of November for the same year
I figured the head of the animal (P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 723,
fig. 4). The specimen I first described appeared to have
the normal colouring of the genus; that is to say, the shell
appeared to be of a nearly uniform dark colour above and
below, with a pale margin forming a submarginal ring to
the sternum. The specimen since I described it has been

c2

12 APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

mounted and varnished; and it now appears to be more
olive-colour, slightly variegated with darker streaks and
imperfect irregular paler rings; and each of the dorsal
shields is marked with a yellow spot, which I had not ob-
served in any other species of this natural genus.

“We have lately received from M. Boucard two other
specimens of Emydes from Mexico with their heads; and,
trom the colouring of their heads, there can be no doubt
(though the shells look yery unlike the typical specimens
of Rhinoclemmys mewicana) that they belong to the same
species ; and in both of them the yellow spot in the centre
of the areola is distinctly marked, being linear in the adult
and large and circular in the young. And the colouring of
the young explains the slightly variegated appearance of the
typical adult specimen first described.

“The young specimen is olive-brown above, and pale
yellow-brown, being darker in the central line of the ster-
num and over the sternal costal suture, below. The mar-
ginal shields are pale-spotted, and with a distinct pale,
semitransparent acute outer margin. The vertebral shields
have two or three ovate concentric yellow rings, most
distinct on the second and third, and an oblong central
yellow spot, which is sometimes divided in half. The costal
shields have two yellow subcircular rings, and a large yel-
The head of
this animal is coloured like that of the adult animal origi-
The hinder costal shield and
the last vertebral one are small compared with the rest, and
are about equal in size.

low spot on the middle of the large areola.

nally described and figured.

“The other adult specimen has an entirely different ex-
ternal appearance from the typical specimen, so much so
that one would hardly believe that it belonged to the genus
Rhinoclemmys, which is usually so uniformly coloured and
generally so smooth. It is of a pale brownish yellow above
and below, being only rather darker on the sutures between
the marginal and dorsal shields, between the sternal shields
and the marginal shields. The dorsal and marginal shields
are deeply concentrically grooved, and marked with elevated
ridges radiating from angles of the areola ; the lower shields
are similar, but not so uniformly grooved. When the dorsal
shields are very closely examined they are found to be va-
riegated with numerous dark-brown dots leaving indications
of concentric rings; and these spots are more abundant in
the areola, which is marked with a distinct yellow streak or
oblong spot surrounded by a dark edge. The two hinder
costals are small, regular in their shape, and partly overlap
the small irregular last vertebral shield.”—Giray, P. Z. 8.
1871, p. 296.

Rhinoclemmys scabra (p. 30), add:—
R. seabra, Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 722, fig. 2 (head).
Clemmys punctularius, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

“ Head black above; a round white spot on each side of
the nose in front of upper edge of the orbit, with a white
diverging streak on each side of the crown, commencing
even with the middle of the upper part of the orbit, and
extending to the temple, and with a small white spot on each
side of the occipital edge of the crown; temples with a white
streak from the middle of the back edge of the orbit, another
from the lower part of the back edge of the orbit, both
extending towards the ear, with two or three small spots be~
tween them; a third, larger streak from the underside of the
orbit, which is forked behind, one branch ascending and the
other descending to the edge of the lower jaw, and with a
round spot behind the fork; the chin white ; the sides of the
neck with numerous black and white streaks ; the fore legs
black, with a broad white streak down the middle of each
series of scales, extending along the upperside of each toe.”
—Gray, P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 722.

Rhinoclemmys scabra, var.?, Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 723,
fig. 3 (head).

« With all the marks of the preceding ; but the spots on
the front of the eye are smaller, and the two diverging
streaks are united together by a broad cross band on the
front of the crown, just level with the back edge of the eye ;
the spots on the occiput are larger and longer, forming short
streaks; the marks on the temple are similar, and not quite
like the former.

«There are two very young specimens of this variety in
spirits, which are quite alike as regards the bands on the
crown; but they differ a little in the distribution of the
streaks on the sides of the temples.” —Gray, P. Z. 8. 1870,
p. 723.

Rhinoclemmys Bellii (p. 31), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. tab. 29 & 30 (from life, with egg).

Rhinoclemmys melanosterna (p. 31), add :—

Gray, P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 722, fig. 1 (head).
Clemmys melanosterna, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

“ Head black; crown deep black, with a narrow opaque
white streak from the nostrils over the eyes to the upper
part of the temples, a broad, pale, indistinct streak from
the middle of the orbit to the front of the tympanum, and
a small spot beneath it on the hind edge of the orbit.” —
Gray, P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 722.

\

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. Te

Melanochelys trijuga (p. 33), add :—
Clemmys trijuga, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Strauch (Stud. p. 117) regards Emys Belangeri, Lesson,
Bélanger’s Voy. Ind. Or. p. 29, tab. 1, as the young of this
species.

Melanochelys Seb (p. 34), add :—
Clemmys thermalis, Strauch, Chelon, Stud. p. 32.
Probably only a variety of M. trijuga. Head of young

with symmetrical white spots, sides of throat marbled with
white streaks.

Mauremys fuliginosa (p. 35), add :—

Clemmys fuliginosa, Strauch, Chelon, Stud. p. 32.

Ocadia sinensis (p. 35), add :—

Clemmys sinensis, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Sacalia Bealii (p. 35), add :—
Clemmys Bealii, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Redamia olivacea (p. 36), add :—
Clemmys olivacea, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Emys japonica (p. 36), add :—
Clemmys japonica, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Emys caspica (p. 36), add :—

Emys pulchella, Gravenh. Delicie Mus. Zool. Vratisl. i.
p- 14, tab. 4 (young).

Clemmys marmorea, Strauch, Ohelon. Stud. p. 32?

Clemmys caspica, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Clemmys leprosa, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Emys laniaria (p. 37), add :—
Mauremys laniaria, Gray, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 499, tab. 37.
This species was referred to the genus Mawremys by
mistake during my illness by the person who corrected the
press, evidently under a misconception, though I had care-
fully written it very distinctly in my manuscript.
See also :—

a. Emys validus, Leconte, Proc. Acad. Philadelp. 1859, p. 7.
Clemmys valida, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Hab. N. America.

iF

b. Emys Camperi, Gray, Syn. Rep. p. 33.
Brown, Index Paleon.
Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 129, tab. 26-28.
Emys Cuyieri?, Galeoti, Mém. 1837.

Hab. Brussels (fossil).
c. Emys Parkinsoni, Gray, Syn. Rep.
Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 123, tab. 24, 25.

Chelonia longiceps, Owen, Palaon. Soc.
Clemmys Parkinsoni, Fitz.

Hab. London Clay, Sheppy (fossil).

d. Emys scutellata, Meyer, Fauna der Vorwelt.
Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 101, tab. 21, 22.

Chrysemys picta (p. 39), add :—
Clemmys picta, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Chrysemys Bellii (p. 39), add :—
Clemmys Belli, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Chrysemys marginata (p. 39), add :—
Clemmys marginata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Chrysemys dorsalis (p. 39), add :—
Clemmys dorsalis, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Deirochelys reticularia (p. 39), add :—

Clemmys reticularia, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Bellia crassicollis (p. 40), add :—

Clemmys crassicollis, Strauch. Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Malaclemmys concentrica (p. 42), add :—

Gray, Tortoises Jc. tab. 33, 34, 35, & 36 (from life).
Clemmys areolata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33
Clemmys terrapin, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

DAMONIA (p. 42), add :—

* Head very large, covered with three large, smooth shields,

with a lateral streak over orbit.

Damonia macrocephala (p. 43), add :—

Clemmys macrocephala, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.
*Cistudo gibbosa, Bleeker.” (Young in Brit. Mus.)

y

14 APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

1*. Damonia oblonga. BM.

: ; r . SA,
Damonia oblonga, Gray, Ann. §° Mag. Nat. Hist. 1871,

viii. p. 367.

Shell oblong, elongate, scarcely wider behind; back
convex, black, obscurely 3-keeled, the lateral keels being
on the upper edge of the costal plates ; first vertebral shield
longer than broad, urn-shaped—that is, contracted on the
front part of the sides ; the second nearly quadrangular, as
long as broad, slightly angled on the sides ; third and fourth
hexangular, the fourth rather broader than long, and very
narrow behind. Sternum flat, high, and keeled on the
sides, black except where worn. Head very large, flat at
the top, blackish brown, with a pale streak from above the
nostril, continued over the orbit, becoming wider over the
temple, and continued along the side of the neck; nose
with three perpendicular streaks on each side, the outer
ones continued below into a broader streak extending along
the side of the jaw under the orbit to the angle of the
mouth and on to the neck; under edge of the lower beak
and of the shields on the side of the chin pale-edged.
Head covered with thin smooth shields, one large plate
extending from the nose to the occiput, with smaller subsym-
metrical shields behind it, the shields on the side of the
head being largest ; a large temporal shield on each side
extending from the back edge of the orbit to the front edge
of the temple and the angle of the jaw; lower eyelid large,
smooth, with two thin band-like plates.

The yellow lines under the nostrils are very similar to
those in our largest specimen of Damonia macrocephala, but
our smaller one of that species has only two perpendicular
lines under the nostrils; so that probably the lines in this
The head-shields of the
two species are very similar: indeed there is no doubt these

species also yary in this respect.

species are very nearly allied; but they differ considerably
in the dorsal shields and general colouring and form of
the thorax. The first costal shield elongate, much larger

than the same shield in D. macrocephala.
Hab. Celebes.

It is very like Damonia macrocephala from Siam and
Cambojia, but differs in being of a narrower, oblong form,
and haying very differently shaped shields over the verte-
bral line, and in the shell being of a more uniform black
colour, especially on the underside.

Damonia Reevesii (p. 44), add :—

Clemmys Reevesii, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Damonia nigricans (p. 44), add ;—

Clemmys nigricans, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

** Head moderate, pule-spotted.

Damonia Hamiltonii (p. 43), add :—
Clemmys Hamiltonii, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Eryma laticeps (p. 45), add :—
Clemmys laticeps, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Graptemys pseudogeographica (p. 45), add: —

Clemmys pseudogeographica, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.
Gray, Tortoises Sc. t. 37 & 38 (from life).

Graptemys geographica (p. 45), add :—

Emys valida, Leconte, Proc. Phil. 1859, p. 7.
Clemmys valida, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.
Clemmys geographica, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Pseudemys serrata (p. 46), add :—
Clemmys serrata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Pseudemys hieroglyphica (p. 47), add :—
Clemmys hieroglyphica, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Pseudemys labyrinthica (p. 47), add :—
Clemmys labyrinthica, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Pseudemys ventricosa (p. 47), add :—

Clemmys mobilensis, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Pseudemys concinuna (p. 47), add :—

Clemmys concinna, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. ons
Clemmys floridana, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Pseudemys decussata (p. 47), add :—

Gray, Tortoises Sc. t. 39 & 40 (from life).
Clemmys decussata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Trachemys Holbrookii (p. 47), add:—
Clemmys elegans, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Trachemys scripta (p. 48), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. t. 41 (from life).

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 15

Trachemys Troostii (p. 48), add :—

Clemmys Troostii, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Trachemys rugosa (p. 48), add :—
Clemmys rugosa, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Callichelys ornata (p. 45), add :—

Gray, Tortoises Sc. t. 44 (from life ; young).
Clemmys ornata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

A specimen in the Zoological Gardens, which would not
extend its head and neck, snapped at every thing that came
within a few inches of it, and then further withdrew its
head.

Callichelys pulcherrima (p. 49), add :—

Clemmys pulcherrima, Strawh, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.
2C. oculifera, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32.

Fam. DERMATEMYDA (p. 49), add :—

“Tn the ‘ Proceedings ’ of the Society for 1847, p. 55, I
described the shell of a large Freshwater Tortoise which
had been presented to the Society by Licut. Mawe, R.N.,
who found it in ‘South America’ in 1833, under the name
of Dermatemys Mawii. It is peculiar, having the sterno-
costal suture covered with four large distinct plates ; and I
stated that it in this respect agreed with Platysternon, but
that it had a very differently formed shell and had much
the external appearance of Phrynops Geoffroyi, but there
was no appearance of any scar on the inner surface of the
sternum for the attachment of the pelvis, and that it had
no intergular plate.

«The shell here described was presented to the British
Museum by the Zoological Society, and is figured in the
‘Catalogue of Shield Reptiles in the British Museum,’
tab. 21.

“Jn the ‘ Catalogue of Tortoises in the British Museum,’
and in the ‘ Catalogue of Shield Reptiles,’ I formed a par-
ticular section in the family Hmyde for Platysternon and
Dermatemys, because they had these additional plates on
the sterno-costal suture. The group contains two families:
the Dermatemyde are essentially water Tortoises, with
broadly webbed feet; the Platysternide are amphibious,
and they have strong narrowly webbed toes and the front
of the fore legs covered with large plates.

“M. Auguste Duméril, in the ‘ Catatogue Méthodique des
Reptiles,’ described, in 1851, a species under the name of
Emys Berardii from two specimens in the Museum of Paris,

said to have come from South America. In the ‘Archives’

’ of the museum, vol. vi., for 1852, he redescribes and figures
the species, observing that one of the specimens in the
Museum was received from ‘Lieut. Maw.’ This must have
been obtained from the Zoological Society, and is doubtless
a fellow specimen to the one I described, and is said to have
come from South America without any special habitat;
and the other was brought by Captain Berard directly from
the fresh waters of ‘Vera Cruz, Mexico.’ This species is
very briefly and indistinctly described in both works; and
the figure is by no means good. Probably M. Berard’s
specimen must be in a bad state; for the shell is described
as covered with fine ‘irregular rugosities.’ The indi-
cations of division of shields, especially the dorsal ones, are
very indistinct.

“He figures the mouth, showing the alveolar surfaces of
both jaws (t. xv. f. 4), but does not describe it. In the
form of the mouth and the obscure streak from the back of
the head, and the gular plate showing no indications of a
central suture, it agrees with the specimen now in the Zoo-
logical Gardens, but is evidently an old specimen, while
that which we have is young. M. Duméril does not take
any notice, either in the description or figure, of the exist-

them seem to be entirely obliterated in the aged specimen
he figures; and he separates it from the Hmys trivittata
(that is, an Indian Batagur) by the absence of the three
black bands and the difference of its origin.

“ Professor Owen in 1853, in the ‘ Monograph of the Fos-
sil Chelonians of the Wealden Clay and Purbeck Limestone,’
published by the Palseontological Society, published a genus
under the name of Pleuwrosternon, which he characterizes
thus :—‘ Testa depressa, lata, complanata; sternum inte-
grum, ossibus undecim compositum, per ossicula marginalia
cum testa conjunctum, scutis submarginalibus inter scuta
axillaria et inguinalia positis.’ He does not make any re-
ference to my genus Dermatemys ; but the character here
given is the exact counterpart, though in other technical
terms, of that genus, which was published four years pre-
viously ; but in the description of one of the species he ob-
serves :—

«Tn addition to the axillary and inguinal plates there are
three scutes, and the under borders of the fifth, sixth, and
seventh marginal scutes ; these superadded scutes I propose
to call “submarginal scutes.” The Platysternon megace-
phalum, or large-headed Terrapin of the Chinese swamps,
presents a corresponding but singular supplementary ‘sub-
marginal scute” upon the under part of each lateral pro-

duction of the plastron.’ This statement about Platy-

ence of any sterno-costal shields; indeed the sutures of

16

sternon is entirely erroneous ; for that genus, as well as Der-
matemys and Pleurosternon, has three small ‘submarginal
scutes’ between the abdominal and marginal plates (see
Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1831, p. 106, where
the genus was originally described, and the ‘Catalogue of
Shield Reptiles,’ p. 49).
the freshwater limestone of Purbeck; and Professor Owen
I am still inclined to re-

The Pleurosterna are found in

divides them into four species.
tain the genus, and I think that probably, when we have
more materials, we shall find that the fossil genus will form
a distinct group of the family.

** Mr, Agassiz, in his ‘Contributions to the Natural His-
tory of the United States,’ published in 1857, probably

misled by Duméril’s figure, observes:—‘Emys Berardi,
Dum. et Bib., seems also to belong to this genus [ Ptychemys ],
judging from the description and figure of the jaws pub-
lished by A. Duméril, Archives du Muséum, vol. vi. p. 251,
t. 15’ (vol. i. p. 434).

“The British Museum having received from Mr. Salvin a
specimen of Dermatemys, which he obtained in Guatemala,
I published in the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society,
1564, p. 125, a history of the genus and a description of
the animal, which, unfortunately, was not in a very good
state, as it had accidentally got dry through the evaporation
of the spirit and had again been placed in spirit.

“In the ‘ Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences’
for 1868, p. 119, Mr. Cope describes a new species under
the name of D. abnormis, from the Belize River, Yucatan,
sent by Dr. Parsons, which differs in having the gular
plates united and the vertebral plates broader than long.
He observes that one species of Dermatemys, the D. Mavei,
is recognized by Dr. Gray as inhabiting Venezuela and
Mexico. The same species, according to the same author,
has been subsequently named Hmys Berardii by Prof.
Dumeéril; and he further remarks, ‘I have not had an
opportunity of seeing South-American specimens ; but the
excellent figure and descriptions of Gray render it certain
that the individuals from that country, on which the species
are based, really belong to another species than those of
Mexico. The collection of the Smithsonian Institution
furnishes another species from Belize, which I have hitherto
identified as the same; the species may be thus distin-
guished.” In a table he gives the characters by which he
proposes to discriminate three species, D. abnormis, D.
Berardi, and D. Mave.

“ T do not know why he described his second species under
the name of D. Berardii; for none of the characters which
he gives to his species are to be found either mentioned in
M. Duméeril’s descriptions or shown in M. Dumeril’s plate.

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

T have no specimen possessing such characters as he gives
to the species.

“The head of these animals has much the appearance of
Batagur ; and the shell has a certain resemblance to those
of that genus.

“The form of the sternum might be mistaken for that of
an Hydraspis; but it will be found that what looks like the
intergular plate is, in fact, the small gular plates, which
are sometimes separate, but usually united together, there
being only six pairs of plates, without an interior additional
one.” —Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, pp. 711-714.

Dermatemys Salvinii (p. 50), add :—

“T cannot see any other difference between these two
species except the form and union of the gular plates. I
believe this is permanent; but we require more specimens
to establish the fact. The head and sides of the neck of
Mr. Salvin’s specimen, in spirit, are pale olive with numerous
darker spots; and the feet haye some similar spots. There
is a little difference in the size of the intermarginal plates
of the two specimens, but not more than shown on the two
sides of Mawe’s original specimen.

“ Mr. Cope describes his 7’. Berardii thus :—‘ One gular,
and an intergular behind it; four or five inner margi-
nals, the posterior in contact with femoral and abdominal;
when only four, the median elongate ; vertebral scuta much
longer than broad; no dorsal keel ; abdominal scuta equal
or broader than those adjoining.’ I suppose that this
character is from a Mexican specimen. M.A. Dumeéril’s
plate does not show any of them. The existence of any
gular plate would indicate an irregularity in the specimen,
or a structure which has not hitherto occurred to me, and,
if normal, would remove the species to Hydraspide.”’—
Gray, P. Z.S. 1870, p. 715.

Chloremys abnormis (p. 50), add :—

““Mr. Cope’s, as well as the one in the Gardens, is a young
specimen; but he observes, ‘ I cannot suppose the vertebral
scutes become as narrow or the carapace as fully ossified in
maturity as in the other species.’ In the colourmg of the
head it resembles the figure of M. Auguste Duméril, but not
in any other character.

“The young liying specimen in the gardens of the Society,
about 4inches long, is dul] olive-brown above, and pale
yellowish beneath. The lower surface of the marginal plates
olive, the sternal and submarginal shields being uniform
white. The tailis very short, conical, rudimentary. Head
black-olive; the end of nose red; the uppeér beak is of the

——— tr 4s

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 17

same colour as the head, and looks asif covered with skin ;
but this is not the case, for it is very hard. The lower beak
paler. There is a very indistinct, broad, rather irregular
pale streak from the back edge of the eye along the back
of the neck. The nuchal plate very small. Dorsal scutes
very thin. The areole large, granular; those of the ver-
tebral plates in the middle of the hinder margin of the
shield; those of the costal plates rather above the middle
of the hinder margin of the shield; of the marginal plates
on the hinder outer margin of each shield as visible below
as above, rather on the outer edge of the middle of the
hinder part of the sternal plate, and quite on the hinder
outer margin of the intramarginal plates. The skin of the
neck and feet covered with small scales. The outer edge
of the legs with a well-marked fringe; the front edge of
the fore legs with numerous, very narrow, slightly curved
band-like shields. The toes slender, covered above with
narrow band-like plates, very broadly webbed to the claws.
Claws 5.4, black, slender, and acute, Pupil black, sur-
rounded by an olive iris, without any black spot on the side
as in American Terrapins. The submarginal plates seem
liable to vary in form and number; for in this specimen
they differ on the two sides. On the right side there are
seven: the first, which is probably an axillary plate, is
small; then follow three moderate-sized, the middle one
of which is divided across (this is clearly an accidental
division); then there is a small triangular plate between
the last and the transverse band-like inguinal plate. On
the left side, which I should say had the normal strue-
ture, there is a rather larger axillary plate: three sub-
marginal plates, the hinder being the largest, and a
transverse band-like inguinal plate.”— Gray, P. Z. XN.
1870, p. 716.

Pleurosternon ovatum (p. 50), add :—

Owen, Paleon, Soc. part iv. p. 1.
Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 111, tab. xxiii.

Hab. Purbeck beds (fossil).

Batagur baska (p. 52), add :—
Clemmys longicollis, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

KACHUGA (p. 54), add :—

“Mr. Theobald’s impression that A. peguensis had been
founded on a skull (probably aberrant) of either Tetraonya

Lessoni or Bataqur trivittata, and the idea that the skull of
Kachuga Oldham is not distinct, do not require any answer
from me. If these skulls belong to the same animal, then
the whole of the results of my examinations of Tortoise
skulls, of which I must say I feel justly proud, must go
for nothing; but Mr. Theobald has not discovered that
Kachuga Oldhami is the head of the well-known Emys
Thurgi, which proves to belong to the family Bataguride ;
and he surely will allow that Tetraonyw Lessoni, Batagur
trivittata, and Emys Thurgi are distinct species, to what-
ever genera they may be referred. Mr. Theobald’s ob-
servations about the skulls of the males and females of
Kachuga trilineata, under such circumstances, are not
worth considering. I personally examined Mr. Theobald
on his reasons for thinking the specimens which he
brought home to be male and female of that species ;
and I thought they were very inconclusive, and required
verification from an accurate and patient observer.” —Giray,
P. ZS. 1871, p. 517.

“ Mr. Theobald says he has no confidence whatever in the
distinctness of species based on skulls only. My experience,
which has been very considerable, has led to a very different
conclusion; and Mr. Theobald did not seem to be aware of
their importance in the distinguishing of the species of
Trionyx and Batagur when he published his paper on the
reptiles of Pegu, in the ‘Journal of the Linnean Society,’
vol. x. p. 16, or in the ‘ Catalogue of the Reptiles of Pegu,’
else he certainly would have given more distinct characters
to his species.

“ None of Mr. Theobald’s Tortoises had any special ha-
bitat of any kind attached to it; and the heads were not
marked as coming from any particular species ; so that if I
made any mistakes in the habitats, or in saying the ‘ thorax
was unknown’ of a head, it arose from the negligence of
the collector, which is more unaccountable as we have since
learnt that the collection consisted not only of the specimens
Mr. Theobald collected in Pegu, but also of specimens that
came from elsewhere, and which he obtained in exchange
for other specimens from the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Mr. Theobald is not quite correct when he says I give
‘India’ as the locality of Scapia Falconeri. I gave India
with a ?, and I gave the reason why I thought it might
come from that country, and at the same time expressed my
doubts.

« Except nine specimens of Tortoises which Mr. Theobald
gave to the museum, the museum purchased the collection
which Mr. Theobald formed, from a dealer, to whom he had
sold it, as a collection of Pegu reptiles.’—Gray, P. 7. S.
1871, p. 515.

18 APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

Kachuga trilineata (p. 54), add :—

Clemmys lineata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

The skull figured as Kachuga pequensis (fig. 20) was pur-
chased of a dealer to whom Mr. Theobald had sold it among
some reptiles said to have come from Pegu, without any
special habitat, and without indication of the specimen to
which it belonged. Mr. Theobald thinks that it is probably
an aberrant form of Tetraonya Lessoni or Batagur trivittata
(P. Z. S. 1870, p. 676); but the figures, I think, show
distinctly that this is a mistake.

Dhongoka Hardwickii (p. 57), add :—

Clemmys dhongoka, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.
Batagur dhongoka, Theobald, Cat. Mus. Asiat. Soc. p. 12.
Emys Duyaucellii, Duméril ¢ Bibron (vide Theobald).

Hardella Thurgi (p. 58), add :—

Batagur Thurgi, Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 708.
Theobald, Cat. Rept. p. 12.
Clemmys Thurgi, Strauch, Ohelon. Stud. p. 32.

The shell of this Tortoise, which has usually been classed
with mys, has a contracted front and hind margin of the
cavity of the shell, as well as the masticating surface of the
typical Batagurs.

Mr. Theobald observes that ‘‘ this species is very common
at Caleutta, though adults are not very easily obtained.”
It appears to be more allied to Batagur than to Emys, yet
he did not discover that the skull that I had figured as Ka-
chuga Oldhami was the skull of this species, and considers
this species as very doubtful, as it is based on a skull only,
in the distinctness of which Mr. Theobald had no confidence
whatever (P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 676).

The palatine bones are very small and triangular, about
half the size of the basisphenoid, which is large and tri-
angular, broader and much longer than the basioccipital.

Pangshura tecta (p. 60), add :—
Clemmys tecta, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Pangshura ventricosa (p. 60), add :—
Pangshura ventricosa, Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 710, fig. 2.

Shell dark brown, oblong, and ventricose above, reddish
yellow, varied with black beneath; the hinder margin entire.
Vertebral plates bluntly keeled in front; the first pentan-
gular, twice as long as broad, narrow in front, and gradu-
ally narrower and truncated behind; the second elongate,
suddenly narrowed and produced behind and rounded at

| the end; the third smaller than the second, pentangular,

notched in front, narrow, acute, with a sharp prominent
keel behind; the fourth, oblong, twice as long asbroad, six-
sided, suddenly contracted and produced in front.

Hab. Assam,

This species is most like Pangshura tecta; but the shell
is much more ventricose, and the first vertebral plate is
much narrower and longer compared with its width, and

| the second vertebral plate is very differently shaped, as is

also the fourth; but this may be an unusual variation.
But the lightness, thinness, and ventricose character of the
shell marks it as a peculiar species. The fourth, sixth,
eighth, and especially the tenth marginal shields have the
upper edge produced and more or less extended up between
the sutures of the costal shields.

Cuchoa tentoria (p. 61), add ;—
Clemmys tentoria, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Cuchoa flaviventris (p. 61), add :—
Pangshura flayiventris, Gray, P. ZS. 1870, p. 709.

A series of shells of this species in the British Museum
from Delhi, where it is common; but all the specimens,
like the one we recently received from Cuttack from Mr.
Day, have the sternum spotted, varied with black like the
other species of the genus; the specimens only vary in
some haying the first vertebral more or less distinctly urn-
shaped and contracted on the sides than the others.

B.M.

Pangshura sylhetensis, Gray, P. ZS. 1870, p. 709, fig. 1
(thorax only).

Jerdonella sylhetensis (p. 61), add :—

Shell olive-brown, strongly and sharply dentated behind.
The sides of the back shelving, but ventricose and with a
First vertebral plate five-sided,
truncated behind, rather produced in front, with a blunt
keel ending in a tubercle behind; the second broadly hex-
angular; the third elongate, narrowed and produced behind,
with a very prominent keel ending in an acute point behind;

central dorsal prominence.

the fourth much elongated, narrow and produced in front,
with a narrow, sharp keel more prominent behind; the
fifth pentangular, longer than broad, the hinder sides being
as wide as three of the marginal plates.
black-varied.

Underside pale,

Hab. Sylhet, at the foot of the Khasia hills, in running

streams.

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 19

The young specimen has the two front shields rather
broader compared with the length than the others: and

the largest specimen has the fourth vertebral shield rather
irregular-shaped. This species differs from P. flaviventris
in the keel of the first three shields being pale and not
black, and much more indistinctly marked than in P.
tecta; but is at once known by its strongly dentated |
margin and by the three hinder marginal plates on each
side only occupying the hinder margin of the fifth vertebral
plate. In all the other Pangshwre the hinder margin of
the fifth plate only occupies the width of two and a half or |
two and a quarter marginal plates.

Emia Smithii (p. 62), add:—
Pangshura Smithi, Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 709. |

Two adult specimens in the British Museum from the —
Punjab, where it is abundant, which show the permanence |
of the characters assigned to this species.

2. Morenia ocellata (p. 63), add :—
Clemmys ocellata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33.

Chelydra Murchisonii (p. 64), add :—
Winkler, Tort, Foss. p. 80, tab. 16-20.

Hab. Oeningen (fossil).

SWANKA (p. 67), add:—

Skull, according to the figure of Wagler, tab. 5. fig. 32, |
has the basisphenoid small, elongate and oblong, between
the hinder parts of the palatines; basioccipital small and
narrow. |

Swanka scorpoides (p. 67), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. tab. 44 (from life),

Suborder IIT. Prrvroperss (p. 70).
The genera of this group of Tortoises may be artificially |
arranged by the sternal plates, thus :—

1. Sterno-costal symphysis covered by the outer ends of
the pectoral and abdominal shields.

A. Pectoral plates very large and long. Abdominal |

plates short and transverse. Hypromepvsa.

B. Pectorel plates four-sided, moderate, subequal. Hy-
DRASPIS, CoELYMys, and EvcHetymys.

C. Pectoral plates triangular. PEtomepusa.

2. Symphysis covered by the ends of the abdominal plates ;
pectoral plates narrow, triangular. Srernormxrvs.
—Ann. § Mag. Nat. Hist. 1871, vol. viii. p. 340.

Fam. CHELYDID& (p. 70), add:—

Skull very depressed ; basisphenoid elongate, triangular,
much broader behind ; basioccipital very narrow, elongate.

| (Cuvier, Oss. Foss. vol. v. pl. 11. f. 22.)

Chelodina expansa (p. 72), add :—
P. Z.S. 1870, t. 34 (junior).

Chelodina longicollis (p. 72), add :—
Gray, Tortoises §c. tab. 47, 48 (from life).

Hydromedusa Maximiliani (p. 73), add :—

Skull with the basisphenoid between the palatines, nar-
row in front and broad behind ; basioccipital narrow, rather
broader in front. (Wagler, Amphibia, tab. 8. fig. xxviii.)

Some specimens in the British Museum (perhaps the
males) have the middle of the hinder part of the sternum
deeply conically concave, the front part being quite flat.
(Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1871, vol. viii. p. 340.)

Hydromedusa flavilabris (p. 73), add :—

Chelodina flavilabris, Castelnau, Expéd. a VAmérique du
Sud, Rep. p. 8, tab. 2 (adult).

Hydraspis raniceps (p. 74), add :—
Hydraspis Gaudichaudi is supposed to be the young of this
species.
Hydraspis gibba (p. 74), add :—
Emys barbatula, Gravenh. Delicie Mus. Zool. Vratisl. p. 15,
tab. v. fig. 3, 4 (young ?).

Hydraspis Leithu, Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1871, vol. viii.
p. 340.

Testudo Leithii, Carter, Journal of the Bombay Branch of
the Asiatic Society, 1853, p. 1, tab x. & xi. (not Giinther).
Hab. Fossil, Bombay, in a freshwater formation (Mus.

of the Asiatic Soc. of Calcutta).

Mr. Carter truly observes that no species of this family has
ever been found in a recent state in Asia; and the figure
p 2

20

and description of the carapace lead me to believe that it
is most closely allied to some of our existing species of the
restricted genus Hydraspis, which has only been hitherto
found in Tropical America. It is peculiar among the species
of that genus for the large size of the intergular plate, the
small triangular gular plate, and for the small size and
triangular form of the postgular. The pectoral plates, on
the contrary, are longer than the abdominal plates; the
underside of the marginal plates opposite the suture,
between the pectoral and abdominal plates, being rather
broader than the rest, and angular on the inner edge, which
I have not seen in any recent species. (Ann. & Mag. Nat.
Hist. 1871, vol. viii. p. 340.)

PLATEMYS (p. 75), add :—

Skull: basisphenoid short, very broad, angularly pro-
duced between the palatines in front; basioccipital short,
transverse, nearly as broad in front as the basisphenoid,
and contracted behind, (Wagler, Amph. tab. 4. f. 7.)

The Australian genera of this section have solid, rather
thick skulls, unlike the thinner skulls of the American
They may be divided thus :—

genus Platemys.

I, Head covered with a skin, which is reticulated over the
the temples; nuchal plate distinct; neck smooth,
reticulated.

1. Cuetymys. Chin not bearded ; nuchal plate generally
broad ; occiput like the crown.

2. Evcnetymys. Chin two-bearded; nuchal plate nar-
rower ; sides of occiput with two oblong, subtrian-
gular, diverging, hard plates.

II. Head and temporal muscles covered with a hard, bony
sheath; nape spinose; chin two-bearded; nuchal

plate none (or, rarely, very small and narrow).
3. Esra.

For many years only a single species, called Emys mac-
quarta by Cuvier, was known; but as the country has been
more searched we have gradually become acquainted with
several very distinct species, which, in the ‘Annals and
Magazine of Natural History,’ 1867, vol. xx. p. 44, I sepa-
rated into two genera, Chelymys and Elseya, the former
having no beard on the chin, whilst the latter has two
distinct beards, but no nuchal shield. In the ‘Annals
and Magazine of Natural History,’ 1871, vol. viii. p. 117,
I separated the genus Huchelymys from the latter because
it had a narrow nuchal shield as well as two beards. We
haye since received from Mr. Krefft several more speci-

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

| mens of these animals—which has induced me to revise the
characters of those genera, and also to examine and figure
the skulls of two of them, as well as the other parts of the
skeleton. I am now in doubt whether the existence of a
narrow nuchal plate is a sufficient character for the esta-
blishing of a genus or species; but I must leave this ques-
tion to be solved by the discovery and examination of more
specimens. As yet we haye only a single specimen with a
nuchal plate; and, as far as I have had an opportunity of
judging, I think it may probably be an accidental malfor-
mation of a comparatively common species without a nu-
chal plate, of which there are several specimens in the
Museum collection.

CHELYMYS (p. 75), add:—

Head covered with a smooth skin, reticulated and divided
into small plates over the temples. Chin slightly, very ob-
scurely bearded. Nape smooth, reticulated. Legs covered
with small scales. Nuchal shield broad and well developed.
Crown and occiput nearly square, scarcely dilated behind ;
hinder edge produced in the middle.

Vertebral shields of the adult quite as long as broad.

Skull depressed, without any zygomatic arch, and with a
large tympanic opening; forehead and crown broad, flat,
produced behind in the middle of the occiput. Basisphenoid
transverse, short and broad, with a triangular projection
on the front edge, produced behind the hinder part of the
palatine bones. The basioccipital oblong, transverse, as
broad as the sphenoid.—G@ray, P.Z.S.1872,p. _, fig.

I am inclined to think that more than one species were

included under the name of Chelymys macquaria in the
Catalogue and Supplement, some even belonging to what
is now regarded as another genus, as they have two beards,
which were overlooked in the stuffed specimens.

* Thorax ovate, more or less depressed, with the hinder
margin expanded. Head of moderate size.
.

1. Chelymys macquaria (p. 75), substitute :—

Emys macquaria, Cuvier, R. A. vol. 1. p. 11.

Hydraspis maequaria, Gray, Synopsis Rept. p. 40.

Emydura macquaria, Bonaparte, Tab. Analyt. p. 8.

Platemys macquaria, Duméril § Bibron, Erpétol. Générale,
§ Cat. Méth. p. 21.

Chelymys macquaria, var. 1, Gray, Cat. Sh. Rept. p. 57 ;
P. Z. 8. 1872, p.

Hydraspis australis, Gray, in Gray’s Travels in Western
Australia, vol. ii. p. 445, tab. vi.

Hab. Australia, Macquarie River (Gould, 1840).

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 21

The species was originally named by Cuvier from a spe-
cimen in the Paris Museum said to have been brought from
the Macquarie River by MM. Lesson and Garnot; gnd
the first four names quoted are derived from this specimen.
I am inclined to suppose that Mr. Gould’s specimen, which
I described in Captain Gray’s narrative, may be the same
species, as it is from the same river.

2. Chelymys victoriz.

Hydraspis victorie, Gray, Zool. Misc. p.55; P. Z.S.1872,
p- pits (underside).
Chelymys macquaria and var., Gray, Cat. Sh. Rept. p. 57;
Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. p.76, fig. 25 (head) ; P. ZS. 1856,
p. 31, t. (and skull).

Var. 1. Shell depressed, expanded.

Var. 2. marmorata. Back more solid and convex, marbled.

Var. 3. sulcata. Back with a central groove, shields ob-

securely longitudinally grooved.

Hab. N.W. coast of Australia, Victoria River (Capt. W.
Chambers, Mr. Gould); east coast of Queensland, Burnett
River (Mr. Krefft).

This species appears to have a very extensive geogra-
phical distribution.
British Museum brought from the Victoria River by Capt.
William Chambers and Mr. Gould, and more lately several
specimens in spirit from Burnett River on the east coast of
Queensland. It is remarkable that the specimens received
at the same time from the Victoria and Burnett rivers

There are several specimens in the

present such variation in form that one is induced to believe
that they are referable to two species.
two specimens of the one from the Macquarie River, we

Having only one or

have not the means of deciding whether the same variations
occur in that river.

The specimens agree in having a lead-coloured head,
with a broad streak from the middle of the hinder part of
the orbit to the upper front margin of the tympanum, and
a similar, rather broad, streak from the angle of the mouth
to the underside of the tympanum. In general the gullet
and throat below this line are white; but in some they are
more or less varied with lead colour. The thorax in all the
specimens is much more oblong and convex than in the
specimens received from Segou, on the Macquarie River ;
but they vary both in the outline of the thorax and in the
convexity of the back very considerably. The smallest is
the broadest, with the back of the shell much elevated in
the centre. Indeed no two of the specimens are alike in
form and convexity, which induces me to believe that they
all belong to one variable species.

** Thorax oblong, convex, high ; head large.

3. Chelymys Krefftii.

Thorax oblong, scarcely broader behind, very convex.
The second, third, and fourth vertebral shields as long as
or rather longer than broad; the second and third nearly
square, with only a slight angle near the middle of each
side; the fourth contracted behind; the first nearly square,
rather broader than long, and rather broader in front.
Thorax convex, elevated from the margin, the lateral pro-
cesses convex. Head large, above olive, with a broad
white streak from the back of the orbit to the upper
front margin of the tympanum; a broad white streak
from the angle of the mouth to the lower part of the
tympanum. Beaks very strong and convex. Upper part
of neck slightly granular.

Chelymys Krefftii, Gray, Ann. & sisi Nat. Hist. 1871, vii.
p. 366; P.Z.S.1872,p. , t.

Hab. Burnett River.

One specimen (Krefft’s MS. no. 9) is coloured very much
like the others received from Mr. Krefft, but differs in being
oblong and very convex, instead of being broadly ovate and
much more depressed, and in the form of the vertebral
plates. It also differs in having a much larger head com-
pared with the size of the body.

It has been suggested that this may only be a difference of
sex; but it is very curious that, out of a large series, it
should be the only one of the sex that has come to us.

EUCHELYMYS.

Head covered with a continuous smooth skin, which is
reticulated over the temporal muscles, with an oblong, tri-
angular, diverging hard plate on each side of the occiput.
Chin with two beards. Back of the neck netted, slightly
tubercular or convex. Forehead and crown nearly square,
scarcely dilated behind; hinder edge of occiput scarcely
sinuated. Thorax convex, solid; cavity contracted in front ;
nuchal shields narrow, well developed; vertebral shields
broad, the fifth as broad as or broader than the others.
Fore legs with large transverse scales in front and with
keeled scales on the outer margin.

Euchelymys (part.), Gray, P. Z.S. 1872, p.

I first established this genus in the ‘ Annals and Maga-
zine of Natural History’ for August 1871, placing the two

species together, because they both had nuchal plates; but

oo»

I believe now that the second species was founded on an

abnormal specimen of Hiseya.

Euchelymys sulcifera.

Thorax dark olive-brown, marbled with white below ;

vertebral shields irregularly longitudinally suleated, witha

central continued longitudinal groove; neck slightly warty |

above, dark olive, with a white streak from the angle of |

the mouth under the ear on each side.

Chelymys macquaria, var., Gray, P.Z.S. 1856, p. 371;
Ann. §& Mag. N. H. 1863, xii. p. 98 ; Suppl. Cat. Shield
Reptiles, p. 78.

Euchelymys suleifera, Gray, Ann. § Mag. N.H. 1871, vol,
vill. p. 118; P. ZS. 1872, p. > ts

Hab. North Australia (Stutchbury, 1856).

ELSEYA (p. 76), add :—

Head covered with hard shields, which are incompletely
divided into five large frontal and temporal plates; the
nasal and frontal united, and with a small triangular central
plate. The hinder part of the top of the head much wider
than the front; the hinder edge rather sinuated on each

side. Temporal muscles moderate, covered with reticulated |

Chin with two beards. Back of the neck covered
Thorax depressed, dilated and re-

scales.
with a few tubercles.
flexed on the side.
very small and narrow. Fore legs with a few transverse
seales,—Gray, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 3

The skull of E. latisternum depressed, broader behind ;

Nuchal shield none or (abnormally) |

forehead and crown flat to the occiput, broad, becoming |

wider behind; the tympanic cavity rather produced, of
moderate size; basisphenoid short, broad, transverse,
with a small tapering central lobe in front, produced
between the hinder part of the palatine bones.
basioccipital about as broad as long, rather lozenge-

as the basisphenoid.— Gray, P. Z. S. 1872, p. wits

a. Front lobe of the sternum broad, with a subcircular out-

line, as broad as or broader than the hinder lobe.

Elseya latisternum (p. 77), add :—
Front of the sternum broad, much broader on the hinder
part, with a rounded outline; nuchal plate none; inter-
mediate plate moderate.

The |

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHTELD REPTILES.

Elseya latisternum, Gray, Ann. § Mag. N. H. 1871, vol.
vii. p. 292; P. Z. S.. 1872, ,f. (underside).
Yar. 1, with underside of the shell pale yellow, rather

darker on the margin of the shields. There are two speci-

mens of this variety in the British Museum from Cape York,

N. Australia which were described in ‘Ann. & Mag. N. H.’

for July 1867.

One of these specimens is peculiar for having a small
linear extra shield on each side, on the outer part of
the abdominal shield, which is unusually short in this
specimen. To judge by the thickness and size of the
tail, the two specimens appear to belong to two different

sexes,

Var. 2. This differs in the sternum. being pale greyish

| white, more or less marbled with dark brown. Two

specimens of this variety were received from Mr. Krefft,
who obtained them in the Burnett River, Queensland ;
they are exceedingly like the single specimen of Huche-
lymys spinosa in the British Museum; but they both
have no indication of the narrow nuchal shield ob-
served in that specimen. ‘These are the specimens de-
scribed in the ‘Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist.’ 1871, vol. vii.
p- 292.

Var. 3. The underside dark, blackish ; the lower margin
reddish, with black edges to the shields.
specimens of this variety received from

There are two
One
The
dorsal shields are rather rugose, with regular linear pits
and more elongated grooves. The dorsal line is sunken.
The shield is inches long, and The head is
covered with a uniform hard shield, which is slightly sinu-
ate on each side of the hinder margin. With this speci-
men was received another, about two-thirds the size (indeed

is the largest example of the species that I have seen.

wide.

rather more convex than the other species of the genus in
the Museum), which is peculiar for having thirteen mar-
ginal shields on each side, six forming part of the margin

| of the last vertebral plate; there is no doubt that this

3 | f he division into hal f th i d
shaped, the front edge being rather arched, not so broad | arises; from thé, division ianto halnes\of the jusual caudal

shields; but they are remarkably regular, and, curiously

| enough, each of these shields is bidentate at the apex. The

last vertebral shield is much larger and wider; but they all
vary a little in the size of the shield, which is comparatively
smallest in the largest specimen.

A young specimen from Cape York, N. Australia, has
the vertebral shields short and much broader than long ;

| the upper part of the thorax is dark olive, the underside

white, varied with more or less broad brown lines on the
sutures of the marginal and sternal shields; the head olive,
with a paler streak from the nostrils over the eyes to the

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 23

sides of the occiput; beneath the throat and sides of the
neck white, including the lower half of the tympanum ;
a blackish margin to the lower edge of the lower beak,
becoming broader behind and extending along the sides of
the neck ; the beards white.

The British Museum has received a very young fresh-
water Terrapin belonging to the family Hydraspide, from
Cape York, North Australia. It agrees with the genus
Elseya in haying no nuchal shield, and in having the back
of the neck furnished with regular longitudinal rows of
small conical spines. The skin over the temporal muscles
is divided into irregular convex tubercles ; the crown of the
head is covered with a continuous soft skin, which becomes
hard when dried.

This specimen differs from all the known species of E/seya
in haying four beards—that is to say, two short cylindrical
beards on each side of the hinder edge of the lower beak.
The two front are in the place where beards are usually
found in the genus, the two hinder at some distance behind
them.

The head and back of the neck are dark olive; the beaks
are greyish white, with a broad white streak from the angle
of the mouth extending behind towards the shoulders.
This streak is separated from the white throat by a black
streak on its lower side, which is extended in front, and
forms a narrow margin to the back edge of the lower beak.
The back of the shell is dark olive, the areolie occupying
nearly the whole of the plates ; the front marginal shields
with numerous minute spines; nuchal shield none. The
underside of the marginal shields and the sternum white,
with a very narrow edge to the marginal plates; a dark
oval spot on each side of the suture between the second and
third and hinder plates.

This may be the type of a new genus characterized by
the four beards; but I think it is most likely an acci-
dental variety of Elseya latisternum. We inust wait
until we obtain more specimens to determine this point,
more especially as the top of the head wants the hard
surface of the older specimen of that genus. (See Ann. &
Mag. Nat. Hist. 1872, ix. p. 303.)

Elseya spinosa.

Front of the sternum broad, much broader on the hinder
part, and with a rounded outline ; intermediate plate broad ;
nuchal plate very narrow and small.

Euchelymys spinosa, Gray, Ann. § Mag. Nat. Hist. 1871,

viii. p. 118.

Elseya spinosa, Gray, P. Z. S. 1872; p.

av

Thorax broad, rounded in front, above brown varied with
black; beneath pale brown marbled with black.

Hab. North Australia (1866).

Only a single specimen of this species has been received,
and it is so like some specimens of Z. latisternum that it
may possibly be an example of that species accidentally
possessing a nuchal plate.

Elseya? intermedia.

The front lobe of the sternum rather wider than the
hinder one, regularly rounded ; the hinder lobe with straight
sides in front, and contracted in the hinder half; nuchal
plate none. ;

Elseya dentata, adult, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. p. 76.
Elseya intermedia, Gray, P. Z. S. 1872, p.

Hab. North Australia, upper part of Victoria (Dr. J.
Elsey).

This shell is very like a very old specimen of Elseya den-
tata; but I prefer to describe it separately until we get more
examples.

The thorax (which is without any remains of the animal)
is ovate, very solid and convex ; the hinder margin is dilated
and much wider in front, and much reflexed on the side.
Nuchal plate none. Second marginal plate on each side
wider than the rest; the first vertebral plate five-sided,
produced on the front of the inner margin; the second,
third, and fourth vertebral plates four-sided, rather sinuated
on the side of the margin; the second and third rather more
than half as long again as broad ; the fourth much narrower,
twice as long as broad; the fifth triangular, broader than
long. The sternum dark brown, with irregular white marks
in the centre. The intergular plate moderately broad.
The gular plates small, triangular; postgular plates
moderate, narrowed on the inner edge; the pectoral and
other plates large.

| 8. Front lobe of the sternum narrow, narrower than the front

part of the hinder lobe; the sides of the front part
straight, divergent.

Elseya ? dentata (p. 76), add :—

The front lobe of the sternum narrow, with the sides
nearly straight, rapidly converging in front; the gular
shields very narrow, elongate; intermediate plate small,
linear; nuchal plate none.

24 APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

Elseya dentata, Gray, Ann. § Mag. Nat. Hist. 1867, xx.
p. 44; Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. p. 76; P. Z.S.1872, p.
f. (underside).
Hab. North Australia, Upper Victoria (presented by Dr.
John Elsey).

There are two specimens of this thorax in the British
Museum without any part of the animal. Therefore we do
not positively know that they belong to this genus; but
they agree with it in haying no nuchal shield, and in having
the hinder edge sinuated.

The larger of the two specimens has the front vertebral
plate five-sided, rather angularly produced in front, con-
siderably broader than long. The second, third, and fourth
are six-sided, longer than broad, the fourth being narrowest
and longest, and each having a more or less distinct central
prominence near the hinder edge. The bones of this spe-
cimen are well knit, and do not show the signs of youth.

The younger example is very much more dilated on the
hinder margin, has the margin of the ribs separate, and a
considerable hole covered with membrane in the centre of
the sternum. The vertebral plates are all much longer than
broad, the second and third being broadest, with an obscure
tubercle ; the fourth is nearly as long as broad, keeled.

Dr. Krefft has sent me a photograph of the underside of
the animal in spirit of this species, showing the existence
of two chin-beards, which appear nearer together and more
in front than in Elseya latisternum ; but as yet I have not

seen the upper surface of the head.

STERNOTHERUS (p. 78), add :—

Abdominal shield as long as broad, the same length as
the sterno-costal suture. Chin not bearded.

Sternotherus subniger (p. 79), add :—
Sclater, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 543.
The species of Sternothwrus are very aquatic in their
habits, keeping constantly in the water, whereas Pelomedusee,

of the same family, at least in the case of P. Gehafie, seem
never to enter the water. (Sclater, P. Z. 8. 1871, p. 548.)

PELOMEDUSA (p. 81), add:—
Abdominal plate very short and broad, not nearly so long

as the sterno-costal suture. Chin with two beards.

Pelomedusa Gehafiz (p. 81), add :—
Sclater, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 325 (fig.).

Pelomedusa subrufa (p. 81), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Jc. tab. 49, 50 (from life).

Pelomedusa galeata, Peters, in Berlin. Monatsberichte,
1854, p. 216, from Lumbo and Querinda, is evidently the
Tortoise about which he wrote to me in 1858, saying he
intended to call it P. mozambica, as cited in Cat. Sh. Rept.
p- 53.

The British Museum lately received, along with a collec-
tion of fish in spirits from Dr. Wucherer, from Bahia, a very
large specimen of Pelomedusa subrufa, which is a common
South-, East-, and West-African species. Is this another
instance of an African Tortoise having colonized, like
Kiniwys, South America? It is considerably larger than
any other specimen we have received ; but I cannot see that
it differs in any other respect.

Cornalia described a species of Pelomedusa, which is en-
tirely an African genus, under the name of Pentonya ame-
ricana; and his description will fit young specimens of
this species. He says that it comes from New York. Can
that have been from an introduced specimen of P. subrufa
prought by the negroes from Africa, as Kiniwys is also sup-
posed to have been ?

Fam, PELTOCEPHALIDG (p. 82), add :—

The skull differs from Chelonide in the posterior frontals
being small, forming no part of the hood.

Peltocephalide, Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 715.

Tribe I. PELTOCEPHALINA.

The head high, subcompressed ; parietal bone entirely
covering the temporal muscle. Nose produced, rounded
above, without any longitudinal groove. Chin beardless.

Peltocephalina, Gray, P. Z.S. 1870, p. 719.

1. PELTOCEPHALUS.

Peltocephalus tracaxa.
Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. p.845 P. Z.S.1870, p. 719.

Tribe II. PODOCNEMINA.

Head depressed ; parietal expanded, covering the upper
part of the temporal muscle, leaving a broad rounded notch

i

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 25

in the skull, between the end of the maxilla and the tym-
panic bore. Nose flattened, with a deep longitudinal groove.
Chin with one, central beard.

Podocnemina, Gray, P. ZS. 1870, p. 719.

«‘Tt has been well observed that after the greatest care
some new fact in the structure of an animal that has been
often observed will occur. I have been for several years
collecting together the species of Tortoises, and more espe-
cially studying the osteology, and particularly the skulls of
the Testudinata ; I have published several papers on them,
and have collected these papers together, with many addi-
tional observations and descriptions, as a ‘Supplement to the
Catalogue of Shield Reptiles in the British Museum,’ which
is printed and ready for distribution ; and yet, before it has
actually been published, an accidental circumstance has re-
vealed to me that a seriesof specimens that I believed were all
of one species, coming from nearly the same locality, consists
of two most distinct species, belonging to two most distinct
genera, marked by very great differences in the form of the
alveolar process, which has been confirmed by the exami-
nation of the skulls or heads of aseries of specimens of each
species of different ages.

“Mr. Edward Bartlett, during his excursion to Brazil for
the purpose of collecting objects of natural history, sent to
the Museum a series of specimens of a freshwater Tortoise
which he obtained in the freshwater lakes in the region of
the Upper Amazons. They were considered to be half-
grown examples of Podocnemis eapansa, which they greatly
resemble in all external characters; but on Mr. Edward
Gerrard, junior, preparing a skeleton of one of them for
the collection, it was discovered that it possessed a very
different alveolar surface of the upper jaw ; and on examin-
ing the jaws of the other specimens, they were all found
to have the same peculiar character; therefore I have de-
scribed and figured these Jaws; and to point out, in the
shortest manner, the differences between it and the other
genera of the family, I have formed a tabular distribution
of them.

“In the skulls of all the genera in this family the vomer is
not ossified; and the internal nostrils of the skull are not
divided by a septum, but leave a large open aperture in the
front of the palate.

“The bony vaulted arch that covers more or less com-
pletely the depression on the side of the skull for the tem-
poral muscle, is entirely formed, according to Prof. Owen,
of an extension of the parietal bone.

“Tn my paper on the genus Podocnemis in the ‘ Proceed-
ings’ of the Society I pointed out that the Podocnemis ex-

pansa of Wagler and the Hmys expansa of Cuvier, which had
been considered the same species, had very different skulls,
and, entering into the details of the differences between
them, I formed them into separate genera.

“Tn Bartlettia and Podocnemis expansa both the ischiadic
and iliac bones are affixed by a bony suture to the sternum.

«The thorax of the animals of this family has the cavity
contracted, like the shells of the greater part of the Bata-
guride of India. In a very large specimen of Podocnemis
expansa the front contraction is separated from the margin
of the cavity by a considerable space, and may be so in
younger specimens ; in the genus Bartlettia it is continuous
with the margin of the cavity, as in all the Batagurs I have
examined.”—P. Z. S. 1870, pp. 718, 719.

Spix first observed these Tortoises had only one chin-
beard; he particularly describes Emys amazonica, t. 1, as
« oula unicirrhosé;” but Z. erythrocephala he describes as
“ oulé non cirrhosa ”—which, if not a mistake, is unknown
to me.

2. CHELONEMYS.

Head elongate ovate; the alveolar surface of the upper
jaw rather sinuous, convex in front and shelving behind,
with two diverging ridges, separated by a broad longitudinal
depression, the inner one low and indistinct. Lower jaw
with a sharp outer edge and a deep longitudinal concavity,
the inner margin elevated, divided by a central longitudinal
groove into two ridges; the central notch produced for-
ward between the under margins towards the apex of the
beak. (Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. part 2, pl. 11. figs. 11, 12.)
Tympanum moderate.

Chelonemys, Gray, P. Z.S. 1870, p. 719.

Chelonemys Dumeriliana,

Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. p. 83; P.Z.S. 1870, p. 719.
Podocnemis unifilis, Troschel in Schomburgk, Reise in Brit.
Guiana, vol. ii. p. 647.
Gray, Ann. § Mag. N. 1.1871, vol. viii. p. 68; P.Z.S.
1871, pp. 745, 747, f. 2 (tympanum).

«A freshwater Tortoise from Guiana was thus described
in 1848 :-—

«* Podocnemis unifilis, Troschel, n. s. (Schomburgk, Reise
in Brit. Guiana, iii. p. 647).

«<¢This Tortoise has much affinity to P. eapansa, Wagl.,
and is distinguished principally by this, that it has only
one short beard-thread under the chin. The head is black
and shows some white spots ; of these, one is situated behind

E

26 - APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

the nose, one on either side behind the eye, one on either
side at the margin of the frontal plate, but without a
dark spot in its middle, a larger one on either side at the
margin of the parietal plate close over the tympanum, and
one below behind each lower-jaw branch. These spots are
discernible in quite young animals.

«Found by us common in Rupununiand Takutu. Their
way of living agrees perfectly with that of Peltocephalus
Tracaya ; they belong also to the edible Tortoises of Guiana.
Long. 10-12 inches.’

“Mr. Selater, in his list of accessions, Proc. Zool.Soc. 1871,
p. 36, observes: ‘a small Tortoise of the genus Podocnemis
from the Upper Amazons, purchased December 16th, and
certainly referable to P. unifilis of Troschel (Schomb. Guian.
iii. p. 647). Mr. Edward Bartlett, who has met with this
species in the same district, informs me that his specimens
of it in the British Museum have been referred to the
young of P. Dumeriliana. This, I think, can hardly be cor-
rect. But I shall.have some further remarks to make on
this subject in some notes, which I have in preparation, on
the Tortoises living in the Society’s Gardens.’

“The place where Podocnemis unifilis was described had
escaped me, so that I did not refer to it in my ‘ Supplement
to the Catalogue of Shield Reptiles.’ It is very true that
there is a specimen in the Museum, purchased of Mr. Bart-
lett, which agrees with the description of P. unifilis above
quoted, and which I have considered a young specimen of
Podocnemis Dumeriliana, as it agrees with the other young
specimens in the Museum in every particular. These young
specimens have already been described as distinct species
under the names of Emys cayanensis, Schweigger, H.erythro-
cephala, Spix, and also as Hydraspis lata, Bell, from a
specimen formerly in the Zoological Gardens.

‘**The character which M. Troschel seems to depend on
as distinctive of his species, from the manner in which he
underlines the words and the name which he gives to it, viz.
P. unifilis (that is, from having only one beard in front of
the chin), is, I believe, common to all the species of the
family Peltocephalide ; at least it exists in all the Museum
specimens (except one small specimen of P. expansa) of
Chelonemys Dumeriliana, Podocnemis expansa, and Bart-
lettia pitipiti; and Cornalia mentions it as one.of the cha-
racters of his Podocnemis 6-tuberculata, which is unknown
tome. The single exception mentioned is in all respects
like the other specimens; the two beards are quite close
together in the front of the chin, as if it were one beard slit
down the centre, and not far apart as in all two-bearded
Tortoises. The spots on the head are only found in young
specimens, and disappear as the animal increases in age ;

therefore I think we may decide that Podocnemis unifilis
is a synonym of P. Dumeriliana in the young state. And
it is curious that so aceurate an observer as Troschel
should have overlooked this fact when he considered it a
new species ; but very likely he had no species of the family
at his command. It is less excusable in Mr. Sclater to make
the observation he has done, who is, by his own account,
new to the study of Tortoises (see P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 667),
but who could have examined the extensive series of
these animals in the Museum.

“Sir Charles Schomburgk observes that ‘ the flesh of the
Tortoises of this family is fat and the most savoury of any
of the Freshwater Tortoises.’”—Ann. g Mag. Nat. Hist.
1871, viii. pp. 68-70.

3. PODOCNEMIS.

Head short and broad; alveolar surface of upper jaw flat,
with three diverging ridges, separated by a flat rugose space
in the middle, the inner one low and distinct ; lower jaw
with a sharp outer edge, a deep longitudinal concavity, the
inner margin elevated, divided by a central longitudinal
groove into two ridges; the central notch not produced for-
ward. (Gray, Cat. Sh. Rept. tab. 37. f. 1.) Tympanum
large.

The young animal is black, the head ornamented with
large white spots.

Podocnemis, Gray, P. Z.S. 1870, p. 719.

Podocnemis expansa.

Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. p. 83; P. ZS. 1870,

p- 720; P. ZS. 1871, p. 747, f. 1 (tympanum).

Wagl. Schomb. Reise in Brit. Guana, ii. p. 647. ~
“The largest of the noticed British-Guiana freshwater
Tortoises, we met with most commonly in Takutu and Rio
Banco, although it (judging from the number of eggs
which we found on the sand banks of the Essequibo) must
be tolerably common in this place. It belongs without
doubt to one of the fattest and most savoury of the freshwater
Tortoises. It has found excellent describers in Humboldt

and Spix.”—Schomburgk.

BARTLETTIA.

Head short and broad; alveolar snrface of the upper jaw
flat in front, shelving and concave behind; with a very in-
distinct, short, subcentral ridge parallel to the outer margin;
alveolar surface of the lower jaw with a slightly raised
ridge on the outer edge, narrow, slightly concave in front,

a

Be” ae

APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 27

the inner edge obliquely raised into a sharp ridge, which is
wide behind and narrow in front, with a rounded depression
in the centre of the hinder edge. The central ridge in the

horny beak of the upper jaw more distinct than in the skull.
Bartlettia, Gray, P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 720.

The skull is short and depressed, the eyes separated, fore-
head convex; the head covered with hard shields, the
crown-shield rounded in front, temporal shields large ;
chin with a single central beard; the cheek-shield covering
part of the temporal muscle not covered by the bone.
The animal olive, and the head not spotted.

Bartlettia pitipii.

Shell olive-brown, ovate, hinder margin greatly ex-
panded ; the head olive above, rather paler below; the
second and third vertebral shields bluntly keeled, the keel
most elevated on the suture between these two shields.

The sternum paler; the limbs, in spirit, pale yellowish
white.

Bartlettia pitipii, Gray, P.Z.S. 1870, p. 721, figs. 1 & 2

(skull); P. Z. S. 1871, p. 748, f. 3 (sternum).

Hab. Lakes of the Upper Amazons (Edward Bartlett):
called “ Pitipii.”

There are four specimens in the British Museum, the
largest being 13 inches by 11 inches, and one has been
prepared as a skeleton.

The shell is very like that of Podocnemis expansa; but
the largest specimen we have of the latter is 31 inches long
by 23 inches.

This genus is named after Mr. Bartlett, the Superin-
tendent of the Gardens of the Zoological Society, who has
published several excellent papers on the manners, and
habits, and growth of the animals under his care. It is
only to be regretted that he has not printed more of his
notes ; for observations on these subjects from a person who
has the power of accurately observing and duly estimating
the importance of the facts observed, as Mr. Bartlett has
shown that he posessess, are most valuable for science ; such
observations can only be made by one who has the animals
constantly under his supervision, while the separation of the
species, and the deduction of systematic zoological charac-
ters, are able to be best effected in extensive collections in
Museums.

See also :—

Trionyx brusseliensis, Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 135, tab. xxix.,
SKK

Hab. Brussels (fossil).

Trionyx Teyleri, Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 73, tab. xv. fig. 51.

Hab. Oeningen (fossil).

GuossocuEtys, Seeley, Ann. § Mag. Nat. Hist.1871, vol. viii-
9907
p. <</.
G. Murchisoniensis=
Chelone Murchisoniensis, Woodward.
Chelone planimentum, Owen.

Hab. London Clay (fossil).

Trionyx gangeticus (p. 97), add:—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. t. 51 (from life).

Tyrse nilotica (p. 108), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Sc. tab. 55,56 (animal and skeleton).

Cyclanosteus senegalensis (p. 112), add :—

Cyclanosteus senegalensis, Gray, P. ZS. 1870, p. 717, tab.

43 (from life).

“The Society acquired by purchase, from a London dealer,
on the 30th August, a fine living specimen of Cyclanosteus
senegalensis, Gray (P. Z. 8. 1864, p. 21), which is certainly
the first I have eyer seen, and, I believe, the first seen alive
in Europe; and it is a very interesting animal, as it has
the form of the freshwater Tortoise with all the other
characters of the Mud-Tortoises or Soft-shield Turtles
(Trionychidee).

“The specimen must be nearly adult; but if is not quite
so large as the dorsal shield with its margin which the
British Museum received from the Earl of Derby, who ob-
tained it from his collector, Mr. Whitfield, from Gambia,
which is figured under the name of Cyclanosteus Petersit
in the ‘Catalogue of Shield Reptiles,’ tab. 29. It has
all the sternal callosities developed as in that figure; but
the hinder pair, instead of being round and small, are
The odd or nuchal bone

is placed in the margin of the cartilaginous shield, and

considerably larger and oval.

separated from the front of the dorsal bony disk by a broad
flexible space.

«The animal is ovate, depressed ; the back is convex, like
that of alarge Batugur or Emys, with a very broad, hard, car-
tilaginous margin, which is thin, but rounded on the edge :
the hinder part of the margin is very broad and expanded,
slightly concave on its upper surface, and bent up like that
of several of the freshwater Tortoises. The whole upper
surface is covered with a thick, smooth, blackish-olive skin,
which completely hides the rugosities on the bony disk, and

28 APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES.

gives the animal the appearance of the skin of a porpoise
or dolphin. The under surface is covered with a similar
skin, but of a pure white colour, the white on the under-
side of the margin forming a narrow edge to the dorsal
disk; the underside is equally smooth with the back, except
over the eallosities, which are tuberculated in concentric
circles. The skin between the odd bone in the margin
and+the front of the bony dorsal disk is concentrically
wrinkled. The head is rather large, olive or blackish, with
pale spots on the upper part of the sides. The nose pro-
duced, black; nostrils flesh-coloured, small, circular, sepa-
rated by a broad septum, and with a small internal lobe on
the outer side of each. Eyes lateral; pupil small, black ;
iris greyish, without any spot on the sides; the lower eye-
lid larger, thin, pellucid, whitish. The hinder part of the
fore feet very broad and expanded, lobulated on the edge,
and folded together when contracted, with the three claws
on the front part of the foot. The front of the sternum
and its flaps as broad and of the same shape as the dorsal
disk; the hinder part of the sternum broad; the lateral
flaps large and separated from the hinder soft part of the
sternum by a deep notch on each side.

“This animal is interesting as being intermediate in form
between the usual flat-backed Mud-Tortoises and the very
convex Emyde of the Indian tanks, which have a series of
marginal bones in the margin of their cartilaginous dorsal
shield.” Gray, P. Z.S. 1870, pp. 717, 718.

Emyda ceylonensis (p. 117), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Fc. tab. 55 & 56 (from spirits).

Caretta imbricata (p. 119), add :—
Gray, Tortoises §c. tab. 57 & 58 (from life).

Mydas viridis (p. 119), add :—
Gray, Tortoises Fc. tab. 59 & 60 (from life).

What are :—

1. Chelonia squamosa, Girard, Explor, Exped. p. 442.
-C. squamata, Agassiz, Contrib. 1. p. 382.
Hab. Indian Ocean.

2. Chelonia rostrata, Girard, Explor. Exped. p. 446.
Hab. Pacifie Ocean.

38. Chelonia formosa, Girard, Explor. Exped. p. 456.
Hab. Pacifie Ocean. .

4, Chelonia tenuis, Girard, Explor. Exped. p. 459.
Hab. Pacific Ocean.

Evcuetys, Girard (not Gray).

5. Chelonia macropus, Walb. Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 61.
Euchelys macropus, Girard, Explor. Ewped. p. 448.

Hab. Pacific Ocean.

See also :—

Chelonia Hoffmanni, Gray, Syn. Rept. p.54, 1831.
La Tortue de Maestricht, Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 9, tab.
i-xiv. & xxiii. fig. 95.
Chelonia Faujasii, Giebel, Fauna der Vorwelt, i. p. 72.
Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. 64.
Chelonia cretacea, Keferstein, Naturgesch. 1. p. 253.

Hab. Fossil in the chalk of Maestricht.

M. Schlegel in the ‘ Comptes Rendus,’ 1854, p. 799, com-
pares this species with Sphargis; but M. Winkler on a
careful comparison has decided that it is a true Chelonia
(1. c. p. 63), and he considers C, Fawjasui the same species
(p. 69).

THE END.

.

QL British. Museum (Natural Histo
666 Dept. of Zoology

C5B3 Catalogue of shield reptil
pt.L

Appx.

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