EMYS. 3 
Callichelys venusta (part.), Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1863, xii. p. 181; Suppl. Cat. Shield 
Rept. p. 49. 
Pseudemys ornata, Cope, Journ. Ac. N. Sc. Philad. vii. p. 153. 
Hab. Mexico, Mazatlan (coll. Brit. Mus., Colley, Forrer), Presidio (Forrer) ; Honpuras 
(Dyson) ; Costa Rica (Cope); Panama, Chiriqui (Druce). 
Of this species we have a tolerably complete series, and, fortunately, from the same 
locality, namely Mazatlan, so that there is not the least doubt about the pertinence of 
old and young specimens to the same species. Two of the Mazatlan specimens are the 
original types of Gray’s first description. 
In the young (2-3 inches long) each costal scute is ornamented by yellow, green, and 
blackish concentric rings, which form a large ocellus occupying the greater part of the 
surface of the scute; a minute yellow spot occupies the centre of the ocellus. The 
sternum is ornamented by more or less symmetrical black lines placed in pairs, and 
forming along the middle of the sternum a rather irregular pattern without complete 
rings in front, and with a more or less straight double transverse line behind. 
The longitudinal stripes and bands of the head form an extremely pretty pattern, and 
are much multiplied by each yellow or green streak having blackish borders; the band 
along the temple is broad in the middle, becoming narrower in front and behind, and is 
of a bright orange colour. The ornamental band on the chin is generally interrupted 
on the throat by a transverse blackish border. 
As the specimens grow older, the principal yellow ring of the costal plates appears 
smaller in proportion to the size of the scute, and the black spot is moved towards the 
hinder and upper part of the scute. 
Beside a number of specimens which have the locality indicated in a more or less 
vague manner, I have examined the two young specimens collected by Colley at 
Mazatlan (one of which has been coarsely figured in Capt. Beechey’s ‘ Voyage’), two 
adult specimens with the shell 10 and 12 inches long (from the same locality, 
collected by Mr. Forrer), an adult (stuffed) and two young specimens in spirits respec- 
tively 2 and 5 inches in length, collected by Forrer at Presidio: the young are figured 
on Tab. I. A young specimen obtained by Mr. Herbert Druce from Chiriqui, 
and two specimens from Honduras collected by Mr. Dyson, which are the types of 
Gray’s Emys venusta. Cope records the species from Costa Rica. 
It would appear that the specific name of ornata was suggested to Gray by Bell, 
who, however, has forfeited the authorship by never having published either a figure 
or a description. Gray was the first who described the species under that name in the 
‘Synopsis Reptilium, 1831, p. 30. Duméril and Bibron described it under the same 
name from a specimen given to them by Bell; they erroneously refer to it Emys 
annulifera of Gray, which is quite a distinct species. Bell’s specimen in the Paris 
Museum is that also figured by Aug. Duméril and Bocourt in ‘ Mission Scientifique au 
Mexique.’ 
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