4 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



January 25(h. 

 Vice-President Bridges in the Chair. 



Forty-six members present. 



The Report of Proceedings of the Biological Department for the 

 present month was read. 



On report of the respective committees, the following papers were 

 ordered to be printed in the Proceedings. 



Description of two New Species of Tortoises . 

 BY JOHN LE CONTE. 



Kinosternum Henrici. Testa regulari-ovali, convexa, dorso subcarinato, 

 postice valde decliva, margine non dispanso, laterali perpendiculari, sterno 

 testam non omnino occludente, cauda longa, unguiculata. 



Habitat New Mexico. 



Head and neck dusky, on the top slightly varied with paler, beneath and on 

 the sides, including the jaws, thickly speckled with yellow. Upper jaw entire, 

 hooked. Chin with two small warts. Legs and tail dusky, fore feet with two 

 folds on the upper side ; hind legs squamous on the hinder side and likewise 

 with two folds ; tail black and rather long, furnished with a long, broad and 

 rather pointed nail. Shell brownish yellow, regularly elliptic, convex, very 

 declivous behind, with the remains of an evident keel on the three last scut;e, 

 anterior and posterior margins not expanded, the lateral perpendicular with 

 a considerable furrow for the greatest part of its length. Vertebral scutae im- 

 bricate, the first one triangular with the apex truncate, applied to the nuchal 

 and first marginal scuta, second, third and fourth urceolate, six-sided, the 

 lower side of the fourth very short, the fifth triangular with all the angles 

 truncate, so as to form a six-sided figure, of which the apical side is very short, 

 the two upper lateral sides long and incurved, the two lower lateral short and 

 perpendicular to the base which is doubly incurved so as to form a waving line ; 

 this scuta is applied to the two caudal marginals, the first lateral is irregularly 

 four-sided, the second and third five-sided, the fourth four-sided, the anterior 

 side straight, the superior oblique, the posterior curved first outward and then 

 inward, so as to fit into the sides of the fifth vertebral and the last marginal ; 

 the nuchal scuta is small and square ; the rest of the marginals except the last 

 one, the caudals being excluded, are oblong, more or less angled on the top; 

 the last one is larger than the rest, three-sided, pointed above and entering a 

 cavity between the last vertebral and the last lateral ; the base is straight and 

 the two sides curved ; the caudals are four-sided, the upper side curved. Ster- 

 num large and yellow, emarginate behind, jointed before by a ligament, be- 

 hind by a suture anteriorly closing up the box of the shell, posteriorly very 

 partially so ; gular scuta very large, triangular, pectorals irregularly four-sided, 

 the outer side a little wider than the inner, the lower side curved, the interior 

 anterior angle very obtuse, the interior posterior rather acute, the two exterior 

 right ; brachials triangular with the apex truncate, and the upper side incurved; 

 abdominals quadrangular, the membrane joining them with the femorals so 

 wide as to make the joint appear double, femorals quadrangular, the inner side 

 short, caudals right angled triangular. 



Length of the shell 4-7 inches, height 1-9, of head and neck 2'8, of the tail 2. 



This new tortoise was brought from New Mexico by Dr. T. C. Henry of the 

 United States Army, and by him through Mr. Cassin presented to the Academy. 

 It is an old individual. It appears that when young the scutas of the back are 

 marked with concentric striae, and no doubt the whole of the upper surface 

 varied in some degree with darker. When the K. odoratum is found in clear 

 water streams it is beautifully varied, thus, for instance, those found in the 

 Ogeechee river, in Georgia, which has a sandy bottom and is seldom or never 



[Jan. 



