1854] 1S1 



shell are sometimes long and narrow, sometimes short and broad, but always 

 proceeding only from the abdominal piece. The shorter the wings the more 

 nearly can the shell be closed up by the sternum. The inguinal plate is long 

 and generally tolerably wide ; the axillary much smaller and narrowed anteriorly. 

 The feet are palmate, the fore feet with plicas or folds or transverse scales on 

 the outer side, the hind feet with as many on the inner side and a lew smaller 

 scales near the heel. The tail is sometimes furnished with papillae andsometimes 

 naked, often with a nail at the end and as often unarmed : this nail in no instance 

 being distinctive of sex. 



The species embraced in the last group would by some be considered as be- 

 longing to the genus Staurotypus. and by others to Steinothaerus, to neither of 

 which does it bear but a very slight resemblance. 



The sternum of Staurotyjjus is, as it were, cruciform and pointed before and 

 behind, the anterior portion consisting of but two plates, formed of the gular, the 

 brachial, and the pectoral united, and joined to the abdominal by a ligamentous 

 hinge, the two anal ones likewise being united into one so that the sternal scuta 

 are only seven in number. The whole contour of the animal reminds one of the 

 Emi/ia/cnts. As for the Sternothasrus it is exclusively an African genus, and is 

 remarkable for having no nuchal plate, and thirteen sternals, there being three 

 gnlars, those with the brachial and pectoral forming an anterior valve, which is 

 joined to the abdominal piece by a ligament, and of course is moveable, the rest 

 of the sternum is as fixed and immoveable as that of an Emys. The figure of an 

 animal of this genus in Dumeril's Herpetologie represents the wings as project- 

 ing from the pectoral and abdominal scuta, in which case the anterior portion of 

 the sternum would not be moveable. 



I shall now proceed to describe all the species of Kinosternum which I have 

 been nble to examine, giving minute details of those which I consider new, and 

 shorter or diagnostic descriptions of such as have been described before. 



Gro?rp 1st. Consisting of those with bivalved sterna, the valves joined to the 

 abdominal piece by ligamentous hinges. 



Kinosternum longicaudatum. Testa indistincte 3-carinata, elliptica, convexa, 

 dorso depressiusculo, postice retusa. margine angusto, nullo rnodo dispanso, 

 sterno cistam omnino occludente, postice profunde sed anguste emaruinato, scuto 

 vertebrali primo ad nuchale, marginale primum, et secundi partem anteriorem 

 appositum, vertebralipostremo solum ad marginale postremum. Cauda unguicu- 

 lata, ungue lato et obtuso. 



Habitat in America meridionali. Spix, Rept. Bras. p. 17, tab. xii. 



The carinae on the back of the shell are rather indistinct, and without doubt, 

 in older individuals, are not perceptible at all. This species is considered by 

 Dumeril as the Testndo scorpioidea of Linnaeus, which determination we shall 

 presently see is erroneous. 



K. scorpioi/les. Testa ovali modice convexa, dorso fortiter, lateribus naodice 

 carinata, margine declivi, scutis posterioribus vix latioribus. Sterno utrinque 

 rotundato, integerrimo. Cauda acute unguiculata. 



Hah. in America meridionali Surinami : unde a Dom Dr. Hering receptum. 



Head and neck grey, mottled and reticulate with black, upper jaw slightly 

 hooked. Shell oval, moderately convex, strongly carinate, on the vertebral 

 line, slightly so on each side, margin obliquely declivous except in the middle, 

 where it is perpendicular. First vertebral plate triangular, with the apex trun- 

 cate and the base angled; second, third and fourth hexagonal, with all the sides 

 nearly straight ; fifth triangular, with the outer posterior angle obliquely truncate, 

 and applied to the penultimate marginal, which is scarcely wider than that which 

 precedes it, in consequence of which the posterior lateral is nearly trapezoidal. 

 Margin acute all round, the plates oblong. Sternum elliptical, rounded at each 

 end, entire, not closing up the shell entirely; wings short, inguinal plate large, 

 scarcely narrowed anteriorly. Tail furnished with a sharp nail. 



Length 5.7, height l.G, width 4 inches, sternum 4.8 long. 



The above description appears to me to answer better to the Testudo scorpi- 

 oides than any other which I have seen. On account of the many varying 

 opinions concerning it, I have given a more detailed description than would 



