68 Zoological Society : — 



organized on very much the same plan, and are confined to a very 

 limited space or group of islands on the earth's surface. 



-K 



Description of a Soft Tortoise (Aspidochelys Living- 

 stonil) from the zambesi, sent to the british museum 

 by Dr. Livingstone. By Dr. John Edward Gray, F.R.S., 

 V.P.Z.S., Pres. Ent. Soc, etc. 



The British Museum has lately received from Dr. Livingtone the 

 dorsal and sternal shields of a large fluviatile Soft Tortoise from the 

 country near the Zambesi. It was accompanied by the skull of a 

 foetal African Elephant, and some other bones of that animal. 



Some years ago I received through the Earl of Derby a Soft 

 Tortoise from the River Gambia, which differed from the genus 

 Fmyda, to which it was allied, in having no bones on the hinder part 

 of the margin of the dorsal shield. I therefore proposed to esta- 

 blish for it a new genus. 



When I described this genus I called it Cyclanorbis, but re- 

 ceived a note from Dr. Peters, before the account of this genus was 

 printed, in which he informed me that he had found near Mozam- 

 bique, on the River Zambesi, a Tortoise which was called Casi y which 

 wanted these bones on the hinder part of the margin of the dorsal 

 shield, and which he had proposed to call Cyclanosteus frenatus, 

 on account of certain black streaks on the head. I obliterated my 

 name, and adopted that which my friend Dr. Peters had suggested, 

 and described the one I had received from the Gambia under the 

 name of Cyclanosteus Petersii (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1853 ; Ann. &Mag. 

 N. H. 1855, xv. 69 ; Catalogue of Shielded Reptiles in the British 

 Museum, 64, t. 29). 



The animal from the Zambesi which we have received from Dr. 

 Livingstone agrees with the animal from the Gambia in wanting 

 the bones in the hinder part of the margin of the dorsal shield ; but 

 it differs so essentially in the structure of the sternum that it is 

 necessary that another genus should be established for its reception. 

 Now, it may be the Casi of the natives, but unfortunately Dr. Living- 

 stone has not sent its native name, and it may be the Cyclanosteus 

 frenatus of Dr. Peters ; but I cannot find any description of that 

 animal. It is not noticed, nor any other Tortoise, in the review 

 of the Amphibia collected during his Travels, which Dr. Peters 

 published in the * Monatsberichte der Berliner Academic,' 1854, 

 p. 614, and which is reprinted in Wiegmann's Arch. 1855, p. 43. 

 Under these circumstances, as I applied Dr. Peters' name Cyclanos- 

 teus to the animal from the Gambia, and first gave the character to 

 that genus derived from that species, and, as my description of that 

 genus appears to be the only one that has been published, I think 

 that the name Cyclanosteus must be retained for the Gambian Tor- 

 toise, although probably Dr. Peters in his note intended it to refer to 

 the Mosambique form. If I do so, the reference to Dr. Peters' 

 MS. must be erased from my account of the animal in the papers 



