Dr. W. Baird on a new Species of Estheria from India. 135 



Description of a New Species of Estheria from Nagpoor, 

 Central India. By W. Baird, M.D., F.L.S. 



Since my paper containing a description of a species of Estheria 

 (E. Hislopi) in the Proceedings of 1859, p. 231, was printed, I 

 have received a short communication from Mr. Hislop, enclosing 

 a second species of the same genus from the same locality. This 

 species is considerably larger than E. Hislopi, and differs from it 

 entirely in shape and markings. The carapace is oval, flat, and 

 compressed, rounded in front, where it is most convex, and consi- 

 derably attenuated posteriorly. The umbo is situated near the an- 

 terior extremity ; the ventral margin of the shell is rounded, and 

 the dorsal margin, from the umbo to the posterior extremity, slopes 

 downwards and is nearly straight. The carapace is encircled with 

 prominent ribs, which are few in number (about seven or eight) and 

 of considerable size. The intervening spaces are smooth, rather 

 broad, generally convex in the centre, and do not present any of 

 that elaborate sculpture which the other species from India (de- 

 scribed and figured in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1 849) 

 — Estheria polita, E. similis, and E. Boysii — exhibit so distinctly ; 

 neither do they show the excavated pjinctations of E. Hislopi. They 

 are merely very slightly punctate. The specimens sent being pre- 

 served dry, the animal has not been observed. 



" The specimens now sent," says Mr. Hislop in his letter to me, 

 " were obtained in shallow pools at Nagpiir, Central India, about the 

 middle of July, i. e. a month after the commencement of the rainy 

 season there. If the pools dry up, as they frequently do, about the 

 end of July, when there is a break in the Monsoon, the creatures 

 perish, not to reappear that season, however copious may be the 

 showers ; but they are found in abundance at the beginning of the 

 Monsoon in the following year. The orbicular species (E. Hislopi) 

 is not obtained along with the one above referred to, but occurs 

 about the end of August in a stream which communicates with the 

 large tank on the west of the city of Nagpiir." 



The name I propose for this new species, the specimens of which 

 unfortunately are not in a very good condition, is Estheria compressa. 



Estheria compressa. 



Carapax compressus, ovalis, convexus et rotundatus ad extremi- 

 tatem anteriorem, ad extremitatem posteriorem attenuatus. 

 Margo ventralis rotundatus, margo dorsalis obliquus, fere 

 rectus. Testa costata, superficie vix punctata. 



Length about 5 lines, breadth 2£. 



Hab. Pools of fresh water at Nagpoor, Central India. Mus. Brit. 



March 27, I860.— Prof. Busk, F.R.S., F.Z.S. &c, in the Chair. 



Memoranda on the Hippopotamus and Bal^eniceps re- 

 cently imported to England, and now in the 

 Gardens of the Zoological Society. By John Pe- 

 therick, F.R.G.S., H.M. Consul for the Soudan. 



Since 1853 I have devoted from six to seven months of each year 



