96 EMYS INSCULPTA. 



the name Testudo iiisculpta. Dumeril and Bibron, however, give the credit to 

 Schweigger, and have consequently adopted his specific name, pulchella, excluding 

 at the same time the pulchella of Schoepff. Let us see how Schweigger's account 

 agrees with the animal now under consideration, and in what respect it differs from 

 that of Dumeril and Bibron. Schweigger says:* "The sternum is truncate in front, 

 obtuse or but slightly sinuous behind, and is joined to the shell by cartilage." All 

 this agrees perfectly well with the Cistuda Europea, (Testudo pulchella of 

 Schoepff,) of which Dumeril and Bibron also remark:! "The sternum, which is 

 oval, &c., has its anterior extremity truncated and its posterior hardly emarginate;" 

 and again, "this sternum, which is, &c. &c., to be united with the shell by means 

 of cartilage." But look for a moment at their account of the Emys insculpta of 

 Leconte, which they suppose identical with the Emys pulchella of Schweigger, and 

 we shall see that they do not agree in the most important particulars. Thus, in 

 their characters of the genus Emys, under which they have very properly arranged 

 the animal in question, they say, "sternum immovable, and sohdly articulated to 

 shell;" which is correct; but it neither agrees with Schweigger's description of his 

 pulchella, as may be seen above, nor with their own characters given to the genus 

 Cistuda, under which they arrange the pulchella of Schoepff, (Cistuda Europea.) 

 And again, as regards the form of the sternum — Dumeril and Bibron say with 

 truth of the Emys insculpta, "deeply notched behind hke the letter V;" while in 

 Schweigger's account of the pulchella it is "hardly sinuous." 



Schweigger had no notion that he was describmg a new species of Emys when 

 drawing up the specific characters of the Emys pulchella; on the contrary, he 

 supposed that he was continuing the species Testudo pulchella of Schoepff, to 

 whose description he refers; and although he may have seen individuals of the 

 Emys insculpta in the Garden of Plants at Paris, as he avers, still his description 



* Sternum duodecim arcis; antice truncatiim; postice obtusum, levissime sinuatum; cartilagine 

 testas adnexum, &c. Prod. Arch. Konigsb., p. 305. 



■\ Le sternum qui est ovale, &c. &c., a sa partie anterieure comme tronquee et son extremity 

 posterieure a peine echancree. And again: Ce bouclier inferieure, &c. &c., de chaque cote 

 pour s'unir a la carapace au moyen d'un cartilage, &c. Hist, des Rept, torn. ii. p. 232 et 234. 



