50 



CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 



when dry ; under surface uniform pale yellowish-wliite, 

 with slightly sunken grooves. 



" Emys Mawii, Bibron," Eraser's Cat. Mus. Zool. Soc. 



no. 6899. 

 Dennatemvs Mawi, Gray, Ann. ^ Mag. Nat. Hist. 1 847, 60 ; 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1847, 36. 

 TTieffm. Arch. 1848, 167. 

 Emys Berardii, Bum. 4' Sib. MSS. 



Bum. Cat. Mus. Hist. Nat. ii. no. 9* (1851). 



Hab. South America {Lieut. Mawe). 



a. Shell: length 17; width 11. Sternum: length 12^ 

 inches. From the Museum of the Zoological Society. 



The specimen, which is not quite full-grown, has much 

 the external appearance of Phrynops Geoffroyii, and the 

 general thinness of the scales of the Chelydidce ; but there 

 is no appearance of any scar on the inner surface of the 

 sternum for the attachment of the pelvis, and though the 

 gular scale is worn and nearly obliterated, yet it is suf- 

 ficiently distinct to show that it has no intergular plate. 



Emys Berardii of Dumeril's Catalogue of the Paris Mu- 

 seum is perhaps intended for this species. It is thus 

 described : — 



" Shell yellow-brown, irregular, rugose, with a multitude 

 of small vermiculations ; elongate, suboval, narrowed above 

 the fore legs, rather sinuous behind ; hinder part of back 

 slightly keeled ; nuchal small, short ; first vertebral pro- 

 duced in front. Chest yellow, entire in front, notched be- 

 hind. Head uniform brown, flat, broad, rather large ; jaws 

 toothed. Toes broad-webbed. Tail strong, rather long. 



"Hab. South America {Mawe) ; Vera Cruz {Berard)." 



This is more likely to be the case, as Mr. Fraser's note, 

 in the Catalogue of the Museum of the Zoological Society, 

 shows that M. Bibron must have examined it, and these 

 authors give the habitat as " South America {Mawe)," in 

 their account of the species. If this be the case, !M. Bibron 

 must have changed the name after his return to Paris. 



Fam. III. CHELYDID.ffi; (Chelides). 



Head much depressed, broad, covered with a soft skin or 

 hard shields ; nostrils elongate, tubular ; eyes superior ; 

 jaws horny. Neck long, broad, contractile, bent under the 

 side of the shell in repose. Feet webbed. Toes 5 • 5, 

 deeply webbed, with a lobe between each claw. Claws 

 5 • 5, 5 • 4, or 4-4, elongate, acute. Shell depressed, 

 covered with horny shields ; caudal pair always separate. 

 Sternum attached to the thorax by a short bony suture. 



covered with the outer ends of the pectoral and abdominal 

 plates, and with an additional intergular plate in front. 

 The axillary and inguinal plates very small or none. Pelvis 

 large, united to the vertebra and the hinder lobe of the 

 sternum, leaving a scar. Living in ponds and rivers, ui 

 warm climates. Eating flesh ; feeding only in the water : 

 swimming with their whole shell under water. 



Emys § ***, Gray, Ann. Phil. x. 211 (1825), and note. 

 Chehdina, Gray, Ann. Phil. x. 211 (1825). 

 Eraydse (part.), Swainson, Lard. Cyclop. 344. 

 CheUdridae (part.), Swainson, Lard. Cyclop. 343. 

 Hydraspides, Fit:. Syst. Kept. 29 (1843). 

 Chelydse, fJ'iegmann, Herp. Mex. 



Fitz. Syst. Rept. 30 (1843). 

 Phvllopodochelones (part.), Bitten, Nov. Act. Nat. Cur.xiv. 



269 (1828). 

 Chersydrochelones (part.), Ritzen, I. c. 269. 

 Amydse (part.), Ritzen, I. c. 269. 

 HydraspicUna, Bonap. Tab. Analit. 8 (1836). 

 Clielina, Bonap. Tab. Analit. 8 (1836). 

 Terrapene (part.), Bonap. Saggio Anim. Vert. 12 (1832). 

 Chelydae, IVieym. ^- Ruthe, Handb. 169. 

 Chelydoides & Emydoides (part.), Fitz. Neue C/ass.(1826). 

 Emys, sp., Brongn. (1803). 



Oppel, Rept. (1811). 



Merrem, Tent. 23. 



Cta: R. 4. (1817). 

 Testudines steganopodes (part.), TTagler, Syst. 133. 

 Testudinida chehna and T. testudinina (jiart.), Bonap. 



Saggio Anim. Vert. 13 (1832). 

 Tortues paludines ou Cheloniens Elodites, § 2. Pleuroderes, 

 Bum. ^ Bib. Erp. Gin. ii. 374 ; Cat. Meth. R. 17. 



In the Annals of Philosophy for 1825, 1 formed a section 

 oi Emys (***) for Emys longicollis — " Toes 4'4 ; sternum 

 thirteen-scaled," — and remarked: " The plastron of the last 

 subgenus is covered with thirteen scales, that is, six pair 

 marginal, and an unequal-sided hexagonal one in the middle 

 of the anterior lobe." I have only observed an approximating 

 distribution of the plates in a species of Sternotherus ; all 

 the other Emyda that I have seen have had only the six 

 pair of marginal plates, the first pair sometimes soldered so 

 as to form only eleven plates. 



Mr. Bell, after stating that the same number of sternal 

 plates exists in Sternotherus Leachianus and the two 

 species of Chelys (see Zool. Journ. iii. 512, 1838), over- 

 looked the other anatomical characters which unite these 

 genera, and made no proposal to unite them into a natural 

 group. 



Dumeril and Bibron in their large work merely change 

 the name of the family as given in my Synopsis. 



