406 Albany Museum Records. 



Sclatei", very kindly ])laced at my disposal for study the collection 

 of tortoises, 53 specimens, in his charge. 



Thanks are due to the many contributors who have rendered 

 possible the study to its present extent. The notes in the i)resent 

 contribution are confined to the genus ^o>;;fV^^«.s, and are somewhat 

 preliminary in character. A laige number of facts are accumulat- 

 ing with regard to the geo))wfr/ca-gvou\). 



Among the individuals of Honiojms are a few with characters 

 different from any known form, and of such a nature as to justify 

 the establishment of a new species. I have named it after Prof. 

 G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., who has done so much for South African 

 herpetology, and assisted me with literature in the present studies. 



Homopus houlengcfi^ n. sp. 



Shell very depressed, more than twice as long as deep, flat on 

 the vertebral region, posterior margin reverted, nearly vertical and 

 not or feebly sei-rated, anterioi- margin not or feebly serrated ; 

 dorsal shields not swollen, concentrically striated, separated by 

 rather deep, narrow grooves ; ai'eolae either moderately or deeply 

 impressed : vertebral shields broader than long, as broad or a little 

 narrower than the costals ; a small, short nuchal, about as broad 

 behind as long. Marginal plates 12 or 13, rarely 11. Plastral 

 lobes short, from half to one-third the width of the bridge, front 

 lobe truncate, hind lobe openly notched in the female, deeper in 

 the male ; the longest median suture is between the abdominals, 

 and is a little over three times that between the pectorals, the 

 suture between the caudals is about the same as that between the 

 pectorals and the gulars, the suture between the femorals is the 

 same or a little shorter than that l)etween the humerals ; axillaries 

 small, inguinals large, in contact with the femoral, the abdominal, 

 and two marginals. A pair of small prefrontal scales on the 

 snout, usually preceded by a small median and two lateral plates 

 of nearly the same size as the prefrontals. Beak strongly hooked, 

 feebly tridentate. 



Fure liinhs covered anteriorly with large, elongated, subequal, 

 imbricate scales or tubercles ; five claws to the fore limb, four 



