THE OSTEOLOGY of thk NEW GUINEA TURTLE 



(Carettochelys insculpta, Eamsay). 



By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S., Zoologist. 



(Plates xxiv.-xxvii., and figs. 30-32). 



Since first desciibefl by Dr. E. P. Ramsay in 1886,^ the New 

 Guinea turtle, CareUochelyx insc^dpfa, has excited considerable 

 interest and provoked much speculation as to its systematic 

 position. 



Hitherto the species, Avhicli as tar as ascei'tained is the sole 

 living representative of the genus and family, was known only 

 from the type and two imperfect skulls : the latter described by 

 Dr. G. A. Boulenger as ornaments or charms attached to a 

 dancing stick, from the Fly River, British New Guinea.- 



In the account of the original specimen no mention is made of 

 the manner in which it was procured. As the history of such an 

 example will be of interest, I venture to publish the following 

 particulars from information kindly supplied by Mr. Walter W. 

 Froggatt, F.L..S., Government Entomologist for New South 

 Wales : — 



" The fresh-water turtle described by Ramsay was one of two specimens 

 obtained in the Strickland River (the upper right hand branch of the Fly 

 River), in the Geographical Society of Australasia's Expedition to New 

 Guinea in 1885. Captain Hy. C. Everill was in charge, and I was 

 Entomologist and Assistant Zoologist, etc. There were large sand banks 

 all along, but we saw no signs of these turtles in the lower parts of the 

 river. Six of us took the whale boat up the last hundred miles after the 

 ' Bonito' stuck in the gravel, and as we towed the boat along the two 

 turtles ran off the sand banks into shallow water and were caught. We 

 ate the contents of both : a large number of eggs were found inside them. 

 It was evidently breeding time as some of the sand banks were covered 

 with their tracks : though we hunted round at several camps we could 

 not find any buried eggs. This was about the middle of October, 1885. 

 Jas. H. Shaw and I caught thn type one evening, and I skinned and 

 cleaned it." 



1 Ramsay— Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales. (2), i., 1886, pp. 158-162, 



pla. iii.-vi. 



2 Boulenger— Proc. Zool. Soc, 1898, p. 851. 



