DESCRIPTION OF A NEW TURTLE. 235 



Aspidonectes Emoryi. 



1. Postorbital arch very much more 

 than h antorbital. 



2. luterorbital arch = antorbital, >> 

 postorbital. 



.3. Symphyses of maxillaries short. 



4. Alveolar surface of maxillaries not re- 

 ducing size of posterior nares. 



5. Symphysis of lower law <^ longi- 

 tudinal diameter of orbit. 



6. luterorbital arch less than ^ longi- 

 tudinal diameter of orbit. 



7. Pterygoids much emarginated, near- 

 ly quadrate. 



8. Pterygoid foramen arched over by 

 pterygoid. 



The general appearance of A. Californiana reminds one of 



A. Emoryi by the tubercles on the front edge of the shield, 

 and by the series of prominent tubercles upon the posterior 

 portion of the shield and anal portion of the flap, but the 

 latter is separated from the former by the presence of 

 "small white tubercles that cover the whole surface of the 

 upper part like grains of sand," while in A. Emoryi these 

 white tubercles make one of the specific characteristics. 



This addition to the Fauna of North America and to Cali- 

 fornia in particular, was captured in the Sacramento River, 

 near the city of Sacramento, by a party of gentlemen en- 

 gaged in fishing, their names being Messrs. W. J. Terry, H. 



B. Denson and J. C. Jones. These gentlemen, considering 

 their captive something unusual, kindly forwarded it to the 

 Museum of the Universiiy of California. 



The elder Agassiz, in 1857, writing upon American Tes- 

 tudinata, mentioned but one species of turtle as the sole 

 representative of its order in the Californian fauna, and 

 though the Californian region reached from the Straits of 



