ZOOLOGY. 509 



In other cases it is the female that assumes the role of custodian to 

 the eggs. 



In one case the female carries the eggs " attached to the belly;" the 

 Bhacophorus reticulatus of India is the only known species in which this 

 method is manifested. 



In another and long known species, the Pipa surinaniensis, the eggs 

 are "attached to the back of the female by the male, and her skin 

 develops into cells for their reception, wherein the young complete their 

 metamorphosis within the egg.''^ 



Equally remarkable instances of the carriage of the eggs on the back 

 of the mother are furnished by the toads of the family Hylidoe and genus 

 Nototrema. In all of these a special dorsal pouch is developed, and it is 

 in allusion to this that the name Nototrema has been given. The species 

 vary, however, in the extent to which they carry the young. In one 

 form, the Nototrema marsupiatum, " the young leaves the pouch in the 

 tadpole state," while in two other species, Nototrema, testudineum and 

 Nototrema oviferum, the young remain in the pouch until they have at- 

 tained their natural form and are only then expelled. (Ann. and Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. (5), xvii, pp. 461-464.) 



Reptiles. 



A remarTiahle Tortoise, — The fauna of Papua, or New Guinea, has fur- 

 nished within the last decade some very remarkable previously unknown 

 types to naturalists, and not the least interesting of them is a new gen- 

 eric type of tortoises made known during the past year by Prof. E. P. 

 Eamsay, of Sydney, New South Wales. The new type is referred to the 

 family Trionychidae, and, indeed, in a preliminary communication, the 

 species was noticed as a member of the genus Gyclanosteus. The 

 perusal of the description and an examination of the plate, however, 

 show that its affinities to any of the known tortoises are very slight, and 

 that it is not only not referable to any previously described genus, but 

 should be kept apart from the family Trionychidse at least. The cara- 

 pace,oruppershe]l,is'''sbield-shaped, rounded, and high in front, pointed 

 and keeled behind, and the plastron, or lower shell, is composed of 

 *'nine shields rounded anteriorly and posteriorly, the second and third 

 pairs anchylosed to the marginals." In detail, " the plastron or ventral 

 shield is flat, of nine plates," and the second, third, and fonrth pairs of 

 plates have a straight median suture, while the second and third pairs 

 are anchylosed to the fourth and seventh marginals ; " the whole of the 

 plates of the carapace and sternum are covered with small round, raised 

 rugations, or wavy irregular raised lines between shallow sculptures, 

 towards the lower borders on the sides. These take an elongated form, 

 sometimes parallel to the sutures." There are no scxites. 



The head of the animal is "large, subquadrangular, narrowed ante- 

 riorly," and covered by six (?) plates, which are "anchylosed" and 



