THE GEOGRAPHIC TURTLES. 71 
he mutle his tirst description uiul figure. Lc Sueur seems 
not to have published ;i description, with ntime, of the sec- 
ond species. That he finally concluded they were distinct 
species is shown by his manuscript name cited in the syn- 
onymy of M. geograpliicus by Dumeril and Bibron. 
J. E. Gray published the name Emys lesuearl for the 
small-headed species in 1831, but afterwards concluded 
(wrongly) that he had redescribcd Le Sueur's species, and 
in 1844 (Cat. Tortoises, etc., Brit. Mus., 21) gives his 
own name as a synonym of M. geograiildcus, Le S. 
Both turtles are common in the Wabash river at New 
Harmony, the home for some time of Thomas Say, yet 
this naturalist recognized but one species in his pajier on 
the fresh-water and land tortoises of the United States. 
Dr. Harlan (Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1827) gives 
a brief description under the name Emys geographica 
which applies to either species. 
The elder Le Conte recognized two forms, but after de- 
scribing them (Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., iir, 1828- 
1836, 108-111), he remarks, " there are not sufficient dif- 
ferences between the two to constitute them separate spe- 
cies." 
Dumeril and Bibron (Er[). Gen., ii, 1835) unite the two 
forms as one species, yet on page 259, we read "la tete 
est plate, elargie ; le museau, court, arrondi ; les machoires 
sont tres fortes, a.surface convexe, a bords droits, extrcme- 
ment tranchans et sans la moindre dentelure," from which 
it Avould seem that the head of M. geograpliicus alone was 
described. On page 260, M. leseueri is indicated by a 
mention of forms in which the dorsal plates are tubercu- 
late. Gray's name is placed among the synonymy. 
Holbrook gave, perhaps, the best account of the two 
species that has been published in this country. 
De Kay evidently did not know the species well. His 
