ON THK STATI'S (>F CHKT.ONIA HKPRKSSA FRY, IT)! 



ree^arded as tlie true Liiiiiean speciew, and on this account 1 

 I'ogard the division as one needinjj- contiiniation, altliontch, to 

 show the sig'nificajico of such a sepai-ation, their distiibutioii is 

 illustrated in ti'i'. 3S as tlioii^'h it was an established one. 



('Iu'!(ii/ii( (ffjircsi^d is a species founded by Mr. Sainnel 

 (iarinan''in 1881, on some younji;' and adult specimens in tlie 

 Museum of Comparative Zooh)');-}- at Havard University, from 

 the East Indies and North Australia, in his "Catalogue of 

 tlie Chelonians in tlie Bi-itish Museum," published in 1889, Dr. 

 G. A. Bouleiiger'' considered this S[)ecies as syntuiymous with 

 tlie Green Turtle, Cln'Jonin iin/ihiH. In May 1890, l)i". (Jeoi-ge 

 Banr^ examined the type s[)ecimen and came to the conclusion 

 that, not only was Dr. Boulenger's transference wrong, but 

 tliat in his opinion Carman's species was genei-ically distinct. 

 Later, in 1908, Mr. A. R. McCulloch^ described a new genus 

 and species of turtle from Port Darwin, North Australia, under 

 the name of Natator tessellatits. At the time he had only a 

 young example possessing very distinctl}- areolated scutes, 

 quite absent in Carman's older specimens, and which, without 

 an intermediate series, cei-tainly aj)peai'ed very different. I 

 am now able to show that, as McCul loch's type otherwise agrees 

 witli Carman's specimens, they must be considered as belonging 

 to the same species, for the areolae prove to be present in the 

 juvenile condition only. It is mainly with the young stages 

 reseinl)ling McCulIoch's type that this ])aper deals. 



Clicloiiia depressa was, until quite recently known fi-om 

 Garman's type specimens only. Then Mr. McCulloch described 

 Natator whose identity of course was not recognised. While 

 arranging the Clielonians in the Australian Museum I dis- 

 covered two other young examples, one of which was just 

 hatched, and the other an intermediate stage between tliis and 

 the type sj)ecimen of Natator. Another turtle, about twice 

 the size of the type of McCulIoch's genus, was collected by 

 Messrs. C. Hedley and A. R. McCulloch at Murray Island, and 

 differs from the type of Natator in having soft scutes which are 

 quite smooth and altogether free fi-om areolae. The general 



8 Garinan— Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vi., 1881, p. 124. 



7 Boulenger— Brit. Mus. Cat. Chelonia, 1889, p. 182. 



« Baur— Amer. Nat., xxiv., 1890, p. 487. 



" McCulloch — Rec. Austr. Mus., vii., 1908, p. 126, pis. xxvi-xxvii. 



