120 CHELODINA NOVAE-GUINEAE. 



Chelonians. 



1. Chelodina novae-guineae Blgr. 



Three specimens from Rotti agree so closely with the 

 description and the figures given by Boulenger of Che- 

 lodina novae-guineac. that I am quite sure they do belong 

 to this species. The intergular is more than three times 

 the length of the suture between the pectorals, in this 

 point agreeing with Boulenger's figure , although his des- 

 cription mentions intergular nearly three times as long as 

 the suture between the pectorals. The anals of the young 

 specimen are relatively larger than those of the adult 

 ones. In one specimen, long 18cm., the suture between 

 the anals is as large as the suture between the abdomi- 

 nals and more than half the length of the intergular, in 

 the two smaller specimens, each 10cm. long, the suture 

 between the anals is larger than the suture between the 

 abdominals and as large or a little larger than gulars and 

 intergular together. No one of the three specimens has the 

 posterior part of the carapace so much rounded as indi- 

 cated by Boulenger's figure, in all of them this posterior 

 part ends in an obtuse triangular point. Plastron of a 

 reddish brown colour without the broad black lines along 

 the sutures between the shields , such as are characteristical 

 with Chelodina longicollis. 



It is a peculiar fact that the specimens of this species 

 seem to show a tendency to augmenting the total number 

 of their shields by dividing one or more of them. So in 

 Boulenger's figure the posterior vertebral shield is divided 

 into two shields lying one behind the other, the number 

 of vertebrals thus rising till six. In one of our small 

 specimens this posterior vertebral shield is divided into 

 four, so forming six vertebrals and 8 costal shields; in 

 the other small specimen the posterior vertebral shield is 

 divided lengthwise into three shields, thus raising the num- 

 ber of costal shields to eight; whilst our largest specimen 

 has the supracaudal or the last marginal shield on the 



Notes from tlae Leyclen. jMuseum, Vol. XVI. 



