64 ■ Records of th: Indian Museum. [Vol. IX, 



I have to thank Dr. J. R. Henderson of the Madras Museum. 

 Mr. N. B. Kinnear of the Bombay Natural History Society and 

 Mr. B. L. Chaudhuri of the Indian Museum for assistance in 

 preparing this paper. 



Family TESTUDINIDAE. 

 Genus Geoemyda, Gray. 



Geoemyda, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1834, P- ^oo ; Boulenger, Cat. 

 Chel., p. 135 (1889), Fauna Ind., p. 23 (1890) and Fauna 

 Mai. Pen., p. 16 (1912) ; Stejneger, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washing- 

 ton, XV, p. 257 (1902) and U.S. Xat. Mils. Bull., 58, p. 500 

 (1907); Siebenrock, '"Synopsis der rezenten Schildkroten," 

 Zool. Jahrb. Suppl. 10, Heft 3, p. 495 (1909) ; Henderson, 

 Rec. Ind. Mus., VII, p. 217 (1912). 



Nicoria, Gray, Cat. Sh. Repi., I, p. 17 (1855) ; Boulenger, Cat. 

 Chel., p. 129 and Fa«;m Ind.. p. 26; Annandale, Joiirn. As. 

 Soc. Bengal, 1906, p. 205. 



Chaihassia , Theobald, Cat. Rept. Ind., p, 6 (1876) , Anderson, Anat. 

 Zool. Res. Yiinnan, p. 718 (1879). 



Heosemys, Stejneger, Proc. Biol. Soc. W ashington , XV, p. 258 ; 

 Siebenrock, Zool. Jahrb. Suppl. 10, Heft 3, p. 506. 



The genus Geoemyda was originally described in 1834 ^3' Gray, 

 who designated as its type-species Gmelin's Testudo spengleri. 

 Ten years later the same author described another new (or sup- 

 posed new) genus, for which he coined the name Nicoria, again 

 with T. spengleri as type-species, Mr. Boulenger in all his more 

 important works has used the generic name Geoemyda for the little 

 group of species that includes Gray's Emys spinosa, and has 

 accepted the later name Nicoria for the group typified by T. spen- 

 gleri ; but Dr. Stejneger has pointed out, as is doubtless true in 

 the strict letter of the law of priority, that this course is inadmis- 

 sible and has relegated to Geoemyda, T. spengleri and its allies, 

 inventing a new generic name {Heosemys) for the Emys spinosa 

 group. This change has been accepted by Dr. Siebenrock in his 

 valuable ''Synopsis der rezenten Schildkroten" and also b}- 

 Dr. J. R. Henderson in his description of a new Indian species 

 recently published in these " Records." Mr. Boulenger's books 

 are of such fundamental importance to all students of herpetology 

 that I had proposed to follow his lead. The discovery, however, 

 ot a new species exactly intermediate between the two so-called 

 genera and of certain anatomical facts in connection with des- 

 cribed forms, renders it unnecessary to adopt either course, 

 and I am forced to combine the two groups under the generic 

 term Geoemyda, which is undoubtedly the older of the two 

 names. 



Between the groups Nicoria and Geoemyda , to use the terms 

 in the sense adopted in the " Fauna," there was, at the time that 

 work was written, ever}' reason to Ijelieve, as indeed there still is 



