384 AMERICAN TESTUDINATA. Part II. 



slope to the attachment of the tongue. The cutting edges are bhint and not 

 serrated, and the horny surface of the mouth generally smooth. 



The body is very broad across the shoulders, and short from the scapular 

 arch to the front end. The marginal rim flares out broad at the hind end, 

 and continues so forward nearly to the shoulders. The curve, from side to side 

 over the upper median line of the body, is somewhat flattened. There is a 

 keel along the median line. The scales are everywhere thin and flexible. The 

 head is so flattened above that the circle of scales around the large median one 

 on top is almost entirely upon the upper surface. The scales of this circle are 

 less regular and more numerous than in .the other genera, about twenty in num- 

 ber in the specimen examined. There are two pairs between this circle and the 

 nose. The field of scales on the cheeks is small, but the number is about the 

 same as in Chelonia, namely, from fifteen to twenty. There is one marked pecu- 

 liarity in the arrangement of the scales on the shield, namely, an addition of 

 one scale to the row covering the costals, on each side of the median row, on 

 the upper surface. The additional scale is small, and situated at the front end 

 of its row. In the specimens examined there are twenty-seven scales in the 

 marginal row, which is one pair more than in the specimens of the other genera 

 which could be compared. 



This genus numbers thus far only two species;^ one of which is found in 

 the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean, and the other in the Pacific Ocean. 



Thalassochelys Caouana, Fitz. This species is very common along the Ameri- 

 can coasts of the Atlantic, from Brazil to the southern United States.^ It is the 

 most common species of Chelonioid found upon the coasts of the United States, 

 as it is even fi-equent in latitudes where other species occur only accidentally. 

 It breeds usually as far north as the thirty-second degree of latitude, on the 

 coast of South Carolina, whence I have obtained large numbers of eggs, through 

 the kindness of Hon. J. Townsend, and occasionally even as far north as North 

 Carolina and Virginia. It may be seen along the whole coast of the moi'e 

 southern States during the breeding season, in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and 

 Mississippi. From Florida I have obtained eggs in every stage of development, 



1 J. E. Gray enumerates .1 tliird species, Cat. ^ Its most common names are Testudo Caretta, 



Brit. Mus.. under tlie name of Caouana elongata, of Chelonia Caretta, Testudo Cephalo, Chelonia Cepha- 



which, however, he has only seen one shield. I must lo, Caretta Cephalo, Testudo Caouana, Chelonia Ca- 



leave it doubtful whether the species of the Pacific, ouana, Caretta Caouana, Caouana Caretta, etc. For 



the Chelonia olivacea of Eschscholtz, (Chelonia Dus- references, see Dr. Holbrook's N. Am. Herp., and 



sumieri, Diim. and Bihr.,) truly belongs to this genus, Dum. and Bibr. Erpet. gener. With the exception 



or is to be considered as the type of a distinct genus, of Valenciennes, all zoologists consider the European 



Lepidochelys, as Fitzinger thinks. and the American Caouana as identical. 



