BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 27 
The Queensland Museum possesses a fine pair of this 
tortoise, presented by Anthony Musgrave, Esq., who obtained 
them in the vicinity of Port Moresby. In one of these the 
nuchal shield is present. in the other absent. 
ll. EMYDURA NOVA-GUINES. 
Platemys novee-quinee, Meyer, Mon. Berl. Ac., 1874, p. 128, Passim. 
Emydwra nove-guinee, Boulenger, Ann. Mus. Genoy., (2) vi. 1888, 
p. 450; and Catal. Chelon., p. 233, 1889. 
BLACK-SPOTTED Mup TormTorse. 
Carapace depressed, serrated posteriorly, keeled, and 
slightly rugose. Intergular shield very narrow, thrice as 
long as wide. much smaller than the gulars. Carapace 
brown; plastron yellowish; soft parts brown; a_ small 
blackish spot on each vertebra] and costal shield. 
Length of carapace in type 5 3-5 inches. 
New Guinea ({Passim, Meyer; Katow, D’Albertis. 
Superfamily y. | TRIONYCHOIDEA. 
THE SOFT-SHELL TORTOISES. 
Neck bending by a sigmoid curve in a vertical plane. 
Pelvis not ankyvlosed to the carapace and plastron. Fourth 
digit with four or more phalanges. Marginal bones absent 
or forming an incomplete series, not connected with the ribs. 
(T'rionyx ——— from ‘pets, three and ovv€, gen ovuyos, 
a claw—the typical genus ; éd0s, resemblance.) 
Family E. CARETTOCHELYID. 
THe TurTLE TorRrTo!rsEs. 
Shell without epidermal shields. Neck not retractile. 
Limbs paddle-shaped ; digits much elongate ; only the inner 
two clawed. 
Monotypic. 
In the British Museum Catalogue of Chelonians (1889) 
this family is placed at the end of the Pleurodira and therefore 
next to the Trionychoidea. In the following year, however: 
Dr. Baur (American Naturalist, xxii, 1890, p. 1017) expressed 
his doubts as to the correctness of this position; and sub- 
sequently (op. cit., xxv, 1891, pp. 631, 639, and Science, 
xvi. 1891, p. 190) gave it as his opinion that the Carettochely- 
ide were probably very close to the ancestors of the T'riony- 
choidea. From an examination of the photographs of the 
