Dr. J. E. Gray on the Genus Dermatemys. 391 
part of the teeth) in the Museum resembles the skull of the preceding 
in most particulars, but is rather larger in size, and the perforation 
in the side of the nose, at the front edge of the orbit, is smaller and 
not so oblong, being only a little higher than wide. 
ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON DERMATEMYS, A GENUS OF 
Emypip® FRoM CEenTRAL America. By Dr. J. E. Gray, 
E.R-S., ETC. 
In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1847, p. 53, I 
described a new genus of Hmydide, under the name of Dermatemys 
Mawii; and in the ‘Catalogue of Shield Reptiles in the British 
Museum’ I figured the shell of the animal in detail. 
This genus was only established on a single shell, without any 
part of the animal attached to it, which was then in the Museum of 
this Society, having been presented by Lieut. Mawe, R.N. This 
specimen has since been transferred to the collection of the British 
Museum. 
Some doubts have been expressed as to the position of the genus 
in the family Hmydide; and one naturalist has even gone so far as 
to doubt the propriety of establishing a genus from the examination 
of the single specimen, which he was inclined to believe was only an 
abnormal form of a typical Hmys. This I could not admit; for, 
even if it were an accidental monstrosity, we did not know an Emys 
to which it could be referred. 
M. Bibron, when in England, named the specimen, in the MS. 
Catalogue of the Zoological Society, Lmys Mawii, a name which I 
adopted when I originally described it. 
More lately the Museum at Paris appears to have received a spe- 
cimen with the animal, for I find it shortly noticed in M. A. Du- 
méril’s ‘ Catalogue of the Paris Museum’ under the name of Emys 
Berrardi, with the following account of the animal:—‘‘ Head uni- 
form brown, flat, broad, rather large ; jaws toothed; toes broadly 
webbed ; tail strong, rather long.” It was sent from M. Berrard 
from Vera Cruz. mys Berrardi is also described and figured by 
A. Dumeéril in the sixth volume of the ‘Archives du Muséum,’ 
p: 231, t. 15. 
It is to be observed that in the short notice of the species in the 
‘Catalogue of the Paris Museum’ the series of large shields on the 
external symphysis, which is a peculiarity of Dermatemys Mawit, is 
not mentioned ; and they are to be looked for in vain in the longer 
description in the ‘Archives du Muséum,’ or in the plate which ac- 
companies that paper. Yet there can be no doubt that both the 
descriptions and figure are intended for the animal under discussion, 
as M. Duméril admits that they received one specimen from Lieut. 
Mawe (or ‘‘ Maw,” as it is printed), which no doubt they obtained 
from the Zoological Society when M. Bibron was in London. How- 
ever, the figure is more beantiful as a work of art than accurate as 
a natural-history drawing ; but then herpetologists must by this time 
