392 Zoological Society. 
have become accustomed to M. Auguste Duméril’s want of attention 
to such details. 
Professor Agassiz, probably deceived by these inaccuracies, ocb- 
served :—‘‘ ZL. Berrardi seems to belong to the genus Ptychemys, 
judging from the description and figure of the jaws.” (Contrib. 
p- 432.) 
In Mr. Salvin’s collection there is a specimen of this Tortoise, with 
the animal; but, unfortunately, the specimen is not well preserved : 
it seems to have been allowed to get dry from evaporation of the 
spirit, and then to have been placed in spirit again. However, it is 
in a sufficiently good condition to allow of a description of the more 
prominent characters of the animal; and it shows that the peculiar 
disposition of the sternal plate, on which the genus was described 
(though overlooked by M. Duméril), belongs to the normal characters 
of the animal. The head is rather large, flat above, and covered with 
a soft, thin, continuous skin; the nose shelving upward, conical; 
nostril terminal ; mouth inferior, considerably behind the end of the 
nose; beak horny, rather sinuated at the sides; chin not bearded ; 
the limbs strong, well developed ; the legs covered with small scales ; 
the front of the fore legs with numerous, unequal, very slender, 
band-like cross shields; feet large, broad; the toes very long, rather 
slender, with a wide web to the base of the claws; the outer edge of 
the fore leg and foot, and the hinder edge of the hind leg and foot, 
with a broad thin fringe, covered with large smooth plates; the 
claws 4—5, elongated, acute; tail short, thick, angular, the upper 
surface flat, granular, with a ridge on each side of the base con- 
verging towards the centre, where the ridges unite and form a single 
central ridge of granules to the horny tip of the tail. 
This genus has all the characters of the more typical aquatic Ter- 
rapins. The feet are broad, the toes elongated and well webbed ; 
and the alveolar edges of the jaws, according to the figure of M. A. 
Dumiéril (J. c. t. 15), have distinct dentated ridges, like the genera 
Pseudemys and Batagur. M. Duméril’s figure seems to have been 
taken from a badly preserved stuffed specimen. There is a second 
specimen of this very interesting Terrapin now alive in the Zoolo- 
gical Gardens. 
In my description of the genus I have described the axillary and 
inguinal plates as absent. In Mr. Salvin’s specimen they are very 
small, but yet distinctly present, but are more developed on one side 
than on the other, showing that they are variable in this animal. 
DescripTION oF THE New Lizarp (SpaTALuRA CARTERI, 
Gray), From Lire*. By Henry Carrer, Esa. 
«‘ Noticing that, in your specific description of Spatalura Carteri 
(Annals, vol. xiii. p. 249), you have inserted in a parenthesis the words 
‘dry from spirits,’ I am inclined to think that you would be glad 
of more information on the colour-markings of this Lizard when 
* Extracted from a letter to Dr. J. E. Gray. 
