44 Dr. J. E. Gray on a new Australian Tortoise, 



family peculiar to South America. They thus combine with the 

 habit and structure of the Australian genera some of the technical 

 characters of the South American. 



I am therefore inclined to form for these a new genus, which 

 I propose to name (after my late friend, who lost his life in 

 attempting to increase our knowledge of the zoological produc- 

 tions of Australia) Elseya, and which may be thus charac- 

 terized : — 



Nose and crown of the head covered with a smooth skin ; 

 temple, cheek, and throat covered with flat polygonal plates; 

 tympanum flat; chin two-bearded; upper side of the neck 

 warty. Shell convex, expanded and subdentate behind; sides 

 slightly revolute; nuchal shield none; front of the cavity rather 

 contracted. Vertebral column short, keeled within j sternum 

 solid, rather narrow, with shelving side-wings ; gular shield 

 elongate, small, marginal. Tail short, thick, concave; claws 5/4, 

 acute. 



Hab. Australia. 



This genus contains two species : — 



1. Elseya dentata. 

 Chelymys dentata, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1863, vol. xii. pp. 98, 246. 



The front of the sternum narrow, half-ovate, with the sides 

 rapidly contracted in front ; the gular shield very narrow, elon- 

 gate. 



Hab. North Australia, Upper Victoria (Dr. Elsey). 



There is a series of three shells of this species in the British 

 Museum, young, middle-aged, and adult. The plates of the 

 under surface of the two younger specimens are pale, and do not 

 appear to have a dark edge as is the case with the two half- 

 grown specimens of the next species. The adult shell is black 

 brown above and below, varied with pale brown on the middle 

 of the sternum. 



2. Elseya latistei'num. 



The front lobe of the sternum broad, nearly semicircular in 

 front ; the gular shield as broad as the side shield, and rather 

 short ; the plate on the under surface yellow, with narrow dark 

 edges to the shields; hinder mai'gin of the shell dentated. 



Hab. North Australia. 



There are two specimens of this species in the Museum; 

 they are at once known from E. dentata by the greater compa- 

 rative breadth of the sternum, which is most marked in the 

 form of the front lobe, though common to all its parts. 



The shells of the two specimens vary considerably in form, 

 one being much broader compared with the length than the 



