round the ship on this date, was accompanied not 

 only by several pilot iish, but also by a troup of 

 fifty or more young runners (Elagatis). They 

 were seen with the shark for several hours. 



K. C. MURPHY, 



Brooklyn, J\T. Y. 



ON THE SYSTEMATIC NAMES OF THE 

 SNAPPING TURTLES 



In the first number of " Copeia," Mr. H. W. 

 Fowler has indicated his belief that there exist in 

 the United States two forms of the Snapping Turtle 

 — a northern one, with a well-developed median 

 keel to the carapace in the adult, and a southern 

 one, common in the Delaware Valley and south, 

 with the median keel but slightly developed, if at 

 all. To the former he reserves Linnaeus' name, 

 Chelydra serpentina ; for the latter he employs 

 Agassiz's Chelydra emarginata, based upon speci- 

 mens from Mobile and New Orleans, stating that 

 " Chelydra lacertina Schweigger is virtually iden- 

 tical " with Ch. serpentina . 



Without being able at the present moment to 

 express an opinion as to the existence of two 

 separable forms of the Snapping Turtle in this 

 country, I wish to call attention to the fact that, 

 if they are distinct, the keel-less form must take 

 the name given by Schweigger. 



The latter, in 1812, Konigsberg. Arch. Naturw. 

 Math., vol. 1, p. 293, distinguished between two 

 forms, of which Ch. lacertina is characterized as 

 having " testa oblonga, scutellis vertebralibus 

 planis, lateralibus carinatis,' 1 while Ch. serpentina 

 is said to have " testa oblonga, trifariam carinato- 

 spinosa," or precisely the same characters as given 

 by Mr. Fowler. From Dumeril's Cat. Meth. Coll. 

 Kept. Mus. Paris, 1851, p. 15, we learn that 

 Schweigger's type is still in the Paris Museum of 

 Natural History, viz., u the one of which the 

 vertebral keels are effaced, a character upon which 



