oe PROCEEDINGS OF TITE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 381 
regarded them as both the same thing. Furthermore, in his Catalogue 
of the Shield Reptiles, he refers this / to pseudogeographica, while his 
lesueurii is referred to geographica. It is evident that he regarded what 
he placed under / as different from the species he was describing. I 
make the suggestion that the quotation marks were put in front of the 
f through an error of writing or printing. <As to the characters as- 
signed to lesweurii, | submit that they apply much better to M. geo- 
graphica than to pseudogeographica, 
The subsequent history of these two species, so far as Dr. Gray is 
concerned, is as follows: In the Catalogue of Tortoises, published in 
1844, he regards both pseudogeographica and lesueurii as synonyms of 
geographica. He does not appear at this time to have seen Dr. Hol- 
brook’s work of 1842. In his description of the geographica of the Cat- 
alogue of Tortoises, Dr. Gray says of the head-spot only that it is “a 
yellow streak on the temple.” In making this description he had before 
him two specimens, which, according to his plan, he designates as a 
and b. Was either of these the one on which he had in 1831 based the 
species lesueurii? This is of some importance and will presently be 
considered. 
By the time of the publication of the Catalogue of Shield Reptiles, in 
1855, Dr. Gray had undergone another change of mind. He now rec- 
ognized the existence of two entirely distinct species, and these he des- 
ignates as Hmys geographica and E. pseudogeographica, Of the latter 
species there were then in the British Museum seven specimens, five of - 
which had certainly been received since 1844. The other two are dis- 
tinetly stated to be the ones which had been recorded as «@ and b under 
Emys geograuphica in the work of 1844. Of Emys geographica, on the 
other hand, there was in 1855 only a single specinen in the Museum 
and that is expressly said to be the one which furnished the description 
of H. lesueurti in 1831. Even then Gray seemed to be a little doubtful 
about its being the same as Le Sueur’s geographica, but his description 
of it removes all doubt, He contrasts it sharply with the specimens of 
pseudogeographica. 
All these facts indicate that in 1844, when Gray wrote the Catalogue 
of Tortoises, the type of H. lesueurti was notin his hands. It had prob- 
ably been misplaced and for the time being lost. The descriptions of 
that work had been drawn from two specimens of pseudogeographica. 
When the Catalogue of Shield Reptiles was written, the specimen had 
been recovered, and Gray was enabled to compare it with specimens of 
the other species and with Holbrook’s descriptions and figures. It is 
spoken of as ‘animal dry, from spirits,” ‘the Museum specimen is in 
bad state.” Something concerning its history may be inferred from 
these remarks, 
Dr. Boulenger, in his Catalogue of Chelonians, 1889, accepts the spe- 
cific name lesueurii, instead of pseudogeographica. No mention is made 
of the specimen which served Dr, Giay as the type of lesueurti, 
