Mr. P. L. Sclater on Ovls Polii of Blyth. 227 



that he has seen two or three fine perfect specimens of this Tor- 

 toise in the Berlin Museum. Under these circumstances, there can 

 be no doubt that my name must give way to that used by my friend 

 Dr. Peters. 



I may at the same time observe that the genus Cycloderma is so 

 characterized by Dr. Peters that it will include all the African 

 Emydce, all of which have the dorsal disk flexible on the margin and 

 without any marginal bones. On the contrary, my genus Cyclan- 

 osteus, to which I had provisionally referred Dr. Peters' s species, is 

 by its character confined to those species of the African Emydce 

 which have nine sternal callosities. 



As Dr. Peters, before he published the characters of the genus, 

 considered it desirable to change the name of the genus which I had 

 adopted from his MS. communication; and founded his genus Cy- 

 cloderma on a species that has only seven sternal callosities (though 

 he only mentions the number of the callosities in the specific cha- 

 racter, and probably would have considered my animal with nine 

 callosities as the second species of his genus), I think, if the two 

 animals are to be kept in different genera, as I am of opinion they 

 ought to be, we ought in justice to retain his name for the restricted 

 genus, in preference to my name of Aspidochelys, or Mr. Cope's 

 genus Heptothyra, which are founded on this peculiarity. 



The synonyma of the Zambesi and Zanzibar Tortoise will then 

 stand thus : — 



Cycloderma frenatum, Peters, Bericht. 1859, p. 216. 



Cyclanosteus freiiatus, Peters, MS. 1848; Grav, Cat. Tortoises 

 Brit. Mus. p. 64. 1855 ; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 314. 



1 Aspidochelys Livingstonii, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 5. 

 t. 22, and p. 316. 



As the head of the Aspidochelys is not known, and the colour of 

 the head forms one of the best characters for the separation of the 

 species of Trionychidce, we cannot refer the Zambesi species to the 

 Zanzibar animal with certainty until an entire specimen of the former 

 animal has been examined ; but, at any rate, it appears to be a species 

 of the genus Cyclanosteus of Dr. Peters, restricted as 1 propose. 



Dec. 11, I860.— Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair. 



Mr. A. Newton informed the meeting of the important fact, that 

 a recent discovery of bones, supposed to be those of a Dodo {Didus), 

 had been made in the Mauritius by Dr. Ayres, which would be trans- 

 mitted to the British Museum. 



The following papers were read : — 



Note on Ovis Polii of Blyth. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., 

 Secretary to the Society. 



I beg leave to call the attention of the Society to a very fine pair 

 of the horns of the Wild Sheep of Pamir, Ovis Polii, Blyth (P. Z. S. 



