APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 



U 



Trachemys Troostii (p. 48), add : — 

 Clemmys Troostii, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32. 



Trachemys rugosa (p. 48), add : — 

 Clemmys rugosa, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 33. 



Callichelys ornata (p. 48), add : — 



Gray, Tortoises Sfc. t. 44 (from life ; young). 

 Clemmys ornata, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32. 



A specimen in the Zoological Gardens, which would not 

 extend its head and neck, snapped at every thing that came 

 within a few inches of it, and then further withdrew its 

 head. 



Callichelys pulckerriina (p. 49), add: — 



Clemmys pulcherrima, Strauch, Chelon. Stud. p. 32. 

 ? C. oculifera, Straueh, Chelon. Stud. p. 32. 



Fam. DERMATEMYDiE (p. 40), add:— 



" In the ' Proceedings ' of the Society for 1847, p. 55, I 

 described the shell of a large Freshwater Tortoise which 

 had been presented to the Society by Lieut. Mawe, R.N., 

 who found it in ' South America ' in 1833, under the name 

 of Dermatemys Mawii. It is peculiar, having the sterno- 

 costal suture covered with four large distinct plates ; and I 

 stated that it in this respect agreed with Flatysternon, but 

 that it had a very differently formed shell and had much 

 the external appearance of Phrynops Geoffroyi, but there 

 was no appearance of any scar on the inner surface of the 

 sternum for the attachment of the pelvis, and that it had 

 no intergular plate. 



" The shell here described was presented to the British 

 Museum by the Zoological Society, and is figured in the 

 ' Catalogue of Shield Reptiles in the British Museum,' 

 tab. 21. 



" In the ' Catalogue of Tortoises in the British Museum,' 

 and in the ' Catalogue of Shield Reptiles,' I formed a par- 

 ticular section in the family Emydm for Platysternon and 

 Dermatemys, because they had these additional plates on 

 the sterno-costal suture. The group contains two families: 

 the Dermatemydas are essentially water Tortoises, with 

 broadly webbed feet ; the Platysternida3 are amphibious, 

 and they have strong narrowly webbed toes and the front 

 of the fore legs covered with large plates. 



"M. Auguste Dumeril, in the ' Catatogue Methodique des 

 Reptiles,' described, in 1851, a species under the name of 

 Emys Berardii from two specimens in the Museum of Paris, 



said to have come from South America. In the ' Archives ' 

 of the museum, vol. vi., for 1852, he redescribes and figures 

 the species, observing that one of the specimens in the 

 Museum was received from 'Lieut. Maw.' This must have 

 been obtained from the Zoological Society, and is doubtless 

 a fellow specimen to the one I described, and is said to have 

 come from South America without any special habitat; 

 and the other was brought by Captain Berard directly from 

 the fresh waters of ' Vera Cruz, Mexico.' This species is 

 very briefly and indistinctly described in both works ; and 

 the figure is by no means good. Probably M. Berard's 

 specimen must be in a bad state ; for the shell is described 

 as covered with fine ' irregular rugosities.' The indi- 

 cations of division of shields, especially the dorsal ones, are 

 very indistinct. 



" He figures the mouth, showing the alveolar surfaces of 

 both jaws (t. xv. f. 4), but does not describe it. In the 

 form of the mouth and the obscure streak from the back of 

 the head, and the gular plate showing no indications of a 

 central suture, it agrees with the specimen now in the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, but is evidently an old specimen, while 

 that which we have is young. M. Dumeril does not take 

 any notice, either in the description or figure, of the exist- 

 ence of any sterno-costal shields ; indeed the sutures of 

 them seem to be entirely obliterated in the aged specimen 

 he figures; and ho separates it from the Emys trivittata 

 (that is, an Indian Batagur) by the absence of the three 

 black bands and the difference of its origin. 



" Professor Owen in 1853, in the 'Monograph of the Fos- 

 sil Chelonians of the Wcalden Clay and Purbeck Limestone/ 

 published by the Pateontological Society, published a genus 

 under the name of Pleurosternon, which be characterizes 

 thus: — 'Testa depressa, lata, complanata ; sternum inte- 

 grum, ossibus undecim compositum, per ossicula marginalia 

 cum testa conjunctum, scutis submarginalibus inter scuta 

 axillaria et inguinalia positis.' He does not make any re- 

 ference to my genus Dermatemys; but the character here 

 given is the exact counterpart, though in other technical 

 terms, of that genus, which was published four years pre- 

 viously ; but in the description of one of the species lie ob- 

 serves : — 



"'In addition to the axillary and inguinal plates their are 

 three scutes, and the under borders of the fifth, sixth, ami 

 seventh marginal scutes ; these superadded scutes I propose 

 to call "submarginal scutes." The Platysternon megace- 

 phalum, or large-headed Terrapin of the Chinese swamps, 

 presents a corresponding but singular supplementary " sub- 

 marginal scute " upon the under part of each lateral pro- 

 duction of the plastron.' This statement about Plat,/- 



