16 



APPENDIX TO T1IK CATALOG UK OF SHIELD REPTILES. 



wn is entirely erroneous ; l'or t Imt genus, as well as Der- 

 < and Pleurosttrnon, has three small 'submarginaJ 

 itee* between the abdominal and marginal plates (Bee 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1881, p, LOG, where 

 the genua was originally described, and the 'Catalogue of 

 Shield Reptiles,' p. 49). The Pleurostema are found in 

 the freshwater limestone of Purbeok; and Professor Owen 

 divides them into four Bpeoies. 1 am still inclined to re- 

 tain the genus, and 1 think that probably, when we have 

 more materials, wc shall timl that the fossil genus will form 

 i distinct group of the family. 



■• Mr. Agassi/, in his 'Contributions to the Natural His- 

 tory of the United States,' published in ls">7, probably 

 misled by Dumeril's figure, observes: — 'Bmys Berardi, 

 Dum. el Bib., seems also to belong to this genus | Ptychemys], 

 judging from the description and figure of the jaws pub- 

 lished by A. Dumeril, Archives du Museum, vol. vi. p. 251, 

 i. 1.".' (voL i. p. 434). 



•• Thi' British Museum having received from Mr. Salvin a 

 mien of />> -. which he obtained in Guatemala, 



I published in the •Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 

 L864, p. 125, a history of the geuus and a description of 

 the animal, which, unfortunately, was not in a very good 

 . as it had accidentally got dry through the evaporation 

 of the spirit and had again been placed in spirit. 



'•In the 'Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences' 

 for 1S68, p. 119, Mr. Cope describes a new species under 

 the name of D. abnonyiis, from the Belize River, Yucatan, 

 sent by Dr. Parsons, which differs in having the gular 

 plates united and the vertebral plates broader than long. 

 He observes that one species of Dermatemys, the D. Mavei, 

 is recognized by Dr. Gray as inhabiting Venezuela and 

 Mexico. The same species, according to the same author, 

 has been subsequently named Emys Berardii \>y Prof. 

 Dumeril ; and he further remarks, ' I have not had an 

 opportunity of seeing South-American specimens ; but the 

 excellent figure and descriptions of Gray render it certain 

 that the individuals from that country, on which the species 

 are based, really belong to another species than those of 

 Mexico. The collection of the Smithsonian Institution 

 furnishes another species from Belize, which I have hitherto 

 identified as the same ; the species may be thus distin- 

 guished.' In a table he gives the characters by which he 

 proposes to discriminate three species, D. abnormis, D. 

 Berardii, and D. Mavei. 



" I do not know why he described his second species under 

 the name of D. Berardii ; for none of the characters which 

 he gives to his species are to be found either mentioned in 

 M. Dumeril's descriptions or shown in M. Dumeril's plate. 



1 have no specimen possessing such characters as he gives 

 to the species. 



" The head of these animals has much the appearance of 

 Batagur ; and the shell has a certain resemblance to those 

 of that genus. 



•■ The form of the sternum might be mistaken for that of 

 an Hydraspu; but it will be found that what looks like the 

 intergular plate is, in fact, the small gular plates, which 

 are sometimes separate, but usually united together, there 

 being only six pairs of plates, without an interior additional 

 one."— Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, pp. 711-714. 



Dermatemys Salvinii (p. 50), add : — 



" I cannot see any other difference between these two 

 species except the form and union of the gular plates. I 

 believe this is permanent ; but we require more specimens 

 to establish the fact. The head and sides of the neck of 

 Mr. Salvin's specimen, in spirit, are pale olive with numerous 

 darker spots; and the feet have some similar spots. There 

 is a little difference in the size of the intermarginal plates 

 of the two specimens, but not more than shown on the two 

 sides of Mawe's original specimen. 



" Mr. Cope describes his T. Berardii thus : — ' One gular, 

 and an intergular behind it ; four or five inner margi- 

 nals, the posterior in contact with femoral and abdominal ; 

 when only four, the median elongate ;* vertebral scuta much 

 longer than broad ; no dorsal keel ; abdominal scuta equal 

 or broader than those adjoining.' I suppose that this 

 character is from a Mexican specimen. M. A. Dumeril's 

 plate does not show any of them. The existence of an}' 

 gular plate would indicate an irregularity in the specimen, 

 or a structure which has not hitherto occurred to me, and, 

 if normal, would remove the species to Hydraspida'.'' — 

 Gray, P. Z. S. 1S70, p. 715. 



Chloremys abnormis (p. 50), add : — 

 "Mr. Cope's, as well as the one in the Gardens, is a young 

 specimen; but he observes, ' I cannot suppose the vertebral 

 scutes become as narrow or the carapace as fully ossified in 

 maturity as in the other species.' In the colouring of the 

 head it resembles the figure of M. Auguste Dumeril, but not 

 in any other character. 



"The young living specimen in the gardens of the Society, 

 about 4 inches long, is dull olive-brown above, and pale 

 yellowish beneath. The lower surface of the marginal plates 

 olive, the sternal and submarginal shields being uniform 

 white. The tail is very short, conical, rudimentary. Head 

 black-olive ; the end of nose red ; the upper beak is of the 



