APPENDIX TO THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 



17 



i 



same colour as the head, and looks as if covered with skin ; 

 but this is not the case, for it is very hard. The lower beak 

 paler. There is a very indistinct, broad, rather irregular 

 pale streak from the back edge of the eye along the back 

 of the neck. The nuchal plate very small. Dorsal scutes 

 very thin. The areolae large, granular ; those of the ver- 

 tebral plates in the middle of the hinder margin of the 

 shield ; those of the costal plates rather above the middle 

 of the hinder margin of the shield ; of the marginal plates 

 on the hinder outer margin of each shield as visible below 

 as above, rather on the outer edge of the middle of the 

 hinder part of the sternal plate, and quite on the hinder 

 outer margin of the intramarginal plates. The skin of the 

 neck and feet covered with small scales. The outer edge 

 of the legs with a well-marked fringe ; the front edge of 

 the fore legs with numerous, very narrow, slightly curved 

 band-like shields. The toes slender, covered above with 

 narrow band-like plates, very broadly webbed to the claws. 

 Claws 5 . 4, black, slender, and acute. Pupil black, sur- 

 rounded by an olive iris, without any black spot on the side 

 as in American Terrapins. The submarginal plates seem 

 liable to vary in form and number ; for in this specimen 

 they differ on the two sides. On the right side there are 

 seven: the first, which is probably an axillary plate, is 

 small : then follow three moderate-sized, the middle one 

 of which is divided across (this is clearly an accidental 

 division) ; then there is a Bmall triangular plate between 

 the last and the transverse band-like inguinal plate. On 

 the left side, which I should say had the normal struc- 

 ture, there is a rather larger axillary plate : three sub- 

 marginal plates, the hinder being the largest, and a 

 transverse band-like inguinal plate." — Gray, P. Z. S. 

 1870, p. 716. 



Pleurostemon ovatum (p. 50), add : — 



Owen, Palceon. Soe. part iv. p. 1. 

 Winkler, Tort. Foss. p. Ill, tab. xxiii. 



Hab. Purbeck beds (fossil). 



Batagur baska (p. 52), add : — 

 Clemmys longicollis, Strauch, Chehn. Stud. p. 33. 



KACHUGA (p. 54), add :— 



"Mr. Theobald's impression that K. peguensis had been 

 founded on a skull (probably aberrant) of either Tetraonyx 



Lessoni or Batagur trivittata, and the idea that the skull of 

 Kachuga Oldhami is not distinct, do not require any answer 

 from me. If these skulls belong to the same animal, then 

 the whole of the results of my examinations of Tortoise 

 skulls, of which I must say I feel justly proud, must go 

 for nothing ; but Mr. Theobald has not discovered that 

 Kachuga Oldhami is the head of the well-known Emys 

 Thiinji, which proves to belong to the family Batagurida \ 

 and he surely will allow that Tetraonyx Lessoni, Batagur 

 trivittata, and Emys Thurgi are distinct species, to what- 

 ever genera they may be referred. Mr. Theobald's ob- 

 servations about the skulls of the males and females of 

 Kachuga triMneata, under such circumstances, are not 

 worth considering. I personally examined Mr. Theobald 

 on his reasons for thinking the specimens which he 

 brought homo to be male and female of that species ; 

 and I thought they were very inconclusive, and required 

 verification from an accurate and patient observer." — Gray, 

 P.Z.S. 1871, p. 517. 



" Mr. Theobald says he has no confidence whatever in the 

 distinctness of species based on skulls only. My experience, 

 which has been very considerable, has led to a very different 

 conclusion ; and Mr. Theobald did not seem to be aware of 

 their importance in the distinguishing of the species of 

 Trionyx and Batagur when he published his paper on the 

 reptiles of Pegu, in the ' Journal of the Linnean Society,' 

 vol. x. p. 16, or in the ' Catalogue of the Reptiles of Pegu,' 

 else he certainly would have given more distinct characters 

 to his species. 



" None of Mr. Theobald's Tortoises had any special ha- 

 bitat of any kind attached to it ; and the heads were not 

 marked as coming from any particular species ; so that if I 

 made any mistakes in the habitats, or in saying the ' thorax 

 was unknown' of a head, it arose from the negligence of 

 the collector, which is more unaccountable as we have since 

 learnt that the collection consisted not only of the specimens 

 Mr. Theobald collected in Pegu, but also of specimens that 

 came from elsewhere, and which he obtained in exchange 

 for other specimens from the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 

 Mr. Theobald is not quite correct when he says I give 

 ' India' as the locality of Scapia Falconeri. I gave India 

 with a ?, and I gave the reason why I thought it might 

 come from that country, and at the same time expressed my 

 doubts. 



" Except nine specimens of Tortoises which Mr. Theobald 

 gave to the museum, the museum purchased the collection 

 which Mr. Theobald formed, from a dealer, to whom he had 

 sold it, as a collection of Pegu reptiles." — Gray, P. Z. S. 

 1871, p. 515. 



D 



