Al 



APPENDIX TO Till' CATAl.niU'K or SHIELD UKITII.KS. 



I , dow that the Beoond species was founded on an 



abnormal specimen of Blseya. 



Euchelymys sulcifera. 

 Thorax dark olive-brown, marbled with white below ; 

 vertebra] shields irregularly longitudinally Bulcated, with a 

 centra] continued longitudinal groove ; neok slightlywarty 

 kbove, dark olive, with a white streak from the angle of 

 the mouth under the oar on oath side. 



Chelymya maoquaria, var., Gray, P.Z.S. L856, p. 371; 



Ann. $ Mag. A". //. 1863, xii.' p. 98 ; Suppl. Cat. Shield 



Reptiles, p. 7.">. 

 Euchelymys sulcifera, Qray, Ann. if Mag. A. II. 1871, vol. 



viii.p. 118; P.Z.S. 1872, p. , t. . 



Eah. North Australia (Stutchbury, 1^56). 



ELSEYA (p. 70), add :— 



Eead covered with hard .shields, which are incompletely 

 divided into five large frontal and temporal plates; the 

 nasal and frontal united, and with a small triangular central 

 plate. The hinder part of the top of the head much wider 

 than the front: the hinder edge rather sinuated on each 

 side. Temporal muscles moderate, covered with reticulated 

 is. Chin with two beards. Back of the neck covered 

 with a few tubercles. Thorax depressed, dilated and re- 

 flexed on the side. Nuchal shield none or (abnormally) 

 verv small and narrow. Fore legs with a few transverse 

 scales. — Gray, P.Z.S. L872, p. 



The skull of E. latisternum depressed, broader behind; 

 forehead and crown flat to the occiput, broad, becoming 

 wider behind; the tympanic cavity rather produced, of 

 moderate size ; basisphenoid short, broad, transverse, 

 with a small tapering central lobe in front, produced 

 between the hinder part of the palatine bones. The 

 basioecipital about as broad as long, rather lozenge- 

 shaped, the front edge being rather arched, not so broad 

 as the basisphenoid. — Gray, P. Z. S. 187:2, p. , f. 



a. Front lobe of the sternum brood, with a sabcircular out- 

 Hue, as broad as or broader than the hinder lobe. 



Elseya latisternum (p. 77), add : — 

 Front of the sternum broad, much broader ou the hinder 

 part, with a rounded outline ; nuchal plate none ; inter- 

 mediate plate moderate. 



Elseya latisternum, Gray. Ann. \ Mmj. N.H. 1871, vol. 

 vi'ii. p. 292; /'. /. S. L872, p. , f. (underside). 



I 'or. I, with underside of the shell pale yellow, rather 

 darker on the margin of the shields. There are two speci- 

 mens of this variety in the British Museum from ('ape York, 

 N. Australia which were described in ' Ann. & Mag. N. II.' 

 for July L867. 



One of these specimens is peculiar for having a small 

 linear extra shield on each side, on the outer part of 

 the abdominal shield, which is unusually short in this 

 specimen. To judge by the thickness and size of the 

 tail, the two specimens appear to belong to two different 

 sexes. 



Var. 2. This differs in the sternum being pale greyish 

 white, more or less marbled with dark brown. Two 

 specimens of this variety were received from Mr. Krcfft, 

 who obtained them in the Burnett River, Queensland : 

 they are exceedingly like the single specimen of Euehe- 

 lymys spinosa in the British Museum; but they both 

 have no indication of the narrow nuchal shield ob- 

 served in that specimen. These are the specimens de- 

 scribed in the ' Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist.' 1871, vol. viii. 

 p. 292. 



Var. 3. The underside dark, blackish ; the lower margin 

 reddish, with black edges to the shields. There are two 

 specimens of this variety received from . One 



is the largest example of the species that I have seen. The 

 dorsal shields are rather rugose, with regular linear pits 

 and more elongated grooves. The dorsal line is sunken. 

 The shield is inches long, and wide. The head is 

 covered with a uniform hard shield, which is slightly sinu- 

 ate on each side of the hinder margin. With this speci- 

 men was received another, about two-thirds the size (indeed 

 rather more convex than the other species of the genus in 

 the Museum), which is peculiar for having thirteen mar- 

 ginal shields on each side, six forming part of the margin 

 of the last vertebral plate ; there is no doubt that this 

 arises from the division into halves of the usual caudal 

 shields ; but they are remarkably regular, and, curiously 

 enough, each of these shields is bidentate at the apex. The 

 last vertebral shield is much larger and wider ; but they all 

 vary a little in the size of the shield, which is comparatively 

 smallest in the largest specimen. 



A young specimen from Cape York, N. Australia, has 

 the vertebral shields short and much broader than long ; 

 the upper part of the thorax is dark olive, the underside 

 white, varied with more or less broad brown lines on the 

 sutures of the marginal and sternal shields ; the head olive, 

 with a paler streak from the nostrils over the eyes to the 



