28 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Class REPTILIA. 



The reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin be- 

 long to two great groups, to which they may be referred 

 by the following 



SYNOPSIS OF ORDERS. 



a. — Body protected by a bony carapace or shell, covered with horny 

 plates or leathery skin, jaws horny, without teeth. (Turtles.) 



Testudines. — p. 28. 



a'-. — Body not protected by a bony carapace; jaws provided with teeth.* 

 (Lizards and snakes) Squamata. — p. 28. 



Order I. TESTUDINES. 



The Testudinidoe is, as yet, the only family of turtles 

 known to be represented on the Pacific Coast and in the 

 Great Basin. Kinoiiternon of the Kinosternidre , how- 

 ever, lives in the Gila River of Arizona, and probably 

 will be found in the Colorado as well. A species of 

 THonyckida: has been describedf as having been taken 

 in the Sacramento River, California. The skull of the 

 type is missing, but in other respects the specimen ap- 

 pears to agree with the descriptions of a Chinese spe- 

 cies (sinensis). In view of this, and the additional fact 

 that its describer afterward obtained several specimens 

 of his supposed new species from Chinamen in San 

 Francisco,!' I cannot admit ^'Pelodisciis californianus'^ 

 to be of Californian origin. 



* The lower jaw only bears teeth in the Leptotyp hlopidee. 



t See Rivers, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. (2), 11. 1889. p. 233; Baur, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc, XXXI, 

 1893, pp. 218, 220. 



t Dr. G. Baiir has compared the skeleton of one o( these specimens with that of P. 

 sinensis dkud writes me that the two do not belong to the same species. Even admitting 

 that the specimen which Rivers sent Dr. Baur is specifically identical with the type, I 

 cannot admit that this turtle is indigenous to California until less questionable evidence 

 of ita occurrence here has been obtained. 



