38 Dr. G. Baur on Meiolania. 
living form of the Emydide, the ‘ wood-tortoise ” (Clemmys 
insculpta, Le C.}, is a very good support of the correctness of 
my view. 
3. “Dr. Baur has arrived at some curious miseonceptions 
from not examining sufficient material, and, what is still less 
excusable, by not carefully perusing the standard works on 
the osteology of Reptiles. Thus, tor example, he entirely 
ignores the cranial structure of Chelys, the type, in a syste- 
matic sense, of the Pleurodira, which has been figured by 
Cuvier, Wagler, Briihl, Hoffmann, and Mivart. He will 
find, by referring to Chelys, that his character of ‘the quad- 
rate connected with the basisphenoid, sometimes with the 
basioccipital,’ falls to the ground.” 
I should say that Mr. Boulenger knows what I intended to 
express by the words “ the quadrate connected with the basi- 
sphenotd”’—it was the fact, that in all Pleurodira the ptery- 
gotds do not separate the quadrate and basisphenoid, as in the 
Cryptodira. ‘This fact I defined by the words, not applicable 
to Chelys, “the quadrate connected with the basisphenoid.” 
But Chelys makes no exception from the other Pleurodira ; 
even here the pteryyotds do not separate the quadrate and basi- 
sphenoid. But these bones are separated by the petrosal 
nearly in the same way asin Pelomedusa and Hydromedusa 
(Peters), in which forms a small connexion between quadrate 
and basisphenoid still exists. J said that Mr. Boulenger 
knows what I wanted to express by the words “ the quadrate 
connected with the basisphenoid.” I made him acquainted 
personally with the new character of the Pleurodira, found in 
the pterygoids; besides that, every body can see what I 
meant if he reads the words immediately following the above 
statement—“ in all the Cryptodira and the Trionychoidea the 
pterygoids extend between these elements.” 
it was a wrong expression, but not ignorance / 
4. The absence in the Pleurodira of the descending pro- 
cesses of the prefrontals, which connect the vomer, is a cha- 
racter of no great importance according to Mr. Boulenger. 
a. ‘That the connexion between the vomer and the “ pre- 
frontals does not exist in the living Pleurodira is perhaps due 
to the fact that the vomer is absent in the Pelomeduside.”’ 
To that I answer with the fact that the Cretaceous 
Bothremys, Leidy, has a very strong vomer, but no connexion 
between the vomer and the preefrontals. 
b. “In Chelys and Chelodina a complete bony orbito-nasal 
septum is formed by connexion of the preetrontals with the 
palatines.” 
I cannot find a “ complete bony orbito-nasal septum” in 
