On the Occurrence o/" Pelochelys in China. 283 



webbed, with single subarticular tubercles; a tarsal fold. 

 The ti bio- tarsal articulation reaches the angle of the mouth. 

 Upper parts crowded with small warts, tipped with black 

 asperities. Parotoids short, subquadrangular, as long as 

 broad, close to the eye. Uniform pale olive above, white 

 inferiorly. Male with a subgular vocal sac and black nuptial 

 excrescences on the two inner fingers. 



From snout to vent 67 millim. 



Allied to B. viridis, but distinguished from it by the absence 

 of tympanum, the very short parotoids, and the shorter web 

 between the toes. 



A single male specimen from Baluchistan ; purchased. 



XXXI. — On the Occurrence o/" Pelochelys in China. 

 By G. A. BOULENGER. 



Dr. A. StrauCh's recently published account of the Chelonians 

 in the St. Petersburg Museum * contains, among other inter- 

 esting information, the description of a Trionychoid of the 

 genus Pelochelys obtained at Foo Choo by the late I. Poliakow 

 in 1884. 



The history of the two specimens now described is curious. 

 Dr. Strauch tells us that out of a number of Trionychoids 

 obtained by Poliakow at Foo Choo and Shanghai, and 

 referred on first examination to the common Trionyx chinensis, 

 Wiegm., two were selected, on account of their large size, to 

 be made into skeletons. When the skeletons were prepared 

 it was found that these specimens not only did not belong to 

 Trionyw chinensis, but were not even referable to the genus 

 Trionyx, the skull being of an entirely different type. Dr. 

 Strauch, who is so hard on me for my efforts at basing classi- 

 fications and arranging genera on osteological characters, will 

 admit that in this case the method of study followed by me 

 answers better the requirements of science than mere exam- 

 ination of the skin, as it is probable that were it not for the 

 fact that the Trionychoids in question had been prepared as 

 skeletons we should still be ignorant of the occurrence of 

 Pelochelys in China. When dealing with osteological, and 



* a Beinerkungen iiber die Scbildkrotensammlung im Zoologischen 

 Museum der kaiserlichen Akademie zu St. Petersburg," Mem. Ac. St. 

 Petersb. (7) xxxviii. no. 2 (1890). 



