218 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Genera Manouria and Scapia. 



XXXIII. — On the Genera Manouria and Scapia. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



Dr. Anderson, in the just published part of the ' Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society' for 1872, has written a paper 

 to prove that Testudo Phayrei^ the type of the genus Scapia^ 

 and Testudo emys^ the type of the genus Manouria^ are 

 only varieties or sexes of the same species, and has illustrated 

 it with eight figures of the sternum of different specimens (pp. 

 134 to 137) — five belonging to Scapia^ and the other three to 

 Manouria, There is a slight modification in the form of the 

 pectoral plates in the different specimens ; but I do not think 

 that, either in the plates or text, he proves the identity of 

 the two genera, which doubtless are allied, and which, in the 

 ' Supplement to the Catalogue of Shield Reptiles,' I have 

 placed together in the same group of land-tortoises. And I 

 do not think that he has proved his case, as it would be very 

 unlike all that was previously known of the form of the pec- 

 toral shields in Tortoises. 



Because the three specimens of Manouria which Dr. An- 

 derson examined have the sternum concave, and his five 

 specimens of Testudo Phayrei have it flat, he concluded that 

 the former were the male and the latter the female of the same 

 sjDecies, which he calls Testudo emys j and he gives a number 

 of names as its synonyms, without defining which of them 

 belong to the male and which to the female. I think if he 

 had done so he would have avoided that mistake. 



1. Testudo emys^ described by Miiller and Schlegel in Ver- 

 hand. Nat. Gesch. Nederl. Ind. Kept. 1839, xliv. pp. 30, 34, 

 tab. 4, the type of the species of Manom-ia, has a flat sternum, 

 and is, according to Dr. Anderson's theory, a female. 



2. The specimens in the British Museum, which are described 

 and figured under the name of Manouria fusca (Shield Bept. 

 p. 16. pi. 3), being the types of that species, also the specimen 

 said to have come from Australia with the animal figured in 

 the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 395, t. 31. have a flat sternum, and 

 are, for the same reason, females according to Dr. Anderson. 



3. Leconte, who describes the species under the name of 

 Teleojnis luxatus (Pliilad. Proc. 1854, p. 187), does not men- 

 tion the form of the sternum, which, I think, he most likely 

 would have done if it had been concave. 



I think we may therefore conclude that the two sexes of 

 Manouria are known, that the specimens described by Schlegel, 

 myself, and Leconte Avere females, and that those examined 

 and figured by Dr. Anderson were males, according to his 

 theory, and therefore both sexes of this genus are known. 



