334 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Mud- Tortoises of India. 



General Hardwicke figures this species under the name of 

 " Dekoolee," which grows to the weight of 120 pounds, and is 

 found in the Ganges. The "Dekoolee" has been referred to 

 the Trionyx javanicus of Geoffroy ; but this is evidently a 

 mistake, as that species is figured with two lateral transverse 

 callosities, whereas all the more adult specimens of the " De- 

 koolee " in the British Museum have four well-developed 

 callosities. 



Cuvier, in the ' Ossemens Fossiles ' (vol. v. pt. 2, p. 187), 

 figures a skull under the name of '^ Trionyx du Gauge'''' (tab. ii. 

 figs. 5-8), and in the ^ R^gne Animal' he refers it to Trionyx 

 gangeticus, Duvaucel (vol. ii. p. 16). 



I find by comparison that the skull which I extracted from 

 a half-grown specimen (but retaining the black rays on the 

 crown, and having the four sternal callosities well developed) 

 is exactly like the skull figured by Cuvier as the Trionyx du 

 Gange^ and by me under the name of Trionyx gangeticus in 

 the ' Catalogue of Shield Reptiles' (t. 42. fig. 1). 



Cuvier's figure most correctly represents the skull of this 

 species, both in outline and in the proportion of the nose to the 

 orbits, and in the form of the bones on the underside of the 

 skull, which is very different from that of the skull of T. Jeudii. 



There are now in the Museum four skulls of this species, 

 of different sizes, which retain their characters most distinctly 

 marked. 



Dum^ril and Bibron change the name of this species to 

 Crypto])us Duvaucelii^ and quote Trionyx Jiurum.jGY&.j (Syn- 

 opsis of Kept. p. 49, tab. x.) as a synonym of this species. 

 Believing that they had the original specimen to compare with 

 my figure, I adopted their idea, and described the animal I so 

 named as the animal of Trionyx gangeticus^ Cuvier ; but the 

 examination of the skull of what Iliad called Trionyx gangeticus 

 shows that to be the species the skull of which was figured and 

 described by Cuvier when he established the species. 



General Hardwicke figures a specimen of almost one uniform 

 green colour, which, he says, is called " Jaank" or "Dhank" 

 in the country, and is found in the Ganges and grows to the 

 weight of 240 pounds. Unfortunately he does not figure the 

 underside. The top of the head is green, marked with a series 

 of rather irregular black lines ; and there is one from the back 

 edge of the eye, very different from the regular diverging lines 

 of Trionyx gangeticus ; but it may be only a variety, or it may 

 be the Asjnius gataghol with a lined head figured by Hamilton. 



2. Trionyx Leithii. (The Poonah Mud-Tortoise.) 

 A small species; the shield about JO inches long and G 



