Miscellaneoufi. 69 



thread under the chin. The head is black and shows some white 

 spots ; of these, one is situated behind the nose, one on either side 

 behind the eye, one on either side at the margin of the frontal plate, 

 however, without a dark spot in its middle, a larger one on either 

 side at the margin of the parietal plate close over the tympanum, 

 and one below behind each lower-jaw branch. These spots are 

 discernible in quite young animals. 



" Found by us common in liapununi and Takutu. Their way of 

 living agrees perfectly with that ol Peltocephaliis Tracaya; they belong 

 also to the edible Tortoises of Guiana. Long. 10-12 inches." 



Mr. Sclater, in his list of accessions, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 36, 

 observes, " A small Tortoise of the genus Podocnemis from the 

 Upper Amazons, purchased December 16th, and certainly referable to 

 P. unifilis of Troschel (Schomb. Guian. iii. p. 647). Mr. Edward 

 Bartlett, who has met with this species in the same district, informs 

 me that his specimens of it in the British Museum have been re- 

 ferred to the young of P. Dameriliana. This, I thinh, can hardly 

 he correct. But I shall have some further remarks to make on this 

 subject in some notes, which I have in preparation, on the Tortoises 

 living in the Society's Gardens." 



The place where Podocnemis tiniJUis was described had escaped 

 me, so that I did not refer to it in my ' Supplement to the Catalogue 

 of Shield Eeptiles.' It is very true that there is a specimen in the 

 Museum, purchased of Mr. Bartlett, which agrees with the descrip- 

 tion of P. unifilis above quoted, and which I have considered a yoimg 

 specimen of Podocnemis Dumeriliana, as it agrees with the other 

 young specimens in the Museum in every particular. These young- 

 specimens have already been described as distinct species under the 

 names of E^nys cayanensis, Schweigger, E. eryth'ocephala, Spix, and 

 also as Hydrastis lata, Bell, from a specimen formerly in the Zoolo- 

 gical Gardens. 



The character which M. Troschel seems to depend on as di- 

 stinctive of his species, from the manner in which he underlines the 

 words, and the name which he gives to it, viz. P. unifilis (that is, 

 from having only one heard in the front of the chin), is, I believe, 

 common to all the species of the family Peltocephalidce ; at least it 

 exists in all the Museum specimens (except one small specimen of 

 P. exjjansa) of Chelonemys Dumeriliann, Podocnemis expansa, and 

 Bartlettia Pitipii ; and Corn alia mentions it as one of the characters 

 of his Podocnemis Q-tuhercidata, which is unknown to me. The 

 single exception mentioned is in all respects like the other specimens ; 

 the two beards are quite close together in the front of the chin as if 

 it were one beard slit down' the centre, and not far apart as in all 

 two-bearded Tortoises. The spots on the head are only found in young 

 specimens, and disappear as the animal increases in age ; therefore I 

 think we may decide that Podocnemis unifilis is a synonym of P. 

 Dumeriliana in the young state. And it is curious that so accurate 

 an observer as Troschel should have overlooked this fact when he 

 considered it a new species ; but very likely he had no species of the 

 family at his command. It is less excusable in Mr. Sclater to make 



