322 Dr. J. E. Gray on Scapia Phayrei. 



tions themselves, which remain nearly the same, except in 

 removing Scapia to the second section. 



Section I. The two central hinder marginal plates united into 

 a hroad caudal plate. Sternal shields 12, arranged in 'pairs 

 on each side. Pectoral plates large^ like the others. Con- 

 taining Testudinina, Homopina, and Kinixyina, as given 

 on the third page of the Suppl. Cat. Shield Kept. 

 Section II. The two central hinder marginal plates separate^ 



as in the generality of freshwater tortoises and turtles. 



Manourina. 

 Scapia. Sternal plates 12, regularly arranged in pairs on 



each side of the central line. Scapia Phayrei. 

 Manoueia. Sternal shields 10, arranged in five pairs. 



The two pectoral plates small, short, triangular on the 



hinder side of the axilla. Manouria emys. 



The history and account of the state of the specimens in 

 the Calcutta Museum is so very contradictory, that I should 

 not be astonished at hearing that the missing head had been 

 discovered there. 



Mr. Blyth (Joum. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1853, vol. xxii. p. 639), 

 in describing Testudo Phayrei^ notices two specimens, one 

 large and another rather smaller and having the appearance 

 of great age ; and in his pamphlet he adds : — " Its test (cara- 

 pace) was much deformed, which is the reason I could not de- 

 scribe the species so minutely as I otherwise should have 

 done ; and as the general deformity might well have extended 

 to the skull in some degree, this may account for the skull in 

 the British Museum deviating slightly from the normal type." 



Mr. Theobald, in the '■ Catalogue of the Reptiles of the 

 Museum of the Asiatic Society '* (which I have only just re- 

 ceived, as I ordered it believing it to be a separate publication, 

 and I now find it is only an extra number of the ^ Journal of 

 the Asiatic Society '), at page 9 makes the following entry : — 

 " Manouria, Gray, M. emys., Gray : an adult, much injured ; 

 Moulmain (Major Phayre). Formerly a stuffed specimen, and 

 now only a few fragments remain of this rare species." At 



* If I had seen Mr. Theobald's Catalogue before, I never should have 

 wi'itten any observations on his paper about the skull of Scapia Falcorieri, 

 and I should have been quite satisfied that Dr. Falconer's memoiy and 

 my own reputation should have shared with Bell, Jerdon, Giinther, Blyth, 

 and other zoologists the ill-tempered personalities with which Mr. Theo- 

 bald's catalogue and other papers aboimd. I have lately received a very 

 abusive letter from ]\Ir. Theobald, but am glad to see that he has some 

 discretion ; for he has blotted out (before he sent it to me) two lines which 

 he had written — if this was not done by his legal ad\ iser, through whom 

 I received it. 



