516 DR. J. E. GRAY ON TORTOISES. [June 6, 



appear to be rare in " Burmah," or rather, I believe, in Arracan ; 

 then I should be very glad to adopt it, as it would erase a very im- 

 perfectly described nominal species from the list. 



The interesting part of his notes is where Mr. Theobald says that 

 Testudo phayrei is a true Testudo, with a regular sternum and separate 

 caudal shield ; therefore Mr. Blyth was in error when he informed me 

 and Dr. Giinther that Manouria emys was the same as his T. phayrei, 

 an idea adopted by Mr. Theobald in his * Catalogue of the Reptiles of 

 Pegu,' and in his ' Catalogue of the Reptiles in the Museum of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal,' where, after having seen the specimens, 

 he placed it as Manouria emys. 



It is to be observed that if the head should prove to be the same 

 as the one on which my genus Scapia is founded, it will go to more 

 firmly establish the propriety of having formed the genus Scapia, 

 as Testudo phayrei has, according to Mr. Theobald, the hitherto 

 unobserved combination of normal sternal shields, like Testudo, and 

 separate caudal shields, like Manouria and the freshwater Tortoises, 

 so that it forms a section or genus by itself. 



Mr. Theobald believes that the skull on which Scapia falconeri 

 was established belonged to this species. He may possibly be right ; 

 for it is a head of a large Land-Tortoise, of which we do not know the 

 body, and which may perhaps come from India, or rather Hindo- 

 stan ; and Testudo phayrei is a large Land-Tortoise, the head or skull 

 of which has not been described, although we now learn that the 

 typical specimen has the head on it, and the general form and ex- 

 ternal characters of the skull are usually to be seen through the 

 skin. I should probably have made this suggestion myself when I 

 established the genus from the skull, and mentioned the characters 

 by which it was known from the skulls of all the large Land-Tortoises 

 then known ; but the necessity of referring to the undescribed head 

 of T. phayrei did not occur to me, as at that period I believed, on 

 the authority of Mr. Blyth and Mr. Theobald, who had the speci- 

 mens at their command, that it was the same as Manouria, with 

 which I did compare it. 



Mr. Theobald must excuse my not adopting his suggestion till an 

 accurate comparison has been made between the skull of T. phayrei 

 and Scapia, more especially as Mr. Theobald has already, with 

 " culpable haste," referred the two typical specimens of T. phayrei 

 to two species, indeed I may say genera, to which he now says they 

 do not belong. It is to be hoped some competent zoologist will make 

 the comparison which Mr. Theobald and his friends seem disinclined 

 to do. Mr. Theobald further suggests that the skull which I de- 

 scribed may have formerly belonged to a thorax in the Indian Mu- 

 seum. I must say I see no evidence of the fact worthy of a moment's 

 notice, and it is a curious idea when they have not proved the 

 identity of the two species ; and the account of the state of the spe- 

 cimen and the manipulation it had undergone is so contradictory as 

 to be utterly unworthy of credit. I must leave the question to the 

 former and present curators of that museum, who know better their 

 rules and manner of conducting the institution. 



