18/2.J DR. J. ANDERSON ON PERSIAN ETC. REPTILES. 3/1 



5. Oil some Persian, Himalayan, and other Reptiles. 

 By J. Anderson, M.D. 



[Received January 15, 1872.] 



Cyclemys oldhami, Gray. 



I have received a living specimen of this species and a perfect 

 shell from Samagooting in the Naga Hills in Assam, to the east of 

 the Brahmaputra. The first measures 8j inches in length, and the 

 second is 9 inches long. 



In both specimens the pectoro-abdominal sternal suture is un- 

 anchylosed, conferring, in the living example, distinct mobility on 

 the lobes of the sternum, but of a more limited character than in 

 Cuora. In the dried shell the mobility between the pectoral and 

 abdominal plates is at once demonstrated when the sternum is 

 moistened in water, while before doing so there is but little evident 

 motion. 



In the living specimen the portion of the abdominal plates over- 

 lapping the line of the pectoro-abdominal joint has become more or 

 less fractured, so to speak, evidently by the motion of the two halves 

 of the sternum on each other ; and in the other specimen (the shell) 

 the fracturing is complete, and the suture or joint is carried through 

 the plates from side to side. Anterior to the outer third of the 

 suture on each side is the separated portion of the abdominal 

 plates, broken up in an area, which Theobald has compared to a 

 curious fossa. Behind the middle third of the joint is a separated 

 piece of each pectoral. The more perfectly fractured character 

 of the portions of the abdominal plates that overlap the suture 

 in the larger, as compared with their imperfect fracturing in the 

 smaller specimen, would seem to favour Theobald's observation 

 that the suture of the lobes of the sternum becomes more developed 

 with age. If Dr. Gray *, who combats this observation of Theo- 

 bald's on the ground that it is opposed to the experience of most 

 zoologists and the specimens in museums, had been familiar with the 

 animal in life, or had examined the moistened sternum of a mu- 

 seum specimen, it is questionable whether he would have committed 

 himself to dispute the correctness of the observations of a zoologist 

 who spoke from personal knowledge of the living animal, and who did 

 not confine himself to a crude knowledge gained from museum speci- 

 mens. In connexion with Theobald's observation it is curious to 

 remark that Dr. Gray did not observe any mark of the transverse 

 suture on the sternum in a specimen which he doubtfully regarded 

 as a younger stage of C. ovata, as compared with another example 

 of the same species, which he regarded as more aged than the 

 former, on which the cross suture of the sternum was much eroded 

 on the edge, doubtless in the same way as I have described in the 

 present species ; so that Dr. Gray's own facts substantiate Theo- 

 bald's conclusion which he disputes. 



* Suppl. Cat. Shield Kept, B. M. 1870, p. 23. 



