202 DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE EYES OF THE EMYDID^. [May 26, 



some conical or small wora-down Whale's teeth are named as if they 

 belonged to this genus, or to the " High-finned Cachalot," as it is 

 called ; but these teeth are not to be distinguished from the teeth 

 of the younger true Sperm Whales. Mr. Wall, in his account of 

 the Australian Sperm Whale, thinks the skeleton of the Whale at 

 Burton Constable is the skeleton of a Blackfish ; but Anderson, in 

 his account of this animal, particularly says, "The nostrils were at 

 the end of the snout," and the skeleton is that of a true Catodon, as 

 is proved by careful examination. 



It is to be hoped that some whaler will preserve the skull, if not 

 some of the other bones, of the animal called the "Blackfish," 

 which, according to the account of Sibbald, must yield a good quan- 

 tity of spermaceti ; for he mentions that four men were seen inside 

 the cavity of the cranium extracting the sperm, or, as he calls it, 

 "the brain." Yet Beale, in his 'History of the Sperm Whale,' spe- 

 cially says, after well describing the diiference between the Sperm 

 Whale and the Blackfish, that they do not produce spermaceti 

 (p. 11). But I may observe that, according to Bennett and Nunn, 

 in the Pacific the name of Blackfish is given also to the large Dol- 

 phin described by me as Globiocephalus macrorhynchus. 



5. On THE Eyes of Emydid^ and Batrachia. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., etc. 



There is no character that an animal offers that is not worthy of 

 study ; and my attention has lately been called to the eyes of the 

 freshwater Tortoises, and they have afforded me some information 

 which I believe important. All the paludinal Terrapens which I 

 have been able to examine have a large square dark spot on each 

 side of the iris. This spot, with the pupil, forms a dark band across 

 the eyes. I have observed this to be the case in the species of 

 Emys, Pseudemys, and Chrysemys ; and on looking at Holbrook's 

 ' North American Herpetology,' where the animals are all figured 

 with care from life, we find that he represents and describes all 

 the North American species of Emydes as having this band across 

 the eye. I may observe that I have also seen it in a South American 

 Tortoise, which I have called Geoclemmys annulaia ; and I think it 

 is also found in Testudo scabra, another tropical American Terrapeu 

 with separate toes. These animals have been called Rhinoclemmys by 

 Fitzinger. They are probably a natural genus, characterized by this 

 peculiarity in the eyes. All the American species of Geoclemys, 

 the two species of Cistudo figured by Holbrook, the sestuarian Ter- 

 rapen Malaclemys, the aquatic Box-Tortoises Kinosternon and Aro- 

 mochelys, and the Lacertine Terrapens Chelydra and Macroclemys, 

 have an annular iris without any interruption. It will be interesting 

 to observe the eyes of the Asiatic and European species ; but this 

 can only be relied upon in living specimens, as the spot on the 

 angle of the eye is not to be observed in the specimens preserved 



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