716 EEPTILIA. 



The head and limbs are dull brownish-yellow, the naked skin about the nostrils 

 is bluish. The scales on the limbs are bright yellow, also the claws. The iris is 

 pinkish-brown and the tympanum brownish. The egg is a largish oval with rather 

 rounded ends, and measures 2"*10 in length by T'SO in breadth. The eggs are 

 deposited in the end of February, but if oftener than once a year, I cannot say. An 

 egg of Testudo actinodes from Cutch, also laid in the month of February, is more 

 rounded than the egg of T. platynota, and smaller, measuring 1"'80 by Y'4S) broad. 



This species is generally distributed over Upper Burma, and I observed the 

 shells used, even at Momien, in the oil- shops ; it occurs also in the hilly region about 

 Akyab. 



Genus Geoemtda, Gray. 



Dr. Gray, in his Catalogue of the Tortoises, Crocodiles, &c., published in 1844,^ 

 founded the genus Geoemyda, distinguishing it from Emys by the following com- 

 parative statement : Geoemyda. — Head covered with a thin skin, toes 5, 4, free, short. 

 Bmys. — Head covered with a thin hard skin, toes 5, 4, webbed.^ He gave it rank as 

 the first genus in the family Emydidce. 



The first species mentioned under Geoemyda was the South African Emyde, 

 Emys spengleri, Schweigger,^ and associated with it was another form from 

 Sumatra, Emys speciosa, Bell,"^ (Dumeril and Bibron,^) with which Dr. Gray was 

 disposed at that time to identify the Testudo emys, Miill. and Schleg.^ 



In the Catalogue of Shield Reptiles published in 1855,'' we find the genus 

 Manouria established on two shells from Penang collected by Dr. Cantor, who 

 had identified them with Emys speciosa, doubtless misled by Dr. Gray havino- 

 referred to JEmys speciosa, Bell, the tortoise described by Miiller and Schlegel as 

 Testudo emys, the figure of which, like Dr. Gray's figure of Manouria fusca, showed 

 that the pectoral plates were far apart in these specimens collected by Cantor. 

 Although Dr. Gray's figure of Manouria fusca corresponded with Miiller and 

 Schlegel's plate, yet no reference was made to it ; the Testudo emys, M. and S., 

 still appearing as a synonym of Geoemyda speciosa. In the work under revision, 

 the latter species was separated from JEmys spengleri, and was then the sole represent- 

 ative of the genus Geoemyda, from which the doubtful species Emys spengleri was 

 separated under the new generic term Nicoria, as Dr. Gray had ascertained that its 

 toes were united by a scaly web, but to the species Nicoria spengleri were referred 

 Emydes from China and Africa. 



1 1. c, p. 14 

 2 1. c, p. 13. 



3 Walb. Schrif. d. Berl. Gestellsch. Nat., Fr. B., 6, p. 122, tab. 3. 



* Testudinata, pt. i, pi, v. 



5 Erpet. Genl., vol. ii, 1835, p. 327. 



^ Verhandl. Kept., pi. iv. 



7 1. c, p. 16. 



