452 CHELONIA. 



There is a most striking resemblance between the young Chelonia, 

 properly so called, and the young Euclielys; so much so, that the 

 latter has been figured under the name of Chelonia mydas (see p. 448), 

 and quoted as such by various authors. It may, therefore, also have 

 been mistaken for Testudo atra, 



Walbaum,* in speaking of his Testudo macropus, says explicitly that 

 there are two claws or nails to either flipper : ^'Scuto ovato, carinato, 

 emarginato, sterno gradato, pedibus lyinniformibus, maximis, hifariam 

 imguiculatisr 



Could Fitzinger have been guided by the above statement in framing 

 his genus Halichelys? This might partly account for its association 

 with ThalassocJielys, which has, likewise, two claws to either flipper; 

 then again how could he omit mentioning Walbaum's Testudo macro- 

 pus as a synonym ? 



Genus CHELONIA, Brongn. 



Gen. Char. — Head small, anteriorly blunt and rounded ; snout very 

 obtuse ; jaws robust, with a serrated margin, which is nearly hori- 

 zontal, the lower jaw being slightly curved upwards at the tip, and 

 the upper one slightly emarginated. One pair of frontal plates ; 

 a vertex plate, and one pair of parietals. A middle occipital, 

 moderate ; two pairs of latero-occipitals, and one pair of longitudi- 

 nally elongated postoccipitals. Four postoculars. Mental shields 

 extant. Sides of lower jaw protected by an elongated and a few 

 small plates. Carapax cordate or subelliptical, covered with four- 

 teen non-imbricated epidermic shields; marginal shields twenty-five, 

 constituting a nearly even edge. Plastron with six middle pairs of 

 similar shields : four lateral, and several small additional postaxil- 

 lary ones. One claw to either flipper. 



Syn. — Chelonia, Brongn. in Bull. Soc. Philom. 1800, 89. — Oppel, Kept. Prodr. 

 1811, 8.— Cuv. K^gn. anim. II, 1817, 12 ; 2d ed. II, 1829, 13 ; &, ed. illustr. Kept. 

 18.— Wagl. Naturl. Syst. Amph. 1830, 133.— Bum. & Bibr. Erpet. g6n. II, 1835, 550. 

 — FiTZ. Syst. Kept, i, 1843, 30.— Gray, in Ann. of Philos. X, 1825,210; Catal.Tort. 

 Crocod. & Amphisb. Brit. Mus. 1844, 51 & 64 ; &, Catal. Shield. Kept. Brit. Mus. 

 1855, 74. — Temm. & Schleg. in Sieb. Faun. Jap. 1838, 12. — Bonap. Amph. Europ. 

 1839, 12.— Agass. Gontr. Nat. Hist. U. S. Amer. I, 1857, 377. 



* Chelonograpbia ad archetypes natives curiosorum naturae peregrinorum causa latino 

 stylo strictim exarata. 



