1889.] Zoology. 1017 
plete, but the preoperculum slightly connected with or discrete from 
the suspensorium ; the suborbitals suppressed ; the jaw bones complete 
and little aberrant ; the palatines, entopterygoids, and ectopterygoids 
well developed ; the anterior vertebrae separate, and the ventrals 
abdominal. — Theo. Gill. 
Note on Carettochelys, Ramsay.— Of this very remarkable 
Chelonian, which was found in Fly River, New Guinea, only a single 
specimen is known. It was described by Ramsay, in 1886, in the 
Proc. Linn. Soc, New South Wales, and compared with Emyda, with 
the remark that it appeared to be a link between the river, and the 
sea-turtles. Mr, Boulenger has placed it among the Pleurodira, in a 
new family, Carettochelydidae. 
The question is, Is it really a Pleurodiran ? It is true it belongs to 
the Papuasian region, in which, so far, only Pleurodira have been 
found. There are some characters, however, not seen in the Pleuro- 
dira, but in another group of Chelonians consisting of the families 
Cinosternidae, Staurotypidae, and Pseudotrionychidae. It is only in 
this group that we find 21 peripheralia (marginal bones) as in Caret- 
tochelys ; the neural bones are also reduced, and the dermal shields 
have disappeared entirely in Pseudotrionx ; to the latter character, 
however, I attach little value, as it may occur in any family. 
It seems to me that the systematic position of Carettochelys is far 
from being clear. How easily could the whole question be settled ! 
Mr. Ramsay would do a great service to science if he would under- 
take to have the cervicals and the skull extracted, or the cervicals 
alone, if he fears for the skull. This could be done without injuring 
the specimen, and the structure of these parts would show at once the 
affinities of this peculiar genus. 
It is a pity that in some museums of natural history the anatom- 
ical knife is still an instrument without use. Rare or unique 
specimens are not allowed ''to show the inside," or, in other 
words, to show what they really are. They are simply placed in alco- 
hol or stuffed, to be presented to a public which has no understand- 
ing of them. There are exceptions, I am glad to say. One of these is 
seen in Chlamydosclache, of a single specimen which came to the Museum 
of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Ma,ss., and was "sacrificed" to 
• the anatomical knife. The result is known to every zoologist.— G. Baur. 
Teeth of Monotremes.— Mr. Oldfield Thomas, {Proc. Roy. Socy., 
No. 280) has had an opportunity to study the teeth of Ornithorhyn- 
chus, and comes to conclusions which essentially modify those of Poul- 
