EMYS SCABRA. 
gonum, margine exteriore rotundata; secundum et tertium magna, quadrata, vel 
subpentagona; quartum minus, quadratum : marginalia anteriora trigona, plana ; 
tertium ad octavum quadrata, carina longitudinali revoluta, areolis posticis ; tria 
sequentia expansa, areolis prominulis : caudalia minora, elevata: scutum nuchale 
minimum, lineare. Sternum convexiusculum, latum, antice truncatum, postice trigono- 
emarginatum, medio fuscum, ad latera flavescens. Scuta sterni omnia plana, glabra, 
vix sulcata: gularia trigona, antice unidentata; humeralia quadrilatera, margine 
exteriore rotundato ; axillaria et inguinalia exigua ; pectoralia quadrata, prope angu¬ 
lum externo-anticum, sinuata ; abdominalia quadrata ; femoralia et analia minora, 
irregulariter quadrilatera, excavata, postice porrecta. 
Testee ossece mensura. 
unc. lin. 
Longitudo dorsi.8 0 
Latitudo ejusdem.6 0 
Altitudo ..4 5 
Longitudo sterni .7 6 
“ Parmi les diverses tortu es, says Daudin, “ qui ont ete decrites par Lin¬ 
naeus dans [edition 12 de son Systema Natures, il ny en a sans doute aucune 
qui ont occasionne autant de contestations parmi les naturalistes que la Tortue 
raboteuse ( Testudo scabra')” This observation is amply confirmed by the list 
of synonyms which I have given, and which has not been adopted without 
the most careful and rigorous examination. 
The young of many species, already known and differently named in the 
adult state, have been described as distinct; and such specific terms as scabra , 
verrucosa, scripta, sculpta, punctularia, have been applied to them, from the 
mere character of the areolae,—the surface of which has the same general ap¬ 
pearance in all,—without considering that no permanent characters can belong 
to a part which, as I have before explained, cons titutes the sole covering of the 
shell when the animal is first excluded from the egg, and ultimately forms the 
centre of the scuta. Thus Testudo scripta of Schoepff is the young of Emys 
serrata ; T. scabra of Retz, that of ITydraspis galeata ; T. scidpta of Spix, of 
T. tabulata ; and in the present instance we find assigned to the young animal 
