KINOSTERNON SCORPIOIDES. 
the vertebral plates are much elongated and of the most elegant forms : the 
colour in this specimen is much darker than usual, the sculpture of the scuta 
more distinct and perfect, and the carinse nearer together. In the Zoological 
Journal of 1825, I described it, (not having then seen any other example of the 
species,) under the name of K. Shavianum, after the naturalist who had figured 
it: I soon afterwards, however, found that it was only a variety of the present 
species. 
The Kinosternon longicaudatum of Spix, may be safely assumed as identical 
with this; the colour and markings of the head and limbs no less than the 
details of the shell, prove this to he the case. K. brevicaudatum of the same 
author, although at first sight apparently somewhat dissimilar, is probably 
only a sexual variety; as a specimen received some time since at the Zoologi¬ 
cal Society, has the plain scuta, short tail, and other characters of the latter, 
with the mottled head of the former, which it also resembles in size. Mr. Gray’s 
“var. acuta ” is most likely the character of immature age. 
Spix, by some strange oversight, assigns to each of the individuals described 
by him, twenty-five marginal plates ; though in the figures they have each 
twenty-three, the number which not only invariably belongs to this species, but 
also to all others of the genus. 
The habits of this tortoise would appear to sanction the situation in which I 
had placed the genus in the paper on the Box Tortoises, before alluded to, as 
well as in a subsequent attempt to establish the characters of the different 
groups of the Testudinata ; namely, amongst the Box Tortoises, and nearer to 
the terrestrial family than the rest of the Emydidcc. The remarkable elevation 
of the shell would at once point out in this case, as welL as in Terrapene clausa, 
that they cannot be suited for the rapid pursuit of their prey in the water, and 
we find consequently that they principally live in marshes, along the borders 
of rivers. 
