| OCR Text |
Show 1869.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE TORTOISES. 181 thorax. The sternum is black, with symmetrical variously shaped white spots, most abundant near the outer edge ; the underside of the margin of the thorax is yellow, varied with dark edges to the shields. The animal is pale brown and more or less yellow-spotted. There is a series of triangular yellow spots on the lower edge of the lower beak. AROMOCHELYS ODORATA. An adult specimen, in spirits, in the British Museum, from North America, presented by Odo Russell, Esq. Head large ; nose produced, conical, acute, shelving to the mouth below; nostrils surrounded by a very small fleshy margin. Head dark olive, punctulated, with a narrow white streak from the upper and the lower edge of the nose, the upper streak edging the crown over the orbit to the nape; the lower diverging under the eye and tympanum and crossing the beak. The lower beak with a streak on each side of the centre in front, diverging to the chin on the lower edge of the horny sheath. Neck with streak of roundish confluent spots. SWANKA. The sternal lobes as broad, or nearly as broad, as the opening of the thorax, rounded in front, and rounded or very slightly truncated behind. a. The sterno-costal suture and the abdominal shields as long as the front sternal lobe ; hinder lobe rounded at the ends. Thorax three-keeled. Vertebral plate elongate. 1. SWANKA SCORPOIDES. Kinosternon scorpoides, Gray, Cat. Shield Reptiles, p. 44. Cinosternon scorpoides, Wagler, N. Syst. Amphib. t. 5. f. xxxi.- xxxvii. (skull); Owen, Cat. Osteol. Mus. C. S. p. 191. n. 992 (skeleton). Skeleton in the College of Surgeons, No. 992. Skull thin, light; nose rather produced ; crown rhombic, flat; sides of face flat; orbit moderate, lateral; zygomatic arch very broad, strong, nearly flat. Palate flat. The alveolar edge smooth, rather wider behind. Internal nostrils close, anterior between the fronts of the alveolar plates. Lower jaw rather strong, broad, and convex, in front more slender than the sides ; the upper edge broad, rather concave, with an acute central process. The two small specimens from M . Salle both with rather rough and worn dorsal shields. One of them is keeled the whole length of the back, and the other only keeled over the hinder part of the back. They both have the front lobe of the sternum very nearly of the same length as the rather long abdominal shield. I cannot take on myself to say if they are of two species or only varieties of the same without having more information respecting them and the development of the animals. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1869, No. XIII. |
