OCR Text |
Show 676 MR. THEOBALD ON CERTAIN SPECIES OF TORTOISES. [Nov. 1, derm, and by Fischer in 1839 for an Orthopteron. The habitat of this species was given by Dr. Gray as " India," but should stand "from Arakan to Mergui" as already stated by Blyth (J. A. S. B. xxxii. p. 83). 4. CYCLEMYS ORBICULATA (Gray, /. c. p. 178). Mr. Theobald repeated the observations made by him with regard to the synonymy and sternal suture of this species in Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool. vol. x. p. 12, 1869. 5. KACHUGA PEGUENSIS (Gray, I. c. p. 200). The habitat of this species was given by Dr. Gray as " India ;" but the specimen had probably come from Pegu. Mr. Theobald, however, could confidently say that he had brought home no heads of Tortoises from Pegu of which the "thorax " was " unknown ;" and his impression was that this species had been founded on a skull (possibly aberrant) of either Tetraonyx lessoni or Batagur trivittata. 6. "KACHUGA TRILINEATA,Theobald" (Gray, I. c. p. 209). Mr. Theobald denied that he had either named, described, or so much as admitted any Kachuga trilineata. The habitat was said to be " India;" but Mr. Theobald had brought home no skull of a three-streaked Emys from India, though he had brought some from Pegu. In 1867 Mr. Theobald had brought home specimens of two species of three-streaked Emydes, and had exhibited them to Dr. Gray at the British Museum. These were, according to Mr. Theobald's identification, Emys duvaucelii, Dum. & Bibr., from the Ganges, and E. trivittata, Dum. & Bibr., from the Irrawaddy; of the latter he had brought home many skulls, including that of a fine female now in the British Museum. This skull differed greatly from that of the male, which was a smaller and more finely coloured animal, and would therefore probably prove to be that upon which the species called Kachuga trilineata by Dr. Gray had been established. 7. KACHUGA OLDHAMI (Gray, I. c. p. 200). This species, from Pegu, Mr. Theobald considered to be likewise very doubtful, being based on a skull only, upon the distinctness of which Mr. Theobald had no confidence whatever. 8. KACHUGA BERDMOREI, Blyth (Gray, I. c. p. 204). Dr. Gray had rightly admitted this species (which had been wrongly identified by Dr. Gunther with the very distinct E. ocellata, Dum. & Bibr.), but had left the habitat unknown, although it had not only been given by its describer, Mr. Blyth (J. A. S. B. xxvii. p. 281), but likewise by the author in his 'Catalogue of the Reptiles of Pegu' (p. 12), and although there were specimens of it in the British Museum both from Pegu and the Tenasserim provinces, where it was abundant. E. ocellata, of which Mr. Theobald believed there was no specimen in the British Museum, was strictly confined to the region of the Ganges, just as E. herd- |