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Show 1871.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON ANIMALS IN THE MENAGERIE. 745 41. ClNOSTERNUM LEUCOSTOMUM. In 1870 we received four living specimens of a species of Cino-sternum, which I had little hesitation in referring to C. leucostomum of A. Dumeril (Arch. d. Mus. vi. p. 239, pl. xvii.). Two of these were brought from Greytown, Nicaragua, by an officer of one of the Royal Mail Steam-ship Company's vessels, along with an example of Clemmys ornata. The other two were purchased out of a ship, with the information that they had come from the Laguna de Ter-minos, on the coast of Yucatan. Along with the latter were obtained likewise an example of Clemmys ornata and a specimen of a Der-matemys abnormis*. I mention these particulars in order to extend our knowledge of the range of this species, of which M . Dumeril's only certain localities are Guatemala (Morelet) and New Granada (Lewy and Goudot). I may add that some of these Tortoises were taken to the British Museum and identified with Swanka maculata, Gray f; so that I think it probable that that name is a synonym of Cinostcrnum leucostomum. 42. PODOCNEMIS UNIFILIS, Troschel. On December 16th of last year we purchased for the Society's collection two small living Tortoises of the genus Podocnemis, oi which I now exhibit the dried shells, and which I entered in the register of accessions as Podocnemis expansa and P. unifilis *j". The officer of the steam-ship ' Augustine,' from whom they were obtained, informed me that the former was obtained on the Lower Amazon, and the latter from Purus on the Upper Amazon. In m y report on the additions to the Menagerie for December 1870 § I stated in reference to P. unifilis that a similar specimen in the British Museum had been referred to the young of P. dumeriliana, but that I thought this could be "hardly correct." Dr. Gray, in a recent number of the ' Annals' (ser. 4, vol. viii. p. 68), has endeavoured to prove that this determination (i. e. that P. unifilis = P. dumeriliana, jr.) is correct, and has even come to the conclusion that the character of having only one beard on the lower mandible (whence Prof. Troschel derived his name unifilis) so far from being a peculiarity of this species is " common to all the species of the family Peltocephalidae," i. e. to the genera Podocnemis and Peltoce-phalus, which, in Dr. Gray's latest arrangement, constitute his family Peltocephalidae. But I cannot agree to this view. In the first place the Podocnemis received along with the specimen of P. unifilis, and which I entered as P. expansa, has (as you may see by the dried specimen now before you) a distinct double beard, which in the living animal was very prominent, and first called m y attention to its specific difference from P. unifilis. Secondly, Wagler (Syst. d. Amph. * Described and figured by Dr. Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 716, pl. xliii., as Chlo-remi/ s abnormis. 1*' Suppl. Cat. Shield Eep. p. 68. + See P. Z. S. 1870, Appendix, p. 910. § See antea. p. 36. |
