. The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology . e head appear to furnish such characters. Mr. Cope observes that S. Derbianus differs from S. sinuatus ofSmith mainly in the form of the upper mandible, which is ob-tusely hooked in the former, bidentate in the latter. I suspect hemust have been misled in these observations by figures or descriptions ;for the jaws of the typical specimens of the two species are very similar. It will be necessary to separate the genus into three sections, ac-cording to the form of the head, premising that I only know thespecies belongi
. The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology . e head appear to furnish such characters. Mr. Cope observes that S. Derbianus differs from S. sinuatus ofSmith mainly in the form of the upper mandible, which is ob-tusely hooked in the former, bidentate in the latter. I suspect hemust have been misled in these observations by figures or descriptions ;for the jaws of the typical specimens of the two species are very similar. It will be necessary to separate the genus into three sections, ac-cording to the form of the head, premising that I only know thespecies belonging to the third section from the descriptions of and Bibron, as all the specimens that have come under myobservation belong to the first or second section. These sectionsmay be thus characterized:— I. Head shant and broad; the upper jaw obscurely notched andbidentate in front; the crown shielded to a line even with theback of the tympanum. Sternothjerus sinuatus, a. Smith, S. African Zool. rather broad, depressed; jaws pale; the temporal plate. Head of S. and short, only reaching to the front of the tympanum, andwith another rather smaller similar plate behind it over the ear ; thehinder vertebral plate of the adult as wide as long, not tubercular ;the fore legs with small scales, and with some very wide, slender,band-like shields on the inner side of the upper surface; the ster-num with a narrow deep notch behind. Sternothcerus castaneus, part.; Gray, Cat. Shield Rept. Hab. S, Africa: Natal (Dr. Krauss). Dr. J. E. Gray on the Genus Sternothserus. 167 In other specimens the front marginal shields are rather wide,the middle one as long as broad; the front vertebral shield is elon-gate, with straight sides. I think it better to retain the name given by Dr. Andrew Smithto the Natal specimen for this species; for it is very doubtful towhich of the specimens the Emys castanea of Schweigger is refer-able, and one of the specimens
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