GIANT TORTOISES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION 25 



was made to a giant land tortoise then living in Ceylon, at 

 Matara, near Galle. At the time of writing I had some doubt 

 as to whether this specimen was distinct from the Colombo 

 tortoise referred to in Dr. Giinther's Catalogue of Gigantic 

 Tortoises in the British Museum as having been living at 

 Uplands, in Mutwal, near Colombo, in 1870. From a letter 

 communicated to Spolia Zeylanica for December 1910 by Mr. 

 Joseph Pearson, director of the Colombo Museum, I learn that 

 the Colombo tortoise was found in Ceylon when the island was 

 taken over by the British in 1796, and that it died in 1894, 

 within a week of its removal from Uplands to Victoria Park, 

 Colombo. It is now preserved in the museum at Colombo, 

 and is referred by Mr. Pearson to Testudo gigantea. Its shell 

 measures, in a straight line, 40 inches in length. 



This being so, it is clear that the Matara tortoise, of which 

 a photograph appeared in my article, represents a second 

 giant tortoise imported into Ceylon ; as, indeed, is indicated 

 at the close of Mr. Pearson's letter. This tortoise I have 

 referred to T. gigantea ; and it may be that the measurement 

 given in my article may refer to that specimen. I regret, 

 however, that I cannot recall where I obtained this measure- 

 ment, or the information as to a tortoise having been imported 

 into Ceylon from the Seychelles in 1797 or 1798. Mr. Pearson 

 states that he is endeavouring to obtain further information 

 with regard to the Matara tortoise, of which the very existence 

 might apparently have remained unknown to naturalists had 

 it not been for the photograph by Mr. Stanley Mylius, 

 published in Country Life of July 9, 1910. 



R. Lydekker. 



