420 NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXII. 1915. 



of this creature to be nnknown, whereas fnll documentary evidence exists. If 

 Dr. Gadow had had all the available photographs, especially that of the creature 

 tilted up on end, he would have seen that the gular is not forked, and that it is 

 more or less identical with that of the Aldabra races. The plastrons with forked 

 gnlars from the "Mare au Songe " {T. gadou-i Van Denb.) belong to tortoises of 

 an older tj'pe more closely related to the fossil T. {Colossochelys) atlas Falc. of 

 the Siwalik Hills (see Plates lxxv.-vi.). I have taken the measurements given in 

 the tables exactly as in the previous article on " The Galapagos Tortoises in the 

 Tring Museum, etc.," with one exception : viz., owing to the absence of a perceptible 

 bend in the lateral marginal plates, I have taken the " Width over Curve " from 

 the lower edge of the lateral marginals on one side over the vertebral line to the 

 lower edge of the lateral marginals on the opposite side. 



EABLT HISTORY 



The early history of the Seychelles and Aldabra^Madagascar Land Tortoises 

 is not nearly as full nor so easy to unravel as that of the Galapagos Islands 

 Group of these creatures. In many of the early seventeenth-century accounts 

 the early vo3'agers do not discriminate between the tortoises of the Mascareue 

 Islands and those of the other islands ; while the very fnll accounts given by 

 Leguat, Dubois (le Sieur D. B.), Commerson, I'Abb^ Pingre^ and others refer almost 

 exclusively to the tortoises of the Mascareue Islands. The following extracts are 

 taken from Theodore Sauzier's " Les Tortues de terre gigantesques des 

 Mascareignes et de certaines antres lies de la Iffier des Indes." 



In a book i>ublished in 1833 by Baron d'Uuieuville, entitled Statistique des 

 Seychelles et ses dcpendances, etc.^ etc., we read : " At Mah^ the land and sea 

 tortoises as well as the ' Garrets' (a sort of sea tortoise yielding the tortoisesheli), 

 which were so exceedingly numerous when the islands were discovered, are already 

 scarce, and soon will be as rare as on Mauritius." 



And again, " When they took possession of the island of La Digue in 1771 

 it was full of birds and Land Tortoises." 



In 1815 James Horsburgh in a work on this region says: " On the Island of 

 La Providence many land tortoises and land crabs are found with abundance of 

 water," and again : " At the ' lies Africaines ' one iinds abundance of laud tortoises " 

 {Instructions on the jSavigatio7i of the Mozambique Channel ami the islands and 

 dangers in the North and iV. East of Madagascar, by James Horsburghj. 



A long time before Horsburgh d'Apres de Manuevillette {Instructions sur la 

 navigation des Indes Orientates, 177.5) testified to the abundance of Land Tortoises 

 on the He de la Providence. 



In a "lUemoire snr les Seychelles" addressed to the Blinister M. de Vergennes, 

 dated Port Louis, May 1, 1775, and signed Brayer du Barre, it is related that 

 the "Man of War, le Mascariii, in September 1770, on its way to Malabar, called 

 at the Seychelles and exchanged for some chickens with the Governor, M. de Launay, 

 a number of Land Tortoises." Also " that the I'Heure du Berger, and the I' Etoile 

 du Matin, sent to explore the archipelagos to the N.E. of Madagascar in December 

 1770, under the command of MM. de Rolan et d'Herc^, called at the Seychelles, and 

 took on board Land Tortoises (Vol. 8, Records of the Islands of France and Bourbon). 

 L'Abb6 Rochon, a member of the Academy of Sciences, who in 1 709 was charged 

 with the mission of charting the islands to the N.E. of Mauritius, sojourned a 



