NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. 1913. 427 



Society's Gardens in 1833, bat unfortunately, since its death, all traces of it have 

 vanished. It is also said that the Giant Tortoise which was on St. Helena during 

 Napoleon I.'s cajitivity on that island was one of these tortoises. This, however, 

 must remain uncertain ; for there are at present two living tortoises on St. Helena, 

 and the carapace brought from there to the British Museum as that of the tortoise 

 of Napoleon's time is first of all not certainly the carapace of that beast, which 

 may still be alive, and secondly is not T. siam'irei. This species is characterised 

 by its flat-topped carapace, absence of a nuchal plate, and double gular ; while 

 the carapace in question is a narrow, dome-shaped carapace with very large 

 nuchal plate. 



7. Testudo gouffei Rothsch. 



I described under this name a gigantic $ tortoise {lHov. Zool. xiii. pp. 753-4, 

 1906). It was procured for me alive by Messrs. GoufF6 and James, and it had 

 lived for a great number of years on Therfese Island, St. Anne's Channel, Seychelles. 

 It is a very old animal, conspicuous by the very deeply cut striations and horn- 

 yellow colour of the scntes of the carapace, and the very prominent and strongly 

 projecting scntes of the head and forelegs. It has a very large nuchal plate, 

 and strongly crenulated and everted marginal scutes between hind limbs and 

 supracaudal. It may be a last remnant of the indigenous Therese Island race, or 

 else, what I think more likely, came from Juan de Novo or Farquhar Island. 



8. Testudo abrupta Grandid. 

 This name was applied by the late Monsieur Alfred Grandidier to the smaller 

 of the two semi-fossil tortoises obtained by him. It was found at Amboulitsate, 

 and is very strongly dome-shaped, and the declivity to the nuchal plate and the 

 supracaudal respectively is very sharp, while the shell is very thin, as were also 

 apparently the scutes in life. 



9 and 10. Eiwjs gigantea Grandid. = Testudo grandidieri Vaill. 

 Monsieur Grandidier placed his larger species found at Etsere in the genus 

 Emys because of the very depressed and flat carapace, and therefore naturally 

 called it gigantea, as no fossil or recent Emys could approach it for size. However, 

 Professor Vaillant {Compt. Rend. 1885, Part I. pp. 874-5) has shown that in spite 

 of the extraordinarily depressed carapace it is a true Testudo and near elephantina. 

 He renamed it, therefore, Testudo grandidieri, as gigantea was preoccnpied in 

 Testudo. 



Description 



We now come to the question of diagnosing the differences of the races ; 

 and here begins a troublesome task, because, as I have before stated, of the 

 specimens of the first five of the seven races of these tortoises which, I think, 

 can be easily recognised (e.xcept certain specimens from South Aldabra), none are 

 definitely known to have been caught wild, and on the Seychelles and Mauritius 

 numerous hybrids have been produced. Another circnmstance is puzzling, though 

 I believe if we knew the definite habitat of each specimen it would be quite 

 explicable : namely, in both Testudo gigantea Schweigger and Testudo elephantina 

 Dum. and Bibr., we find long and narrow specimens and short and broad specimens : 

 i.e., we have long and narrow as well as short and broad individnals, with perfectly 

 smooth scutes and also with strongly striated scutes, and this evidently quite 

 irrespective of age. We also find that as a rule the short and broad individuals 



