NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. 1915. 433 



and one daudinii. The Tring Mnsenm, unfortunately, possesses no very large 

 typical <S of this species, and I fear it is now too late to get one from the Seychelles, 

 for almost all the really large individuals still there are hybrids or apparent 

 hybrids. In fact, outside the Paris Museum, I consider the only really fine i is 

 the one in the British Museum. 



No. 142 is a hybrid between daudinii and clephantina, for while the scutes are 

 distinctly striated, the carapace is long and narrow, and the " middle height " is 

 less than half the straight length. This tortoise is one of the pair brought alive 

 from the Seychelles by Dr. Braner and deposited in the Hamburg Zoological 

 Gardens in 1896. I purchased them both from him on the understanding that they 

 should remain in Hamburg till they died. This specimen died in 1906. In the 

 periodical Zooloyisclier Garten, vol. 36, p. 354 (1896) Dr. Bolau gives the following 

 dimensions for the larger cj ; Straight Length 125 cm. = 50 inches ; Length over 

 Curve 157 cm. = 628 inches ; Greatest Breadth at hinder part of Carapace 

 81 cm. = 32'4 inches ; and Height of Carapace from floor when not moving 

 68 cm. = 23-2 inches. When lettering the plates (before writing this article) 

 I simply took these measurements, and this accounts for the words 50 inch on 

 Plates Liii and liv. I cannot understand the wide discrepancy of 4i inches, even 

 when it is taken into account that Dr. Bolau's measurements were effected during 

 life ; for, unlike my large daudinii, the marginals are not produced, and so there 

 could only be from J to J of an inch difference between the nnchal plate and the 

 front edge of the first marginal, even if we suspect the straight length to have been 

 taken from front of first marginal. The ? is, I believe, still alive. 



Testado daudinii Dum. and Bibr. 



(Plates xLi. — XLViii.) 



Tesiudo daudinii Dumeril and Bibron, Erpit. Gin. ii. p. 123 (1835) (East Indies) ; Gunther, Oig. 

 Land-Tort. p. 33 pis. IV., V. (1877) : Sauzier, La Nature, 45. pp. 273-275 (1895) ; Id., Cumpt. 

 Rend. 1895 part 2. p. 430 ; Bolau, Zool Garf. 3G, pp. 353, 354 (1896) ; Rothsch. Nov. Zml. iii. 

 p. 90 (1896) ; Id., Nor. Zool. iv. pp. 407, 408, pi. xiii. (1907). 



T>/pe specimens. — The type specimen is a complete skeleton in the Museum 

 of Comparative Anatomy in Paris, and the scutes of the same individual mounted 

 on a wire frame in the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle in the same grounds. 



Distribution. — If, as I am convinced, the wild tortoises on South Aldabra are 

 identical with daudinii, this species or race is the only one of the Indian Ocean 

 races still in existence in a wild state. There appear to be a few hundreds still 

 in dense scrub on the South Island. 



To prevent future misunderstandings, I may draw attention here to the fact 

 that some of the semi-domestic tortoises from the Seychelles have been turned 

 down on the " North and West Islands " of Aldabra. 



Material. — Besides the type, in Paris there are at least two other specimens 

 which I, personally, consider to be daudinii. The British Museum possesses an 

 adult c? (see Pis. xli., xlu.) which was presented by Lord Derby. There is a 

 half-grown i in the Liverpool Museum (see Pis. xliii. and xliv.) of which a cast 

 is at Tring ; I have at Tring also a S and ? collected by Dr. Voeltzkow on 

 Aldabra, and the gigantic 6 from Egmont Island, Chagos Archipelago, bought 

 from Mr. Leopold Antelme. 



Diagnosis. — Nuchal plate present ; gulars paired ; third cervical vertebra 

 biconvex ; front of carapace normally not declivous (but large <J has first 



