NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. 1915. 425 



having been lumped together under the title of Testudo indica for three-quarters of 

 a century. The ten names are as follows : 



1. 1814 Testudo giffaiitea lichweigger .... No localit}' 



2. 1835 Testudo elep/ta?itina Bnmenl iMil Bihron . \ .,, ,' t , 



' [ Aldabra Islands 



3. 1835 Testudo daudinii Dumeril and Bibron . . East Indies 



4. 1877 Testudo ponderosa Giinthev .... No locality 

 6. 1877 Testudo hololissa Giinther ..... No locality 



6. 1892 Testudo sumeirei SaMzier Re'nnion or Mauritius 



7. 1906 Testudo gouffri Rothschild Ther^se Island 



8. 1868 Testudo abrupta Grand idler .... Madagascar 



9. 1868 Emi/s gigantea Gv&xiddAxn Madagascar 



10. 1885 Testudo grandidieri YniWaut .... Madagascar 



Of these last three, Nos. S, 9, were proposed in 1868 by the late M. Alfred 

 Grandidier for two species of semi-fossil tortoises collected by him at Amboulitsate 

 and Ets^re respectively. No. 10 was a name given to the larger species from 

 Etsi^re in 1885 by Professor Vaillant after a more critical study of these remains, 

 when he found that M. Grandidier's Emgs gigantea was a true Testudo, and aB 

 gigantea was preoccupied in the latter genus, it required a new name. 



Of the remaining seven names three were proposed for specimens undoubtedly 

 brought alive from the Seychelles, and stated somewhat lightly by their former 

 owners to have been imported to the Seychelles from Aldabra. 



One was applied to a living specimen in Mauritius known to have been taken 

 there in 1760 from the Seychelles, and almost certainly a native of one of that 

 group of islands or a neighbouring one. Of the remaining three, the author of one 

 gives no locality, one is stated to have come from the " East Indies," and the third 

 is stated to belong to a race found on the '' Islands in the Mozambique Channel, 

 Anjouan, Comoro, and Aldabra." 



1 . Testudo gigantea Schweigg. 



This name was aj^plied by its author {Prodr. p. 58 (1814) {Arch. Konigsb. 

 vol. i. pp. 327 and 362) ), to a large tortoise which was perfectly smooth, had an 

 undivided snpracaudal, and had a nuchal plate. The description agrees exactly 

 with Giinther's T. hololissa, except that the latter has a divided snpracaudal scute. 

 As we find a divided caudal scute to be of accidental occurrence in T. elephantina 

 and T. daudinii, I do not think it possible, with our present knowledge, to retain 

 gigantea and hololissa separate, their only character of difference being one known 

 to occur accidentally in other species. Of course, had not these tortoises disappeared 

 in a wild state, it is quite possible that we should have found that while one island 

 of a group of islands produced nothing but tortoises with divided snpracaudal 

 plates, a neighbouring island might yield such only as had undivided ones. As 

 a rule ? ? gigantea are much more dome-shaped than the cJcJjbut the very old 

 male (No. 139) is proportionately as high and dome-shaped as any ?. 



2. Testudo elephantina Dura, and Bibr. 



This name was applied by its authors to tlie seven or eight tortoises presented 

 to the Paris Museum by Messrs. Mathieu and Dussumier, obtained from Mauritius, 

 Bourbon, and Anjouan. The type is a specimen the carapace of which measures 



