NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. UllS. 44l 



SOME NOTES ON nrASCABENE TORTOISES. 



Testudo peltastes Diim. & Bibr. 

 (Plate LXXT., i.xxii.) 



Dr. Guntlier and Mr. Boulenger have treated this as the 3'oang of Testudo 

 vosmaeri, which, however, I consider is erroneons. Alread}' Legnat in his narrative 

 of Rodrignez states there were three species of Tortoise on Rodriguez, and since the 

 discovery of a complete S mounted of T. vosmaeri, it became easier to compare the 

 type oi peltastes (a carapace with scutes) with typical vosmaeri. Professor Vaillant 

 has done so, and finds that peltastes is quite distinct. I have also examined the 

 so-called young carapaces of vosmaeri in the British Musenra, and find they are 

 completely adult with the sutnres entirely ancylosed. The carapace of peltastes 

 is dome-shaped and not constricted in the anterior third, while the carapace of 

 vosmaeri is constricted in the anterior third and saddle-backed. 



Testudo commersoui Vaill. 



This tortoise was described by Vaillant from one of many very accurate 

 drawings accompanying Commerson's Journal, and is the third species from 

 Rodriguez. 



Testudo iudica Schoepf. 



Professor Vaillant, after carefully tracing the history of the type of this 

 species (a carapace with scutes), has ascertained tliat it came from the island 

 of Bourbon (Ri5union). 



Testudo gadowi Van Denb. 

 (Plate Lxxv.) 



Dr. Gadow proposed the name of gilntkeri for certain front halves of plastra 

 from Mauritius with forked gulars, but the name being preoccupied. Dr. Van 

 Denburgh renamed the species gadozvi. Dr. Gadow was of opinion that these 

 plastra proved that Dr. Giinther's classification into three groujjs of the gigantic 

 Land-Tortoises broke down, for while the latter diagnosed the Mascarene forms 

 as having a single gular, these plastra from the Mare aux Songes proved that 

 a form occurred on Mauritius with a double gular and fourth cervical vertebra 

 biconvex, as in the Galapagos forms. If Plate lxxv. is consulted, which shows one 

 of these plastra belonging to the Tring Museum, it will be seen that the forked 

 gular is very similar to that of the colossal 10-foot-Iong fossil Colossocheli/s atlas 

 of the Siwalik Hills (Plate lxxvi.). This shows that these plastra belong to 

 a tortoise of a much older epoch allied to the Siwalik species. Although they 

 were Ibuud in the Mare aux iSonges, they must have worlced up through the mud 

 from an older geological stratum, and tlierefore do not atfect the problems 

 connected with our three groups of gigantic Land-Tortoises at all. 



