NOVITATKS ZOOLOGICAE XSII. 1915. 436 



horn-yellow eolonr of the scntes show it to be (^nite ditYercut from elephantinu or 

 daudirdi. Its great size makes me almost certain thiit it came from Fiinjnhar 

 Island, as the tortoises there were famed for their size. 



Material. — Only the type is known : this is mounted in the Tdug Mnsemn, 

 the scntes and skin on a cast carapace, and the skeleton entire. 



Diagnosis. — Nuchal plate present ; gtilars paired ; third cervical biconvex ; 

 front of carapace not sharply declivous in front, lower than the middle ; height 

 at nuchal plate more than 35% of " straiglit length" (38%); difference between 

 percentages of heights at third vertebral and nuchal plate, 15% ; carapace dome- 

 shaped, oval, very wide anteriorly, width at juncture of second and third marginals 

 more than 50% (57%) ; front marginals somewhat everted, projecting horizontally, 

 hind marginals strongly everted, both produced ; length over curve less than 135% 

 (133%) ; length over curve 4% more than width over curve : height to margiuals, 

 medium 7% ; size, large, 45-5 inches ; scutes of carapace pale horn-yellow ; scutes 

 of head and forelegs strongly raised and projecting well away from skin (during 

 life resembling those of T. calcarata, but not hard or horny, so have become 

 smaller and less prominent on dried skin) ; plates extremely deeply striated. 



General Remarks. — This tortoise is highly interesting as indicating a possi- 

 bility that the Indian Ocean Giant Tortois 's had a continental African origin, 

 i.e. a common ancestor together with the present-day calcarata, possibly the fossil 

 Testudo ammon Andrews from the Fayoum. The discrepancy of four inches in the 

 measurements here given, and those given on p. 754 of Nooitates Zoologicae, xiii. 

 (1900), is due to the length measurements being taken, in the latter case, to front 

 edge of post-marginal, and breadth over curve to lower edge of plastral bridge. 



Testndo sumeirei >Sanz. 



(Plates xxxis., XL.) 



Testudo sumeirei Sauzier, La Nature, 39, pp. 395-398 (1892) ; Eothschikl, Noi\ Znnl. vi. pp. :i59, 

 3C0 (1899) ; Gadow, Trans. Zool. Soc. Loud. xiii. p. 318 (1893). 



Type specimens. — The type is the old blind 6 still living in the Artillery 

 Barracks, Port Louis, Mauritins. There is one adult S in the Tring Museum, sent 

 from Mauritius by Monsieur Leopold Antelme, and one other besides the type 

 is still on Mauritius. A large c? sent to the Zoological Society in 1833, by Sir 

 Charles Colville, has disappeared, and a second one, received a few years later, 

 also appears to have been lost. 



Distribution. — These five tortoises, known in Mauritius as the Marian Tortoises, 

 were brought from the Seychelles to Mauritius in 1706 by the Chevalier Marion 

 de Fresne. As Monsieur Sauzier distinctly proves that indigenous tortoises existed 

 in the Seychelles down to as late as 1820, it is almost certain that Testudo sumeirei 

 was indigenous on one of tlie islands of the Seychelles Archipelago. 



Material. — At present there appears to be only the single S in the Tring 

 Museum available for study. 



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

 biconvex ; front of carapace declivous, much lower than middle; height at nuchal 

 plate more than 30% (34%) of '' straight length " ; difference between percentages 

 of heights at nuchal plate and third vertebral, 66%; carapace entirely Hat in 

 vertebral region, long, oval, sharply declivous only in front, very wide anteriorly, 

 width at juncture of second and third marginals more than .50% (51%) ; front and 

 hind marginals not everted and not produced ; length over curve 131% ; height 



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