NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. I9I5. 433 



AJl these different excerpts from Sauzier and others prove : 



(1) That in the first half of the eighteenth century Giant Land Tortoises 

 abounded on Mauritius, Reunion, and Rodriguez. 



(2) That down to the year 1800 they also were extremely abundant on the 

 Seychelles and all the other small islands of the Indian Ocean. 



(3) That they disappeared from the .Seychelles and the other islands except 

 Aldabra after 1830. 



(4) That in Reunion about 1751), in Mauritius in ITSti, and in Rodriguez in 

 1800, they had become extremely rare ; and that they disappeared entirely from 

 these islands before 1840. 



(5) That there are in existence on Mauritius, Reunion, and the Seychelles a 

 certain number of Giant Tortoises in a state of semi-domesticity, most of which 

 nndonbtedly came from Aldabra, but others equally certainly did not, and it is 

 now impossible to tell which island originally was their home. In addition there 

 are a number hatched in this state of semi-domesticity which are the produce of 

 parents of different origin. 



(6) That at the present time there exist only on South Aldabra a few Testudo 

 (hmclin/l in a wild state ; on all the other islands the Giant Tortoises have been 

 exterminated. 



(7) That the following are the islands in the Indian Ocean which we know 

 held Giant Tortoises in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 



A. Seychelles and Aldabra-Madagascar Group of Tortoises: 



Madagascar (fide Cauche), Aldabra, Farquhar Island or Juaii de No'ca, 

 Astore, La Providence, lies Africaines, Alphonse, Amirante Islands, Galega, 

 Cosmoledo Island, Olorioso Island, Assumption, the Ckagos Archipelago, the 

 Comoro Islands, and the following of the Seychelles Archipelago, Mahi, Sainte 

 Anne, Moyenne, He aux Cerfs, La Conception, Silhouette, He du Nord, lie aux 

 Bc'ci/s, lie aux Frcgates, Praslin, Aride, Felicitu, Les Swurs, Marianne, La Digue, 

 and the He aux Vaches Marines. 



B. ntascarene Group of Tortoises : 



Mauritius, Reunion or Bourbon, and Rodriguez. 



It has been shown by our collections that each of tlie Galapagos Islands had 

 a distinct race of Giant Land Tortoise, and the largest, Albemarle Island, four. One 

 would then be inclined to take it for granted that the above thirty-three or more 

 islands — among which Reunion and Rodriguez are said to have had three each, 

 Mauritius at least four, while Aldabra had two if not three — had at least one 

 separate race each. 



But the aforementioned Monsieur de Grandpre, after liis query of " How 

 can they have got there ?" proceeds to relate that undoubtedly they could swim as 

 much as from one to three leagues, for iudividnals captured on Fraslin, and after 

 having a circle cut in their shell with a " graver," put in an enclosure, had 

 escaped and were recaptured on the lie aux Cerfs; and others similarly caught 

 on the lie aux Cerfs and similarly marked, had escaped and were retaken on 

 Mahe. Tins fact of their power of swimming at least three leagues makes it 

 possible that within the one Seychelles group of islands several islands might 

 have had one species common to the several. 



In 1877, when writing his great work, Dr. Giinther stated that there was 



