( !»<' ; 



similar in slia|.c lo lliosc of Aliiiigdou Island. Hesifles luiviiiy tlicir caraiiace shaped 

 "ke a Spanish saddle, the}- have a much longer neck than the Albemarle species." 



lik(^ 



'Now as to the seven specimens in my collection : 



Of the South Albemarle tortoi.se, there are, as before mentioned, three. One is 

 the large one described above ; it is 56 inches in length over the carai)ace, and 49i 

 inches in a straight line, and is the largest Giant Land Tortoise in any mu.seum' 

 being lialf an inch longer than the large Testiulo elephantina in the British .Museum'. 

 The second is about 39 or 40 inches long, and the third one is quite .small. All the.se 

 three animals belong to the .species Testudo dephantopus Harlan = T.vicvtm Giinth., 

 and thus prove that Dr. Giinther was right when be said that the type of his 

 T. vidua, though unlabelled, most likely came from South Albemarle. 



Of the four Duncan f.sland specimens f cannot say much. Two of them are 

 now iu the IJrilish .Aluseum, and two I have retained at Tring. I am not yet certain 

 whether they are a new species or not, but they are undergoing a thorough 

 comparison by Dr. Giinther, and I hope to publish the result in the next number 

 of this journal. They, however, certainly belong to the same section as T. ephippiwin 

 Giinth. and T. abinijdonii Giinth., which ainong the Aldabra tortoises is represented 

 by Teslado dandinii Dum. & Bib. and among the Mascarene tortoises by T. vosmoeri 

 Dum. >*c Bib. 



I think it may also be of interest to give an account here of the recent capture 

 of some wild tortoises on Aldabra, for all tho.se received lately have been specimens 

 from the Seychelles, where they have been acclimatised. The Zoolor/iache Garten, 

 which appears at Frankfort, publishes the following about Dr. Voeltzkow's joiirnev : 



" Dr. A. Voeltzkow, who went to Madagascar for embryological studies, and has 

 now, after almost seven years^ absence, returned to Europe, always kept before him 

 as a special task the ]irocuring of some of those Giant Tortoises which are now only 

 to be found in a wild state on the Aldabra Islands, about 250 miles north of 

 Madagascar. Through him the Senkenberg Natural History Society received, two 

 years ago, the two large specimens at present in the Frankfort Zoological Gardens. 

 On a recent stay of a month on Aldabra, Dr. Voeltzkow succeeded, after almost daily 

 excursions, in capturing seven more specimens. The capture of these creatures, 

 however, is associated with many dangers. As there is no direct communication 

 with Aldabra, a small schooner of fifty tons had to be hired, and during the stay had 

 to be strongly fastened to the beach with cables. Aldabra is much larger than 

 usually believed. It is an oval (doll, cut through in three places, whose greatest 

 length is about twenty miles (English). 



"But what forms the chief hindrance in the search for these tortoises is the 

 impenetrability of the i.sland. The soil consists entirely of razor-sharp watervvorn 

 corals with their points uppermost, while the whole is covered with such thick masses 

 of low scrub that the way has first to be cut with an axe before each expedition, so 

 that an extended search over a large area is quite out of the question. To land on 

 the outside is most dangerous on account of the heavy surf, while landing from the 

 inside of the alull is much hindered by the dense thickets of mangrove-trees. 



".\s drinking water (and dial very bad) is only found in one place, rain-water 

 has to be collected from the natural hollows and carried along in tanks. Thou.sands 

 of mosquitos prevent one remaining over-night in those places which the tortoises 

 rrc(|upnt. Then at last, when one lias discovered one of these creatures— wliich, in 



