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ON A NEW LAND-TORTOISE FROM THE GALAPAGOS 



ISLANDS. 



Br THE ilox. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D. 



Testudo becki sp. nov. 



THIS s})ecies is intermediate between T. abinydoni and T. ephippiutn. It has 

 the strongly compressed and elevated front of the carapace of 7. abingdoni, 

 while it has the broad and declivous hind-part of the carapace of T. ephippium : but 

 it differs from both in being even wider, in projjortion, across the carapace than T. 

 ephippium, and in the fact that the declivity behind begins at the fourth vertebral 

 plate, instead of abruptly at the fifth and last. Though the raised front of the 

 carapace is more like that of T. abi)igdoni, it is not so strongly compressed and 

 developed. The front marginal plates are more strongly recurved and somewhat 

 more concave than in T. abingdoni. 



Length of carapace, 1030 mm. (= 40-75 in.) ; greatest width 1010 mm. ( = 

 40 in.) ; width above hindlegs 695 mm. (= 27'6 in.). The osteological characters 

 cannot be described until the skin is relaxed and the bones taken out. 



Ilab. Cape Berkeley, northern point of Albemarle Island, Galapagos Archi- 

 pelago, where the type has been collected by Mr. R. H. Beck, in whose honour it is 

 named. 



The discovery of this new form of Tortoise is of the greatest interest, because it 

 demonstrates the presence, not only of a third species of Giant Land Tortoise on 

 Albemarle Island, but also a tortoise of a type totally different from the other two 

 species. While Testudo vicina and T. tnicroph/es are round and in appearance 

 somewhat similar to T. gigantea of Aldabra, this new species is of the type of T. 

 ephippium, and T. abingdoni, so appropriately likened to a Spanish saddle by (Japtain 

 Porter. 



-7 OCT 1901 



