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FURTHER NOTES REGARDING TESTVDO 

 ELEPHANTOP US. 



By the Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D. 



SINCE writing ou this subject (Nov. Zool. IX. p. -148), I Lave gone into the 

 question of the Albemarle races of the gigantic Laud-Tortoises rather closely, 

 in anticipation of the arrival of forty-four living and dead tortoises collected by Mr. 

 R. H. Beck at four different localities ou Albemarle Island, Galapagos Islands. 



I have about thirty-five specimens of the Albeuuirle raies before me, consisting 

 of one Testudo becki mihi from North Albemarle, three Testiido oiicrophi/es Gthr. 

 from Tagus Cove, Central Albemarle (not IT. Albemarle as stated in the Catalogue 

 of the Chi'lonians, 1889), and some thirty to thirty-two speciiueus from South 

 Albemarle, most of which are what have hitherto been considered typical Textarh 

 ricina Gthr. from Iguana Cove ; but two from Villa Mil, S.E. Albemarle, are very 

 different, and must be studied carefully with Beck's fine series of thirty from that 

 place. During my examination of the Albemarle series in the Tring Museum, 

 I read through the descriptions of the six species or races of Galaj)agos giiint 

 Land-Tortoises included by Mr. Boulenger in his new edition of the Catalogue of 

 Clieloniaxs, etc., in the British Museum. Without in the least wishing to criticise 

 this admirable work, I feel obliged to correct what I consider a most serious error. 

 Mr. Boulenger has in the before-mentioned work identified Testudo elephaiitojius 

 Harlan with Testu do lugra Quoy & Gaim., and states that it comes from 

 South Albeaiarle. If he bad, as I have, examined the ti/pe of Quoy and 

 Gaimard's Testudo nigra, he w.ould never have done this. The type specimen of 

 Testudo nigra in the Paris Museum is a young tortoise with a carapace barely lOJ in. 

 long, and so indifferently preserved that it is absolutel;/ impossible to say to what 

 race it belongs. Dr. Albert Giinther, who examined the specimen with me, is even 

 more emphatic on this point than I am. Now as to the question of locality : the 

 type was presented to M. de Freycinet by Captain Meek, commander of U.S.A. 

 vessel Boston Eagle, when the i'ranie and Fhi/sicien were in the Sandwich Islands, 

 and Captain Meek asserted at the time that the specimen came from California. 

 Mr. Boulenger, therefore, can only have got his locality of " S. Albemarle" from 

 Dr. Baur's notes on Testudo elephantopus Harlan. In my former note, quoted above, 

 I distinctly showed that Baur was misled by examining a specimen which is 

 certainly not Harlan's type, though believed to be so when Dr. Baur examined 

 it. Therefore it is obvious that Mr. Boulenger ngt only has no grounds for 

 uniting Testudo elephantojius Harlan with Testudo nigra of Quoy & Gaim., 

 but has still less reason for asserting that either came from S. Alb(^marle. My o«ii 

 opinion, from the descriptions given by Captain David Porter in his cruise of the 

 U.S.A. frigate Essex, is that the tortoise identified by Dr. Giinther with Testudo 

 elephantopus Harlan came from Hood Island, while T. nigrita Dum. it Bibr. 

 {— planiceps Gray.) came from James Island, and an nndescribed form I possess 

 was, in my opinion, the race inhabiting Chatham Island; but that none of these 

 ever came from any i)art of Albemarle is certain. 



