18 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE 



Tortoises. M. Sanzier may be correct in this belief, but be bas 

 failed to bring forward any satisfactory proof of his assertion. 

 I shall bave to return to tbis subject later on, wben referring to 

 tbe Colombo Tortoise. 



"When I commenced the study of these animals, I found the 

 opinion of zoologists with regard to them very much divided. 

 Pew adopted the view of the Prench herpetologists, Dumeril and 

 Bibron, who bad described eigbt distinct species in their great 

 work. The majority were inclined to regard all tbese animals 

 as belonging to two (an Indian and a Pacific type), or even to one 

 species whicb, by man's agency, had been carried to, and dis- 

 tributed over, various distant parts of the globe, and for which 

 the general appellation " Testudo indica " was adopted. On the 

 whole, the zoologists of my younger years took little interest in 

 them, and many a specimen which is now valued as one of the 

 treasures in a collection had been stowed away among the 

 curiosities of the lumber-room. 



I was enabled to throw some light on the matter by the 

 fortunate concurrence of several circumstances, chief of which 

 were — the discovery of numerous remains in Mauritius, where the 

 search for Dodo- and other bird-bones was actively carried on by 

 the late Sir E. Newton ; the arrival of the large collections made 

 during the Transit-of- Venus expedition in Eodriy;uez, and 

 entrusted to me by the Eoyal Society ; the assistance which I 

 received from Lord Stanmore, then Governor of Mauritius, from 

 Capt. (now Sir) W. J. L. Wharton, F.R.S., who was engaged in a 

 survey of the East-African coast, from Admii'al the Hoq. A. A. 

 Cochrane, by whose orders Commander Cookson visited the 

 Galapagos, and from many other correspondents. I was able to 

 show that among the material thus brought together three distinct 

 types could be distinguished, either by osteological characters or 

 the number of dermal scutes, viz. : 



1. The Aldabran type, 



2. The Mascarene type, 



3. The Galapagos type ; 



and, moreover, that several species were included in each of these 

 three groups ; that each species seemed to be limited to a parti- 

 cular island, but that some of the islands, like Aidabra, Mauritius, 

 Albemarle, were tenanted by several species. 



The subject was full of conteutional matter, and, after all, the 

 material upon which I based my conclusions was most perplexing 

 in its incompleteness. But I have the satisfaction of seeing 

 that since the publication of my work some 50 papers and 

 memoirs * have appeared, all contributing towards our knowledge 

 of one or the other of these animals, and some opening up ques- 

 tions of wider biological interest. The material which one of our 

 Pellows, the Hon. Walter Rothschild, is at present bringing 

 together with his usual energy and directness of purpose, no 



* See Appendix, pp. 26-29. 



