24 PEOCEEDIKGS OF THE 



and was preserved for the Colombo Museum by Mr. Haly, to 

 wliom I am indebted for sketches of the stuffed animal and for 

 the loan of some of the bones. So far as I am able to judge 

 from these somewhat incomplete materials, this animal certainly 

 belongs to the same group of races with a narrow bridge of the 

 pehis which includes the Madigascar and Aldabra Tortoises. 

 Unable to identify it with any of the races described, I con- 

 sider it not improbable that this animal really came originally 

 from the Seychelles, and was the last, or one of the last survivors 

 of the Seychelles race. On geographical giounds one may anti- 

 cipate that the Seychelles race would belong to the Aldabran 

 group rather than the Mascarene. But positive evidence on this 

 point can only be given when remains of undoubtedly indigenous 

 specimens are examined, and these have still to be discovered. 



2. M. Sauzier has drawn attention to a most interesting speci- 

 men which has been known to have been kept at Port Louis 

 since Mauritius became a British possession iu 1810, and is still 

 living there in the barracks of the garri.son. Captain Pasfit-ld 

 Oliver carries irs history still farther back, and (on what grounds 

 I am unable to find out) ascribes its importation into Mauritius 

 from the Seychelles in 1766 to a rreuchman, Captain Marion du 

 Fresne. M. Sauzier and Dr. Gradow, however, consider it a 

 native of Mauritius. From various photographs which have 

 been published, and others for which I am indebted to Capt. 

 Oliver, it is evident that this Tortoise, named Testudo smne.irei 

 by Sauzier, belongs to the group of Mascarene Tortoises with 

 double gulars which has been described by Gadow, and, there- 

 fore, is also a survivor, perhaps the last, of an extinct race, the 

 original home of which is not yet known. 



3. The third specimen to which I would draw your attention, 

 is the Tortoise so well known for many years to visitors to 

 St. Helena. The information which has reached me about it 

 shows that tradition as regards the history of these animals is 

 very unreliable, and has to be received with great caution. 

 According to all accounts, the specimen is a female w^hich was 

 brought to St. Helena from Mautitius more than a century ago. 

 At a later period a male, larger than the female, was imported 

 as her companion ; and both were in excellent health when seen 

 by Mr. H. Eingler Thomson, to whom I am indebted lor this 

 information. The male is reported to have died in 1877, but 

 another seems to have been provided, as would appear from a 

 letter of Mr. Grey "Wilson, Governor of the Island, to Capt. P. 

 Oliver *. The shell of the specimen which died in 1877, and 



* St. Helena, 26 Oct. 1894. " The old Tortoise is still hale and hearty, 

 i. e., the female of about 2U0 summers. We have a rather larger one also, a 

 male which was imported in 1882 ; and they had a happy existence, always 

 going to the lower lands in winter, and coming to our lawn in the summer. 

 The male arrived yesterday, but I hear the female is in Friar's valley below 

 the waterfall [some 3 or 4 miles distant from the Plantation house] ; and I 

 expect I shall have to send a rescue party to get her up, as she ought to have 

 arrived with her husband yesterday." 



