126 ON TESTUDO EPHIPPIUM. 



NOTE XXI. 



ON ABNORMAL PECTORAL SHIELDS IN 

 TESTUDO EPHIPPIUM GTHR. 



BY 



Dr. TH. W. VAN LIDTH DE JEUDE. 



(Plates 3, 4 aud 5). 



In the beginning of this year our herpetological collec- 

 tion was enriched with a specimen of the gigantic land- 

 tortoises from the Galapagos-islands. The specimen, a male 

 one, directly struck me by the peculiar arrangement of 

 the pectoral shields , which have a triangular form , and 

 do not meet in the middle of the plastron. 



On further information as to the exact locality where 

 our tortoise was captured , I learned from Prof. Giglioli , 

 to whom the specimen had formerly belonged, that it was 

 captured by the captain of an Italian merchant-vessel in 

 1884 on the island of Duncan, together with a similar 

 but smaller male specimen, which was still in the Florence 

 Museum. 



Now the peculiar arrangement of the pectoral shields of 

 our specimen quite agrees with the form and position of 

 these shields in Testudo emys and in Tesfudo Phayrii; the 

 former species showing the said arrangement with both sexes, 

 the latter only with the males ^). For this reason I thought 

 it probable that our specimen, together with the Florence 



1) See my note on Testudo emys and its affinities. Notes Leyden Museum , 

 Vol. XVII, p. 197. 



Notes from th.e L^eyden. üMuseum, Vol. .X.X!. 



