4i 



NOTE XII. 



ON CERTAIN TORTOISES IN THE COLLECTIONS 

 OE THE LEYDEN MUSEUM. 



BY 



Dr. A. A. W. HÜBRECHT. 



Günther's splendid inonograpli on the gigantic landtor- 

 toises , which appeared a few years ago , induced me to com- 

 pare the specimens belonging to this group , which form 

 part of the Leyden collections. Among these is the ori- 

 ginal specimen of lestudo indica vosmaeri Schoepff as it 

 was first described and figured by this author in 1792 in 

 his Historia Testudinorum (page 103, PI. 22). Fitzinger, 

 Dumeril & Bibron and others have since introduced this 

 species into science under the name of Testudo vosmaeri^ 

 without however being able to decide anything with cer- 

 tainty as to the locality where the species was to be sought 

 for. Other authors such as Schlegel and Gray united all 

 the gigantic landtortoises into one species to which the 

 name of Testudo indica was applied : for them T. vosmaeri 

 was a mere synonym. 



Günther was the first to clear up the confusion with 

 the aid of extensive material collected both in the Indian 

 ocean and on the Galapagos islands. He succeeded in de- 

 finitely settling that T. vosmaeri was a distinct species , 

 which in former centuries had inhabited the island of Ro- 

 driguez , where however it had become exterminated in the 

 beginning of this century. The species never occured auy- 



Notes from the Leyden IVIuseuTn, "Vol. Ill, 



