practised by dra^ving the hairs of his fore-arra over the glans. I 

 castrated him some time before death, but not until the ravages of 

 mollities had very far advanced. 



" In conclusion, I beg again to apologize for these unconnected 

 remarks, which I have put together hastily and AS'ithout being en- 

 abled to refer to any notes." 



The conclusion of the paper by Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley 

 on the Gigantic Fossil Tortoise of India was then read : — 



" On a former meeting -vve ■vvent through the anatomical characters 

 presented by the remains of the Colossochelys Atlas. Commencing 

 ■vvith the plastron, we traced the modifieations of form through the 

 costal elements of the carapace and the dorsal vertebrse, all of which 

 bear the closest resemblance to the ordinary type of the Chersite Che- 

 lonians, or true land toitoises. A likę result follo\ved the examina- 

 tion of the extremities, -vvhich, as exhibited in the remains of the 

 humerus, femur and ungueal phalanges, were seen to be constructed 

 exactly on the jjlan of Testudo, -^'ith columnar legs and truncated 

 club-shaped feet, as in the proboscidean Pachydermata. The šame 

 direction of affinity was observed throughout the conformation of 

 the head. The only portions of the skeleton from ■vvhich more or less 

 direct evidence ■vvas not derived, ■were the neck and tail vertebrse, of 

 ■which there M^ere no specimens in the collection. The general re- 

 sult of the examination showed that the Colossochelys Atlas "vvas 

 strictly a land tortoise in every part of its bony frame ; and the im- 

 pressions of the horny scutes proved the likę in regard to the arrange- 

 ment of its dermal integument. 



" The principai distinctive characters were found in the stemum, 

 ■vvhich is enormously thickened at its anterior extremity, along the 

 united portion of the episternal bones, and contracted into a narrow 

 neck, so that the ■vvidth of the combined episternals does not much 

 exceed their thickness : this thickened portion bears on its under side 

 a deep massive cuneifonn keel, which terminates upon the commence- 

 ment of the entosternal piece. There is more or less thickening of 

 this part in all the species of Testudo, and the amount of it is very 

 variable in difFerent individuals of the šame species ; but there is 

 nothing approaching the šame degree of contraction in reference to 

 the thickness, nor aught likę a developed keel, in any of the existing 

 land tortoises -vvhich v;e. have either had an opportunity of examining, 

 or seen described in systematic -vvorks on the tribe. The keel in the 

 fossil is feebly sho^vvn in the young animal, but strongly marked in 

 the adult. Conceiving that generic distinctions are only legitimate 

 in the case of ■well-defined modifieations affecting some of the leading 

 characters in the organization of an animal, ■vve do not consider our- 

 selves -vvarranted in attaching a higher systematic importance to the 

 Colossochelys than as a subgenus of Testudo, yihich may technically 

 be defined thus (the distinction resting mainly on the form of the 

 stemum) : — 



Subgen. Colossochelys. 



Testą solidu, immobilis, sterno antici in collum valde incrassatnm, 



