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CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Peoc. 4th Ser. 



These tortoises also went to Rothschild's museum at Tring, 

 England. Mr. Beck has published in the seventh report of the 

 New York Zoological Society some interesting notes on the 

 habits of the tortoises. He says, in part : 



"The tortoise seemed to have no regular time for feeding, 

 being at all hours of the day eating or walking about. During 

 the middle of the day, if the sun is shining, they keep in the 

 shade of the trees, but if it is cloudy many spend the time wan- 

 dering back and forth on the trails. We were told by the 

 natives that in the summer the tortoises go up to the top of 

 the mountain; and this statement confirmed my observations 

 of similar habits of other species in the Archipelago. 



"We found that the tortoise trails extend up and down the 

 [Vilamil] mountain side for miles, one of the objective points 

 at the lower part of the range being a rocky basin where 

 water collects during rains. By centuries of constant use 

 these rocks have been worn so smooth that it is almost impos- 

 sible to walk over them after a rain, while they are wet. Once 

 we noticed four tortoises slaking their thirst at a rocky pool 

 near the trail, but during our stay at the ranch the rainfall was 

 so great that every little hollow in the ground held water, and a 

 tortoise could get a drink anywhere. 



"One afternoon, while standing under a tree during a heavy 

 downpour, I was surprised to see a big tortoise come slowly 

 down the hill through the wet grass, walk into a rapidly- 

 forming pool of water, take a long drink, and then lie down in 

 the pool. When he settled down, the depth of the water was 

 only two inches ; but in a few minutes it had increased to eight 

 inches ; and he seemed entirely content, until his attention was 

 attracted to a female tortoise, which also came to the pool to 

 drink. That attraction was the stronger, so he left the water 

 and set out to make her acquaintance. 



"After the rain had ceased, I went down the trail some dis- 

 tance and saw another tortoise living in a hollow filled with 

 water. He remained there all night, apparently, for on our 

 return the next morning he was still in it. These two observa- 

 tions rather tended to disprove my theory regarding one of 

 the causes of the annual migration which affects nearly all the 

 species of the Galapagos tortoises. I had formed the opinion 

 that the migration was partly due to the slightly colder 



