THE GIGANTIC MASCARENE TORTOISES. 375 



well-known India Orientalis before mentioned.^ The title to this 

 drawing, a facsimile of which is here given, runs thus : — 

 " Quomodo Hullaudi in Mauritii insula ingentes Testudines 

 inuenerint." And the description as follows : " Cum HoUaudicoe 

 naues An. 1598, in Indiam expedirentur, in transitu Insulam 

 quandam, Mauritij dictam occuparunt : quse testudines peltatas 

 tarn grandes ferebat ut super una duo insidentes HoUandi, uon 

 secus ac ne minimu graues, citra omne impedimentum longe, 

 proferrentur. Illarum nonnullaj ad earn usque magnitudine 

 crescunt, vt in vuius auulsa testa decem viri commode sedere & 

 epulari potuerint. In eadem Insula psittacorum columbarumque 

 numerum quoque maximum repererunt tarn cicurura, ut fustibus 

 eas prostrauerint. Sed et alise ibidem aves viste sunt, quas 

 Walckvogel Batavi nominarunt et uuam secum in Hollandiam 

 importarunt." 



A large example of what was probably one of the last of the 

 Kodriguez species was imported more than half a century ago to 

 England, and kept at the Zoological Gardens, where it was living 

 when described in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 (1833, p. 81). It weighed 289 lbs., the shell being 4 ft. 4i ins. 

 in length (over the curve), and 4 ft. 9 ins. in width. 



When Mauritius was surrendered to General Abercrombie, in 

 1810, among the ordnance stores handed over to and taken in 

 charge by the Royal Artillery there was a huge land tortoise which, 

 not improbably, may be a Rodriguez animal, as from its size it must 

 certainly have been living in the days of Leguat. It is still 

 alive, and has been a denizen of Artillery Place and the bari'acks 



1 Pars quarta. After the text, which finishes at p. iii, are to be 

 found the plates which belong to this part, entitled : — " Icones seu 

 genuinse et expressse delineationes eorum omnium qute in hac quarta 

 Judise orieutahs descriptione singularia offeruutur. Vbi peregrinorum 

 quorundam animalium, arborum, fructuum, plantarumque, &c. alias 

 non visorum viva effigies exhibetur. Quge omnia et sumptuosis 

 impensis, & oj^era accurata in ges incisa, publicfeque luci com- 

 municata sunt a Joanne Theodorico et Joanne Israele de Bry fratribus 

 & ciuibus Moeno Francof urteusibus. Fraucoforti Imprimebat Matthaeus 

 Becker. Anno jidci." 



