THE ZooLtocist—NoveEMBER, 1875. 4681 
lent to me by the Director, Mr. T. C. Archer, who most kindly 
allowed the skull and limb-bones to be extracted, which could be 
effected without the least injury to the outward appearance of the 
specimen. This species I have named Testudo ephippium. 
4. The smallest of the Galapagos tortoises is one for which I 
have proposed the name Testudo microphyes, the carapace of a 
fully adult male being only 223 inches long. We may presume 
that this specimen, for an examination of which I am indebted to 
the Museum Committee of the Royal Institution of Liverpool, is a 
representative of the race from Hood’s Island, Porter having 
expressly stated that the tortoises of that island are small, and 
similar to those of Charles Island. Indeed, the shell is elongate, 
as in T. ephippium, but the anterior profile is declivous. The 
skull has the characteristics of a young skull of one of its more 
gigantic congeners; the outer pterygoid edge is flat, and there 
is no recess in front of the occipital condyle, as in the species 
from Charles Island. 
5. In the last species (Testudo vicina) the skull is depressed as 
in the first, with the upper exterior profile sub-horizontal in the 
male, and with the lateral anterior margins reverted so as to 
approach the peculiar shape of T. ephippium. The concentric 
sculpture of the plates is distinct. Sternum of quite a peculiar 
shape, much constricted and produced in front, and expanded 
and excised behind. The skull is extremely similar to that of 
T. ephippium. Unfortunately nothing is known of the history 
of the adult male example which formerly was in the possession 
of Prof. Huxley, and ceded by him to the collection of the British 
Museum. 
B. The Mauritian Tortoises—It would be a matter of con- 
siderable interest to ascertain whether the tortoises of Mauritius 
lacked the nuchal plate, like the Galapagos races, to which in 
other respects they are so closely related. ‘The only carapace 
which I have seen is deprived of the epidermoid scutes, and, 
besides, so much injured in the nuchal region that it is impossible 
to determine the absence or presence of a nuchal plate. But the 
Mauritian tortoises were characterised by a peculiarity hitherto 
unknown among recent land tortoises, viz., by a treble serrated 
dental ridge along the lower jaw. 
The examination of a considerable number of bones, part of 
which were obtained during the search for dodo bones, and are 
