274 THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES. 



Plates 35, 36, and on Plate 4 are those of the thirty- three and a half inch male 

 drawn on his Plate 34 and fig. A of Plate 35. The following measurements, 

 in inches, were given of the Cookson specimens, all supposed to be from Tagus 

 Cove. 



Testudo vicina Giinther. 



Plates 6, 7. 



Testudo vicina Gunther, 1875, Philos. trans. Royal soc. London, 165, p. 277, pi. 35 A, 40, fig. B, pi. 41, 

 fig. A, C, pi. 45, fig, C, C, D; 1877, Gigantic land-tortoises, p. 73, pi. 31, 46, fig. B, pi. 47, fig. A, C, 

 pi. 54, fig. C, C, D; BouLENGBR, 1889, Cat. Chelon., p. 170; Rothschild, 1902, Nov. zool., 9, p. 

 448; Heller, 1903, Proc. Wash. acad. sci., 5, p. 54; Beck, 1903, 7th Ann. rept. N. Y. zool. soc, 

 p. 164; SiEBENROCK, 1909, Zool. jahrb. Suppl., 10, p. 354; Van Denburgh, 1914, Proc. Cal. acad. 

 sci., ser. 4, 2, p. 344, pi. 93-110; Rothschild, 1915, Nov. zool., 22, p. 406. 



Testudo elephantopus Baur, 1889, Amer. nat., 23, p. 1044; Lucas, 1891, Smithsonian rept., pi. 104, 

 fig. — ; Gadow, 1901, Cambridge nat. hist., 8, p. 378. 



Testudo nigrita Cope, 1889, Proc. U. S. N. M., p. 147; Lucas, 1891, Smithsonian rept., pi. 104, fig. — . 



In the lot of young tortoises purchased by Prof. Louis Agassiz on Santa 

 Maria Island (Charles) in 1871 there is a fourteen inch specimen of Testudo 

 vicina. How it came to be on that island is not known. From the young it 

 is very evident that this species is most closely allied to T. nigrita, Plate 10. 

 Testudo vicina differs from the latter in being longer, narrower, and higher, 

 and there are other differences of which the measurements give no hint. The 

 length over the curvature at this stage of growth about equals the width over 

 the curvature in each species. The carapace of T. vicina is the more flattened, 

 it is more depressed, that is, it has less of the dome shape on the middle of the 

 back. The arches between the areolae of opposed costal plates are lower and 

 broader. The curves from the nuchal notch to the areola of the fourth vertebral 

 scale are broader and the descent from that point to the lower edge of the caudal 

 scute is less steep. In the sternum, the two species are similar in the gular 

 and the anal scales. The areolar spaces appear to be smaller on the back of 

 T. vicina, but the striae are equally distinct. A photograph of the specimen is 

 shown in Plate 6. The outlines of the type, as drawn by Ford for Gunther, 



