Vol. II, Pt. I] VAN DENBURGH— GALAPAGOS TORTOISES 357 



General remarks. — Testudo porteri seems to be still fairly 

 common. It is a very large species with thick, heavy shell. 

 The large males are rounder and more dome-shaped than 

 those of any other locality, v^ome of the half-grown females 

 can only with great difficulty be distinguished from southern 

 Albemarle specimens. If one may judge from the condition 

 of the bones, the largest specimens in our collection are still 

 quite young, in fact none of our Indefatigable tortoises ap- 

 pears to be of great age. It is probable that they grow rap- 

 idly when in their native haunts, although our smallest speci- 

 men grew less than an inch and a half in length in six years 

 of life in San Francisco. 



Nine eggs (No. 8421) taken from a nest found on Inde- 

 fatigable October 25, 1905, measure 2.50x2.20, 2.45x2.30, 

 2.44x2.24, 2.35x2.30, 2.35x2.24, 2.30x2.25, 2.25x2.25, 2.25x 

 2.20 and 2.23x2.22 inches. 



Field Notes. — Oct. 25, 1905, went ashore on Indefatigable 

 to look for tortoises at the same place where Beck found them 

 before, and hunted all day. Early in the morning, soon after 

 our arrival at the hunting grounds, we found one small 

 female. We then scattered, everybody following different 

 trails. The trails are from three to five feet wide. At inter- 

 vals the ground may be seen dug up, like a wallow. No fresh 

 droppings were seen, but lots of old ones along the trails. I 

 saw several apparently fresh wallows, but no tortoises. At 

 two o'clock, we all met at the place we found the first tortoise 

 and started back for the ship. King and Hunter carrying the 

 tortoise. Beck, Williams and myself went a little to the 

 north, and soon fell upon a fresh track. We followed this for 

 about ten minutes, and soon came upon a big male tortoise 

 walking slowly through the brush. While looking at our 

 prize, we heard a noise in the brush at one side, and, turning 

 around, saw a large female heading the way we had just come. 

 We killed the female, and turning the male on his back, tied 

 his feet to a tree, as it was too late to do more. The female 

 had eggs in the ovaries at different stages of development — 

 some already with hard shells and some in yolk. Some va- 

 cant spaces were seen from which the eggs had already been 

 laid. We found a nest on one of the trails, and Beck dug it 

 out, finding ten eggs. The nests look like a little round space 



