GIANT LAND-TORTOISES 339 
is depressed, with the horny shields nearly smooth, and 
T. gigantea elephantina, in which the shell is highly convex, 
with the shields on the back marked by conspicuous con- 
centric striations. In some instances the shield immediately 
above the tail is divided, as in the extinct Siwalik tortoise. 
The shell of a male of this species received by Mr. Roth- 
schild in 1893 measured forty and a quarter inches in length 
(in a straight line) four years later. The St. Helena example 
is said to have lived in that island for more than a century. 
It is not a little remarkable that the survivors of the 
North Aldabra tortoise should have been preserved in the 
Seychelles, while those of the species believed to be 
indigenous to the latter islands have been kept in captivity 
in Mauritius. 
In 1894 Mr. Rothschild’s specimen of the North 
Aldabra tortoise weighed 327 lb., but by 1897 its weight 
had increased to 358 Ib. These weights are, however, 
vastly exceeded by that of the great South Aldabra 
tortoise, which scaled no less than 560 Ib,; this was, 
however, immediately after its journey to England, during 
which it had become much emaciated, so that these figures 
afford no real criterion of its proper weight. Of the habits 
of the North Aldabra tortoise at Tring, its owner wrote 
as follows: ‘Whenever the temperature is over sixty 
(60° Fahr.), this tortoise has a fine run of 350 acres of 
grass park, but on the temperature falling to sixty, it is 
kept in a shed, and when once the temperature shows 
permanently below 58° Fahr., it is put in an orchid-house 
—ie., from September to June. When at liberty in the 
park it lives entirely on grass, but in the hothouse feeds 
on carrots, cabbages, lettuce, and several other vegetables. 
It is very fond of rotten fruit.” 
Of the habits of the giant tortoises of the islands of 
