THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES. 281 
study are that the type is abnormal, somewhat aged, probably a dwarf, and 
differs so much from the specimens obtained by Cookson as to prevent retention 
in the same species. The Tagus Cove species is considered a new one, and, 
being one of the largest found on the islands is named 7’. macrophyes (Plate 4, 5). 
The type of T. microphyes Ginther, 1875, was probably not an average 
individual of the species. The outlines of the original figures by Wesley, are 
sketched on Plate 11. As seen from above the shape is subelliptical, slightly 
irregular, and slightly narrower forward. The body is depressed and has a 
rather low arch on the back. The outline, from the side, is broadly curved 
from front to rear. Anteriorly in the first and the second vertebral plates 
there is some descent and posteriorly from the middle of the third vertebral 
the curve becomes steeper and sharper. The curved width is little if any 
greater than the curved length, certainly not so much greater as in the nearly 
allied species, 7’. nigra. Compared with that species the bones of the shell 
are thicker and heavier, the back is not so high posteriorly. The scales are 
smooth, the marginals appear to be much worn, the edges of the carapace are 
thickened and rounded at the edges. The sternum bears more resemblance 
to that of T. elephantopus than to that of T. macrophyes; it is broad and broadly 
rounded in front of the humeral extension, and behind the femoral extension, 
across the anal scutes, it becomes when old nearly or quite truncate. The 
skull differs from that of 7. macrophyes from Tagus Cove; it agrees with that 
of T. giintheri from Villamiel. 
Young individuals of about fifteen inches in direct length, Plates 17, 19, 
purchased on Santa Maria Island (Charles) appear rather smooth, though the 
striae are sharper in the younger stages. The gular plates are rounded and 
not separated by a sharp notch. In the specimen, Plate 19, the bone in the 
anal scutes is nearly truncate and the notch is shallow but the horny scales 
extend beyond and turn up in points behind it. Specimens of this size have the 
shallow early indications of the sternal concavity. 
Plates 12, 20 represent specimens of about two feet in length of cara- 
pace. In this size, with the exception of the blister-like pits, the scales are 
smooth, the gulars, the anals, and the scallops of the edges are much changed. 
The back is depressed to different degrees in different individuals and varies 
in curvature. The swollen flanks of the females indicate that they are fully 
adult. In cases the notch between the gulars, or that between the anals is 
obsolete; in others these scutes have suffered less. The gulars thicken up- 
ward; in some examples the anals have hardly changed. 
