1891.] The Origin of the Galapagos Islands. 223 
only the skeletons have been studied (Allen, “ Pinnipedia”). Bats 
have been seen by Habel, and are also mentioned by Wolf; but 
no specimens have been collected so far. 
Before speaking about the birds, I shall treat the reptiles, which 
are represented by tortoises, lizards, and snakes. The gigantic 
land tortoises always have attracted attention. The Spaniards 
gave the name Galapagos to these islands, which means tortoise. 
I may mention here that the etymology of the word Galapago is 
not known; the regular Spanish word for tortoise is tortuga, as 
in the Portuguese. The Portuguese also have the word cacado, 
which is of South American origin. It is probable that the word 
Galapago is of Central or South American origin also. I have 
treated on the tortoises in a paper published lately in the AMERICAN 
NATURALIST, and I shall give my results here in brief. i 
It was David Porter, the well-known American commodore of 
the “ Essex,” who pointed out for the first time the important fact 
that the different islands contain different races of the tortoise. 
Darwin has fully supported this view. He states that the inhabi- 
tants of Charles Island could tell from the aspect of the tortoise from 
which particular island it came. Tortoises have been recorded from 
Hood, Charles, Chatham, Indefatigable, Duncan, James, Albemarle, 
Abingdon. Nothing is known in this regard about Barrington, 
Brattle, Jervis, Bindloe, Tower, and the others. So far we know, 
there are six races of land tortoises from these islands: 1. 7. 
elephantopus Harlan = T. vicina, Guenther; from South Albemarle. 
2. T. galapagoénsis Baur = T. elephantopus Jackson; from Charles 
Island. The only complete specimen is in the Museum of the 
Boston Society of Natural History. 3. T. abingdoni Guenther = 
T. ephippium Guenther; Abingdon Island. 4. T. microphyes 
Guenth.; North Albemarle. 5. Z: guentheri Baur = a elephan- 
topus Guenther ; locality unknown. 6. T. nigrita Dum. and Bib. ; 
locality unknown. 
It is impossible yet to determine to which island the two last 
tortoises belong; but the important fact remains that the seaievicied 
are different on the different islands. The species from Abingdon 
Island, for instance, is not found on any other one ; the Charles 
Island form is only found there, and so on. 
Am. Nat.—March.—3. 
