128 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIII. 



NOTES ON THE SPECIES AND VARIETIES OF 

 TESTUDO IN THE COLOMBO MUSEUM. 



By Mr. Amyrald Haly, Director of the Colombo Museum. 



The Colombo Museum contains three species of Testudo in 

 its collection : — Testudo elephantina, Dum. et Bib. ; Testudo 

 elegans, Schcepft ; and Testudo ibera, Pallas. 



The first of these is the tortoise brought here by the 

 Dutch, which died on March 23 last. This specimen, 

 although mounted and retained in the Museum, can scarcely 

 be said to form part of the Zoological collection : it must be 

 looked upon rather as a reminiscence of old Dutch times, in 

 the same way as a plate, a box, or a sword bearing the 

 monogram " V. 0. C. " I will therefore say nothing more on 

 this subject, except to refer Members of the Society who 

 wish to become acquainted with the romantic story of our 

 gigantic and extinct tortoises, to Dr. Gunther's superb 

 Monograph, or to his two popular Papers on the subject, 

 which will be found in " Nature," Vol. XII., 1875. 



For some years I have been very doubtful what species 

 of Testudo existed in Ceylon. The collection contains 

 specimens allied to T. elegans, but which appeared to me to 

 differ so much from the normal form, that I could only 

 refer them to it provisionally ; and there was also a purchased 

 specimen, which certainly belonged to no species as yet 

 known from India or Ceylon. As I had to determine the 

 species of the large Dutch tortoise, I took the opportunity of 

 carefully examining our other specimens. 



We have six stuffed specimens of T. elegans, and one young 

 in spirits, presented by Mr. W. Ferguson, who contributed 

 so generously to the formation of the Museum collection. 

 I thought it might be of interest to the Society to point out 

 the great range of variation in this species, especially as I 

 have not seen the subject mentioned in any hematological 

 works. 



