52 
THE EACES OF THE MASCAEENES. 
Measurements. 
T. triserrata. 
T. inepta. 
T. leptocnemis. 
No. 39954. No. 39958. No. 39959. 
No. 39955. 
millim. 
B7. 
millim. 
B8. 
millim. 
140 
60 
50 
Length of femur 
Least circumference of femur 
Width of condyles 
millim. millim. millim. 
152 133 116 
75 71 56 
62 56 45 
152 
75 
59 
135 
63 
48 
Tibia. — Two examples of this bone are in the collection of the British Museum. 
Although they do not much differ in size, the ossification of the apophyses of the 
smaller one (No 39960) is in a comparatively much more backward stage than in the 
larger example (No. 39961) (Plate XXVII. fig. D), which is 125 millims. long, with 
a circumference of 50 millims. in its narrowest part. A still larger specimen, 140 
millims, long, is in Mr. Newton's collection. The articular surface is divided into two 
portions for the reception of the condyles, of which the inner is deeply concave, the 
outer nearly flat. The shaft is slightly bent. The distal end develops a prominent inner 
malleolus, separated from the opposite part of the articular surface by a deep hollow. 
Fibula.— Only one fibula (No. 39962) (Plate XXVIII. fig. H) is preserved; it is of 
the right side of a very large individual, evidently the same of which the radius (No. 
39951) has been described. It is a straight slender bone, 134 millims. long, nearly 
cylindrical in the middle, and gradually ^widening below. Its proximal end presents an 
oblique concave facet to the articular surface of the outer condyle, its distal end a 
subquadrangular convex surface to the tarsus. Its lower and upper portions and its 
hinder surface are provided with rough tubercular crests and protuberances, which is 
evidently but incidental to the age of the individual. 
The scanty historical evidence preceding the final extinction of the Eodriguez Tor- 
toise has been referred to in the Introduction. 
Remains of this Tortoise had been discovered and had reached Europe many years 
ago ; but no particular attention was paid to them. M. J. Desjardins, one of the first 
explorers of the fauna of Mauritius, sent a bone of a Tortoise, found, in 1786, in a 
cave in Rodriguez, with some remains of the Solitaire to Paris *, where they were ex- 
amined by CuviER and Blainville, who erroneously stated them to have been recently 
found under a bed of lava in Mauritius f . Another Mauritian naturalist, C. Tel- 
pair, in searching, in 1832, for bones of the Solitaire in Rodriguez, succeeded in obtain- 
ing *' numerous bones of the extremities of one or more large species of Tortoise," 
which were presented to the Zoological Society of London, and exhibited at one of the 
meetings ^. These bones were still in the possession of the Society three or four years 
B. The Gigantic Land-Tortoise of Rodriguez. 
* Proc. Comm. Zool. See. ii. p. 111. Strickland andMelviUe, ' The Dodo,' pp. 51-53. 
t Edinb. Journ. Nat. Sci. iii. p. 30. t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, p. 31. 
