64 
THE EACES OP THE GALAPAGOS. 
4. Carapace, with epidermoid plates, of a young example, 18 inches long. Sex and 
history unknown. Property of the Free Public Museum, Liverpool. 
5. A perfect skeleton with carapace, 15| inches long, obtained at Colon, and pre- 
sented by Captain E. M. Leeds (S.S. ' Tasmanian ') to the author, and now in the British 
Museum. 
Carapace. — In the largest example (specimen No. 1) (Plate XXX. fig. A), which has 
been prepared into a skeleton, the outlines of the epidermoid plates can be clearly 
traced. It is a fully adult male which, to judge from the condition of the bones, had 
ceased to grow a long time before its death ; the dorsal portion of the shell is extremely 
thin, in some parts quite transparent. There is almost a total absence of anterior 
declivity of the first dorsal scute, its front margin being but very little below the level 
of the highest point of the carapace. The sides of this fore part of the carapace are 
expanded, not contracted as in T. epMppium. The sternum is inches long, and 
23 inches broad between the lateral margins of the abdominal plates. It is deeply 
concave ; and when the animal rested on the ground it touched it with the sides of the 
sternum, which are thicker than the remainder of the carapace, and on a transverse 
terminal callosity produced by the reverted posterior margin of the sternum, which is 
straight, truncated, without excision. 
Another male example (specimen No. 3) agrees in every respect with the preceding, 
except in the sexual characters being much less developed, the specimen being only 
23 inches long, and therefore much younger. The first dorsal scute is more declivous 
towards the front, the concavity of the sternum less deep, and its terminal callosity 
only indicated by the very porous and rough surface of the bone. 
In young examples (15 to 18 inches long) the concentric striae are numerous, but not 
deeply cut ; and in this respect the present species is intermediate between T. nigrita 
and T. ephippium. The posterior end of the sternum is nearly truncate, the hind 
margin of each anal plate being obtusely rounded, and the plates being separated by so 
shallow a notch that, evidently, with advancing age the sternum would have assumed 
the same truncate shape which we find in the adult specimens. 
It remains to add the principal measurements of the specimens examined : — 
Length of carapace. 
Width of 
carapace. 
Sternum. 
Caudal plate. 
Instr.line. Over curve. 
In str.line. 
Over curve. 
Length. 
Width. 
Length. 
Width 
Spec. 
no. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
1. 
6 
31 
37i 
26 
40 
23 
2. 
... 281 
36i 
23 
35 
221 
19 
3. 
6 
23 
27i 
18 
29 
18i 
161 
H 
31 
4. 
? ? 
... 18 
22 
12i 
19| 
14 
12 
3 
5. 
?? 
... 15i 
18^ 
Hi 
19 
121 
11 
2^ 
Osteology. — The skull of an adult example of Testudo elephantopus (specimen No. 1, 
fig. A of Plates XLII.-XLIV.) is distinguished by a very short snout and a singularly 
