TESTUDO HOLOLISSA. 
39 
The femur differs in some measure from that of T. elephantina. Its shaft is much 
flattened in the direction from the front backwards ; a narrow and deep cavity separates 
the head from the trochanters ; the two trochanters are entirely separated from each 
other ; and a deep incision forms the marginal boundary between the head and each of 
the trochanters. The lateral portions of the body of the bone below the trochanters 
are conspicuously impressed. 
The bones of the lower leg and carpus do not show any noteworthy peculiarity, except 
that the proximal portion of the tibia is deeply grooved on its hinder surface. 
T. ponderosa. T. elephantma. T. daudinii. 
t ^ 
Spec. c. Spec. I. Spec. n. Spec. r. 
millim. 
millim. 
millim. 
millim. 
millim. 
millim. 
Length of the femur 
148 
250 
145 
185 
Least circumference of the femur 
67 
128 
76 
100 
"Width of the condyles 
60 
120 
66 
85 
Length of the tibia 
113 
170 
110 
136 
137 
Least circumfei'cnce of the tibia 
48 
95 
53 
70 
75 
Length of the fibula 
108 
170 
110 
131 
139 
Least circumference of the fibula 
34 
70 
37 
51 
53 
4. TeSTUDO HOLOLISSA. 
This Tortoise may be considered to be the form which is analogous to the T. micro- 
jphyes of the Galapagos group. Like that species it is perfectly smooth, even from a 
comparatively early stage of growth. I have seen two carapaces of males, one being 
fully adult, the other about half-grown : both are preserved in the Museum of the 
Eoyal College of Surgeons (Nos. 1020 and 1021) *. 
With regard to their history, we learn from the Cat. Osteol. Ser. Coll. Surg. i. p. 198, 
that the larger (No. 1021) "was a native of the Seychelle Islands, and was being sent 
to General De Caen, Governor of the Isle of France, in the French corvette ' Gobe- 
mouche,' which was captured by Captain Corbet, of H.M.S. ' Nereida,' and the animal 
brought to the Cape of Good Hope. It was sent to England by Admiral Bertie, who 
commanded at the Cape, and remained in a living state at Petworth, the seat of the 
Earl of Egremont, from August 1809 until April 1810. Its weight was 207 pounds." 
We have no evidence that any of these Tortoises were indigenous in the Seychelle 
Islands ; on the contrary, it is the belief of the persons best acquainted with this group, 
that all the individuals kept there in a state of domestication were originally imported 
from the Aldabra group ; and therefore this specimen had probably the same origin as 
the living female in the Zoological Gardens (see ' Nature,' vol, xii. 1875, p. 260), which 
evidently belongs to the same species. 
* I am indebted to Professor Flower, who gave me every facility for a careful and repeated examination of 
these specimens. 
