DR. A. GUNTHER ON GIGANTIC LAND-TORTOISES. 
261 
Specific Descriptions. 
1. Testudo elephant ojpus. 
The Tortoise to which Harlan (Journ. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philacl. v. 1825, p. 284) gave 
this name was only 21 inches long over the curvature, or about 17 inches in a straight 
line, and therefore a young animal. A reference to the measurements and figure given 
by Harlan shows clearly that he had an animal with the broad form of the body and 
with a posteriorly truncated sternum, characteristics by which a small series of examples 
before me are distinguished, and more especially one individual of nearly the same size 
as that described by Harlan. 
Dumeril and Bibron (Erpetol. Gener. ii. p. 115) identify Harlan’s example with one 
deposited by Quoy and Gaimard in the Paris Museum under the name of Testudo nigra. 
This specimen is still smaller than Harlan’s, and of an age at which the specific 
characters are not yet developed ; and therefore there is no evidence whatever to show 
that this identification by Dumeril and Bibron is correct ; and as long as it is uncertain 
to which of the specific forms the young “ T. nigra ” should be referred, the name had 
better be disused altogether. Dumeril and Bibron associate with this young specimen 
another of large size, distinguished by its broad form, smooth plates, and posteriorly 
excised sternum, but without giving any convincing proof that these two examples are 
of the same species. I have not seen an example agreeing in all points with that large 
example, and it may possibly be another species distinct from those described here. 
The materials which I refer to T. elephantopus are the following : — 
1. An adult male example : a perfect skeleton with carapace, but without epidermoid 
plates. The carapace is 31 inches long. History of the specimen unknown ; property 
of the Oxford Museum, and kindly lent to me by Professor Rolleston, F.R.S. (Plate 33. 
fig. A). 
2. An immature female example: a perfect skeleton with carapace, but without epi- 
dermoid plates. The carapace is 28^ inches long. Hal. Galapagos Islands. Property 
of the Royal College of Surgeons. Notes on this example by Professor Owen in 
Descript. Catal. Osteol. Ser. R. Coll. Surg. i. 1853, p. 194. no. 1011. 
3. Carapace, without epidermoid plates, of an immature male example, 23 inches 
long. History unknown. Property of the Free Public Museum, Liverpool. 
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 living example, 15^ inches long, obtained by Captain E. M. Leeds (s.s. ‘ Tasma- 
nian ’) at Colon, and presented by him to me. This will be deposited in the British 
Museum after its death. 
Carapace. — In our largest example (specimen No. 1) (Plate 33. 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 
MDCCCLXXV. 2 N 
