DB. A. GUNTHEE ON GIGANTIC LAND-TOBTOISES. 
277 
5. Testudo vicina. 
A few days after the preceding notes had been delivered to the Royal Society (see 
Proc. Roy. Soc. 1874, June 18th) I received, through the kindness of Professor Huxley, 
Sec. R.S., the carapace and skeleton of another adult male example, which on closer 
inspection proved to be a highly interesting addition to our knowledge of these Tortoises. 
Unfortunately no record of its history has been preserved ; but the condition of the 
bones, which have retained a large quantity of fat, clearly shows that the animal had 
been living within a very recent period, and therefore came from the Galapagos, and 
not from one of the Mascarene islands *. 
The form of the carapace (Plate 85. fig. A) reminds us of that of T. elepliantojpus , but 
it is still more depressed, the greater part of the two middle costal plates participating 
in the formation of the plane surface of the back. The first dorsal scute is but very 
slightly declivous towards the front, and the edge of the shell along the three anterior 
marginals is reverted and scalloped ; thus the fore part of the shell has in a slight 
degree the form of a saddle, but it is much less compressed than in T. ephippiwm. 
The striae of the plates are very distinct, but shallow, and distant from one another 
(broad), occupying the greater part of the surface of each plate. The striated portions 
of the plates are not of the same intense black as the smooth ones, but more or less 
tinged with brown. The shape of the sternum differs from that of the preceding species, 
its gular portion being singularly constricted and having the lateral margins excised. 
The gular plates are truncated in front. The opposite end of the sternum is dilated, 
the caudal plates being expanded like wings ; their hind margins meet at an obtuse 
angle. All the plates of the sternum, with the exception of the pectorals and abdo- 
minals, are striated like the dorsal plates. The surface of the sternum is deeply concave. 
There is in the British Museum a young stuffed example, with a carapace 12iy inches 
long (without particular indication of its origin), which I am inclined to refer to this 
species. It has the same depressed shell as the adult, with a similar striation of the 
plates, and with the anterior margins distinctly reverted ; but the sternum is not con- 
stricted anteriorly, nor are the caudals expanded like wings. At present we have not 
the means of judging whether this difference could be accounted for by age or sex; 
however, as the skull of this young individual agrees singularly well with that of the 
adult, there is good reason for believing it to be a second example of the same species. 
* My endeavours to trace in the various Collections the specimens which are known to have reached England 
alive within the last forty years have been hitherto singularly unsuccessful ; and the present example is the 
only one which might he supposed to be possibly identical with the individual reported to have been sent to the 
Zoological Society in 1834, by the Hon. Byrox Caky, from the Galapagos (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834, p. 113). 
That specimen is said to have weighed 187 lbs., and measured in length, over the curve of the dorsal shell, 44| 
inches (I find in our specimen 41| inches), and along the sternum 25§ inches (as in ours) ; its girth round the 
middle was 75J inches (69 inches according to my measurement). It is added that “ the lateral compression 
of the anterior part of the dorsal shell, and the elevation of its front margin .... are in this specimen strongly 
marked.” 
2 p 
MDCCCLXXV. 
