xxxii Introduction 
avifauna of the Mascarene islands. A complete list of 
the birds of Reunion, so far as known, drawn up by Sir 
Edward Newton, is appended, but no one knows what the 
Pigeons are. 
Next to the birds of Mauritius, Mascareigne, and Rod¬ 
riguez, the attention of the old Portuguese and Dutch 
voyagers was chiefly fixed on the gigantic tortoises which 
they found, literally in crowds, on the shores of all these 
islands, valuable to the scurvy-stricken crews. 
Sir Thomas Herbert, in his curious book of travels, tells 
us of Mauritius: ‘ Moreover, this lie affoords us Goats, 
Hogs, Beeves, and land Tortoises: so great, as suffer two 
men with ease to sit upon them ; so strong, as they can 
carry them : yea (in Portugall reports,) fifteene men have 
altogether stood on one of them.’ 1 
The tortoises found in Bourbon were of equal dimen¬ 
sions to those found in Mauritius by the Dutch, which 
have been so picturesquely figured by De Bry, and 
to those described by Francois Leguat in Rodriguez. 
The testimony of Dubois is valuable on this point 
especially, because now that the various races of the 
great Chelonians which formerly swarmed throughout 
the islands in the Indian Ocean are wellnigh extinct, 
it is difficult to ascertain with precision the exact dis¬ 
tribution of the several genera and species. 
Although the actual indigenous tortoise is supposed 
to be totally extinct 2 in Mauritius, evidence has been 
1 Of course Sir Thomas Herbert did not visit Mauritius until long after the 
Portuguese and Dutch had introduced the ‘Goats, Hogs, and Beeves’ he 
mentions. He goes on to add with regard to the gigantic tortoises: 
‘ Sailors affect to eat them, but are better meat for Hogs, in my opinion. 
They make pretty sport, but are odious food ; and so are their Rats, Bats, and 
monkeys, most of which usefull and unusefull creatures were first brought 
hither (men say) by the Portugall to refresh them in their returne from India , 
but at this day (1627-28) dare neither anchor there (fearing the English and 
Dutch) nor owne their firstlings.’ {Op. cit., lib. iii. p. 349.) 
2 Till lately it was supposed that the indigenous races of giant tortoises 
throughout the Mascarene islands were entirely extinct. Dr. Gunther, in his 
