Introduction xxxiii 
found sufficient to classify the species of the remains 
exhumed from the Mare aux Songes in that island. 
Of the Rodriguez tortoise, a fine great living example 
still survives in the barracks of Port Louis. 1 It proves to 
be the Testudo Vosmaeri (Fitzinger), corresponding with 
the famous stuffed specimen in the Museum of Paris, origin¬ 
ally in the cabinet of the Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve. 
M. Theodore Sauzier, 2 indeed, tells us that several 
other examples of Mascarene Tortoises ( Testudo Sumeirei) 
may still be found, domesticated, on several plantations 
in Mauritius, Reunion, and in the lie Sainte Marie; but 
it would seem that these so-called Testudines Sumeirei 
are in reality descendants of the Testudo Vosmaeri from 
Rodriguez. Two huge tortoises, sent to England by 
Mr. Charles Telfair in 1829 and 1830, died in the 
Zoological Gardens, but their identification does not seem 
to have been established. 
Since Dr. Gunther wrote his well-known monograph 
monograph, published in 1877, writes of the Reunion Tortue de terre\ ‘It 
seems to have been exterminated even before the period of extinction of the 
Mauritius and Rodriguez species.’ ( Vide Gunther, op. cit., Introd. p. 3.) 
1 The Chevalier Marion du Fresne (who afterwards was massacred in New 
Zealand) has the credit of having imported the tortoise from Rodriguez in 
1766. It is highly probable that he brought several at this time, as we know 
a companion to this example was forwarded to the Zoological Gardens in 
1831, and in all probability Pingre, or perhaps Commerson, had forwarded 
another to the Genevofain Museum between 1766 and 1776. 
2 Nous avons vu, il y a plus d’un demi-siecle, et depuis dans differentes 
localites des iles Maurice et Bourbon, nombre de ces grosses tortues domes- 
tiquees. Elies ne provenaient pas, au moins pour la plupart, des Aldabra, 
avec lesquelles les communications etaient tres rares, surtout en ce qui concerne 
Bourbon. Elies etaient depuis de longues annees, plus d’un demi-siecle, 
dans les merries lieux oil elles se trouvaient. Celles de Maurice, chez M. 
Daruty, aux Pamplemousses et au Grand Port; et sur la propriete de M. 
Desjardins, a Flacq; les autres a la Reunion, sur une propriete a Sainte 
Philippe, le district le plus eloigne de la capitale et le dernier concede et 
cultive vers 1830; et sur les proprietes de M. Boiscourt et Vergoz a Sainte 
Marie, pour ne pas en citer d’autres. Autant que nous servent nos souvenirs 
d’enfance, qui sont precis, toutes ces tortues avaient l’apparence de la Testudo 
Sumeirei, c’est-a-dire que leurs carapaces avaient une forme plus unie et plus 
arrondie que celles des races des Aldabra, et meme que les carapaces retirees 
de la Mare aux Songesd (Th. Sauzier, op. cit ., pp. 13, 14.) 
C 
