ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
103 
in the way of lettuce and 
cabbage from the ship’s cold 
storage,, with the result that a 
large colony is to-day living 
and thriving in the reptile 
house of the Zoological Park. 
They are rather closely re¬ 
lated to the sea lizards, and 
the probability is that botli 
are descended from a common 
ancester which long ago mi¬ 
grated from the mainland. 
The giant land tortoises 
which have given their name 
to the islands have played a 
prominent part in the relation 
of mankind to this archi¬ 
pelago. From the time of the 
earliest buccaneers on through 
the era of whalers and of the 
privateers of 1812 , the Gala¬ 
pagos have been a rendezvous 
where fresh meat might be 
had for the picking. Hun¬ 
dreds and thousands of the 
unfortunate creatures have 
been carried off in the holds 
of vessels, serving actually as 
living ballast, and affording a 
daily supply of food for 
many months. Now these 
land tortoises have been re¬ 
duced to a mere scattering of 
individuals, far back in the 
interior and in the bottom of 
steep-walled craters. The 
fully adults gone, the young 
FEMALE GROUND LIZARD 
These were golden-brown, with face 
and sides of the body a flaming scarlet. 
are breeding with lowered 
vitality, and wild dogs and 
pigs on many islands are ever 
waiting the chance to snap up 
eggs or newly-emerged young. 
We succeeded in finding but 
a single specimen, in the 
depth of a crater on Duncan 
Island, and, like those which 
other expeditions have taken 
from this island, it was short¬ 
lived, and died within two 
weeks after capture. 
I was able, however, to set¬ 
tle an interesting fact about 
which there has been much 
controversy — the swimming 
ability of these chelonians. It 
was known that they could 
float, but a tortoise helplessly 
drifting about would hardly 
account for the original 
populating of these islands. 
When placed in the wafer 
alongside the ship, with a full 
knot current running, our 
tortoise floated buoyantly, 
looked about in various direc¬ 
tions, lowered its head well 
under water and gazed 
around, then deliberately 
turned and swam across the 
current toward the yacht. 
Failing to get a grip on the 
sheer side of the .ship, it 
turned and went with the cur¬ 
rent to the gangway, which it 
% 
% # 
*' ■ 
MALE GALAPAGOS LIZARD. TROPIDURUS ALBEMARLENSIS . BAUR 
These very active little ground lizards were very abundant. They fed upon grasshoppers and were in turn 
devoured by hawks and owls. 
