rays. The head and back of the neck are brown; a rounded yellow mark is placed before each eye, and an oblong streak of the same colour somewhat before and below the tympanum; yellow tortuous streaks run along the back of the neck, and this is also the colour of the lower jaw; the limbs are yellowish, with claws of brown.

A species closely allied to the Geometric Tortoise, but differing from it in the absence of a nuchal plate, and in the greater elevation of the areolæ, or centres of the plates of the carapace generally, is a native of Pondicherry and Malabar. Its colouring is nearly the same as in the T. geometrica, but it somewhat exceeds that species in size. It is the T. actinodes of Bell, the T. elegans of Shaw, and has been regarded as a variety of the former, but erroneously. Of the manners of this species nothing is known, except from the account of M. Leschenault, who states that it is rather scarce, and inhabits places covered with brushwood.

The RADIATED TORTOISE, (T. radiata.)—This beautiful species is a native of Madagascar, whence it is frequently brought to the Cape of Good Hope, and to the Mauritius and Bourbon isles. Of its habits in its native country, nothing has been ascertained; but those which we have seen as captives in our climate have the general manners of the race. The carapace is hemispherical, the plates are simple, and black, with a yellow central spot, whence diverge lines of the same colour; the costal plates having the lines which are directed downwards particularly distinct. The nuchal plate is small and nearly square, or rather oblong. The plates of the plastron are ornamented with black and yellow; the head and back of the neck are black; a large mark of this colour occupies on the outer side of the hinder limbs, and a similar mark is placed on the outer side the elbow, encircling others of a smaller size. The other parts of the limbs and the tail are of a pale yellow, excepting the

tip of the latter, and the nails of the hinder feet, which are black.

The ELEPHANTINE TORTOISE, (T. elephantina, Bibron.) (See engraving.) The name of T. Indica, or Indian Tortoise, has been assigned to certain gigantic examples of this group, now regarded by most naturalists as forming so many distinct species. Messrs. Dumeril and Bibron consider five species to be thus established, all of which formerly bore the name of Indica, or Indian, a title which they, therefore, entirely discard, as it belongs as much to all as to one, no single species having a claim to it by right of priority.

Most persons who have visited the gardens of the Zoological Society, have seen with surprise huge ponderous Tortoises supported on short column-like legs, slowly moving about, or feeding at ease on the vegetables around them, and exhibiting an air of apathetic indifference to the bystanders gazing upon them. These monsters of their race (called in the catalogues, T. Indica,) belong to the species, entitled by M. Bibron, T. elephantina. They are not natives of India, but of the Seychelles isles, and also of the Comoro islands in the Mozambique channel: from the Seychelles they have been introduced into the Mauritius; and some of the individuals turned out in the latter island, have been imported into England. In the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society," July 9th, 1833, will be found a notice of one of these Tortoises then living in the Zoological Gardens, and which had been recently presented to the Society by Lieutenantgeneral Sir Charles Colville, late governor of the Mauritius. The specimen in question was "one of those which were brought from the Seychelles islands to the isle of France, (Mauritius,) in 1766, by the Chevalier Marion du Fresne, and is believed to have since remained unchanged in size and appearance. Consequently, it had been, (in 1833,) sixty-seven years in the island, having been full grown, or at least as large as it was in 1833, when

first introduced; and hence, what its real age was it is impossible to conjecture. Its length, measured along the curve of the back, was 4 feet, 44 inches; its breadth, taken in the same manner, 4 feet 9 inches. The length of the plastron was 2 feet 8 inches; the breadth of the same 2 feet 1 inch. Its weight 285 pounds.

We have seen other specimens still larger, and apparently of the same species.

We know little or nothing of the habits of this Tortoise in its native islands; from their proximity, however, to the equator, we may suppose that this species never hybernates, or that it only retires for a short period. Those which we have seen in our country, never attempted, as far as we could observe, to make any burrow, or hole, towards the decline of summer, and were always taken under cover and buried beneath straw, there to remain during the winter, which they passed in a torpid condition; but we cannot judge with confidence of the natural habits of animals, from their mode of life in a country utterly uncongenial with their nature, and in which their very existence, even for a few months, is very precarious. Most, if not all, those which we have been acquainted with, have died before the return of spring, or during its commencement.

Of the allied species we may notice the following:1. The T. gigantea, which equals the preceding in size; its country is not ascertained. 2. The T. nigra of Quoy and Gaimard, which those travellers say was brought originally from California, but which M. Bibron has reason for considering as a native of the Galapagos isles. 3. The T. Daudinii, a gigantic species from India 4. The T. Perraultii, also from India.*

It is probably to the T. nigra, that a specimen in the possession of the Zool. Soc. (1834) is referable, respecting which the following notice occurs in the Proceedings, Oct. 14, 1834:-"A letter was read (to the scientific meeting) addressed to the secretary by the Hon. Byron Cory, dated His Majesty's ship Dublin, Sept. 25, 1834, giving some particulars relative to a large specimen of the Tortoise from the Galapagos island, presented by the writer to the society. The specimen weighs 187