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LAND TORTOISES.
13
Genus Testudo. (Linn.)
The technical characters of this genus are that the fore-feet are furnished with five toes each, the hind with four; the carapace is composed of a single piece; the anterior part of the plastron is not moveable. Above twenty species are described, principally inhabiting the tropical regions; many of these attain a gigantic size, to which our little European species present no approach.
One of the most interesting of these giant Tor-
INDIAN TORTOISE.
toises is that described by Mr. Darwin as inhabiting the Galapagos Islands. It is probably the
