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TRANSACTIONS

THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY

OF LONDON.

VOLUME II.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY,

BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET;

AND SOLD AT THE SOCIETY'S HOUSE, LEICESTER SQUARE;

SOLD ALSO BY LONGMAN. REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1841,

CONTENTS.

I. On the Quails and Hemipodii of India. By Lieut. -Colonel William Henry Sykes,

F.R.S., L.8., G.S. S^ Z.S page 1

II. Descriptions of a fe^v Invertebrated Animals obtained at the Isle of France. By

Robert Templeton, £55., Corr. Memh. Z.S 25

III. On a Remarkable Species of Pteropine Bat. By E. T. Bennett, Esq., F.L.S.,

Sec. Z.S 31

IV. Some Account of the Crustacea of the Coasts of South America, with descriptions of

new Genera and Species : founded principally on the collections obtained by Mr.
Cuming and Mr. Miller. By Thomas Bell, Esq., F.R.S., G.S. S^ Z.S. . 39

V. Some Observations on the Economy of an Insect destructive to Turnips. By William

Yarrell, Esq., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., Sjc 67

VI. M^moire sur une nouvelle Espece de Poisson du Genre Histiophore, de la Mer Rouge.

Par M. E. Ruppell, M.D., Membre Externe de la Societe Zoologique . . 71

VII. On the Genus Octodon, and on its Relations with Ctenomys, Blainv., and Poepha-

gorays, F. Cuv. ; including a Description of a new Species of Ctenomys. By E. T.

Bennett, Esq., F.L.S., Sec. Z.S 75

.VIII. On the Anatomy 0/ <^e Lamellibranchiate Conchifera. By Robert Garner, Esq.,
F.L.S. Communicated by Rich A.RD Owen, Esq., F.R.S 87

IX. Descriptions of some New and Rare Cephalopoda. By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S.,

Sjc, Hunterian Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeoiis in Lon-
don 103

X. Me'moire sur les Gerboises et les Gerbilles. Par M. Fred. Cuvier, Prof, de la Phy-

siologic Compare'e, Membre de VInstitut, Sfc. &)C. Communicated by Richard
Owen, Esq., F.R.S., S,-c 131

XI. Description of a Neiv Genus of Mammiferous Animals from Australia, belonging

probably to the Order Marsupialia. By George R. Waterhouse, Esq., Curator
to the Zoological Society. Communicated by the Secretary 14'J

XII. Descriptions of several new Species of Insects belonging to the Family of the Sacred

Beetles. By J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S., &)C., Secretary to the Entomological
Society. Communicated by the Secretary 155

iv CONTENTS.

XIII. Osteological Contributions to the Natural History of the Orang Utans {Simia, Erx-
leben). By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S., &fc., Hunterian Professor of Anatomy
at the Royal College of Surgeons page 165

XIV. A Synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira; with the principal Synonyms, Portuguese

Names, and Characters of the new Genera and Species. By the Rev. R. T. Lowe,

M.A., Corr.Memh. of the Zool. Soc 173

XX. Observations on the Genus Galictis (Bell), with the Description of a new Species.
By Thomas Bell, Esq., V.P.Z.S., F.R.S., Sjc, Professor of Zoology in King's
College 201

XVI. On a new Subgenus of Fishes, allied to Ophidium. By William Thompson, Esq.,

Vice-President of the Natural History Society of Belfast. Communicated by the
Secretary 207

XVII. Description of a neiv Species of Antelope. By Capt. W. C. Harris, {Bombay
Engineers,) in a Letter addressed to the Secretary 213

XVIII. Notes on the Anatomy of the Nubian Giraffe. By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S.,
£)C., Hunterian Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons . . 217

XIX. On a neiv Genus of Insectivorous Mammalia. By W. C. L. Martin, Esq.,

F.L.S 249

XX. On the Anatomy of the Southern Apteryx (Apteryx Australis, Shaw). By Richard

Owen, Esq., F.R.S., &;c., Hunterian Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College
of Surgeons 257

XXI. Observations upon Pelagic Serpents. By Dr. Theodore Cantor, Bengal Medi-

cal Service, Corr. Memb. Zool. Soc, M.A.S., Sfc 303

XXII. Outlines of a Classification of the Marsupialia. By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S.,
&fc., Hunterian Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons . . 315

XXIII. On the Genus Galeopithecus. By G. R. Waterhouse, Esq 335

XXIV. On the Skull of the North American Badger, Meles Labradoria of Authors. By
George R. Waterhouse, Esq., Curator and Assistant Secretary for Scientific
Business to the Zoological Society 343

XXV. On the Fishes of the Dukhun. By Lieut. -Colonel W. H. Sykes, F.R.S., S^c. 349

XXVI. On the Osteology of the Marsupialia. By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S., Sfc,
Hunterian Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons . . . 371

TRANSACTIONS

THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

I. On the Quails and Hemipodii of India. By Lieut. -Colonel William Henry Sykes,

F.R.S.,L.S., G.S. &i Z.S.

Communicated April 14, 1835.

I COULD wish that the amateur naturalist, with his specimen in his hand, might
always be able to refer it, without much difficulty, to its family, its genus, and its spe-
cies ; but am afraid that, in very many instances, generic characters are not yet suffi-
ciently exact, clear, defined, and satisfactory, to enable him to do so with the requisite
ease. In these cases of difficulty, it is probable that there has been an unquahfied ge-
neralization in establishing generic characters from a single specimen which furnished
the tjrpe, or at the most from two or three species. But our rapidly increasing know-
ledge of the affinities, habits, and organization of animals wiU very probably enable
naturalists, at no distant period, to give that precision to generic characters which will
admit of the object I have contemplated being realized.

The early ornithologists (and in this they have generally been followed by those of
more recent date) adopted external characters — form for generic, and plumage for spe-
cific, distinctions — as the chief guides to arrangement and identity : and in the majority
of instances, these appreciable data have estabhshed legitimate distinctions which a
subsequent knowledge of habits and organization has confirmed. Of the truth of this,
Mr. Vigors's able arrangement of the groups of birds from external organs and form
bears ample testimony. But still, in my experience, I found external characters not
altogether sufficient when collating species which were not the types of the genus. I in-
stance the family of the Tetraonidee. It appeared to me that some generaUzations were
too sweeping ; the form and habits of the typical species seemed to be made too sub-

VOL. II. PART I. B

2 LIEUT.- COLONEL SYKES ON THE

stantive, and required to be put forth with certain explanations, or exceptions, or limi-
tations. They might be quite true (indeed for the most part were so) with respect to
the typical species, and possibly to a few others of the genus ; but were not so to the
remaining species, whose deviations in the form of the bill, wing, &c., might not only
be appreciable, but be so marked as to justify, in the eyes of rigid systematists, their
removal into distinct genera : but which removal, nevertheless, the habits and natural
affinities of the birds would not authorize. Some of the Quails I am about to describe
afford a conclusive instance of this difficulty : and other instances will appear in the
following preliminary observations which I deem it necessary to make in justification
of the arrangement I have adopted.

If it be asked, what characters justify the union of animals into genera, and what
characters should separate them ? I reply, that the question necessarily embraces so
wide a field of inquiry, that it cannot come within the contemplated limits of this paper :
but, for the sake of illustration, I shall offer a few comments, which, if they do no more,
will at least show that exceptions have some weight ; and these I shall take chiefly from
the Tetraonidte .

If the form alone of the bill is to unite birds, then would some species of Francolins,
Partridges, and Quails afford one common type, while other species of these genera
would be widely separated. The birds I designate as Coturnix Argoondah and Cot.
Pentah would belong to a different genus from Cot. dactylisonans and Cot. textilis, and
Cot. erythrorhyncha would stand alone. On this character, Pterocles would probably
be removed from the family of Tetraonida, to an intermediate station between it and
Columbidts. If the form, and number, and size of the toes and nails be our guides, then
would Hemipodim and Cryptonyx have the most appreciable characters in Tetraonida; :
but these might suggest the removal of the former into the family Struthionidcs and genus
Otis; and, indeed, the similarity of the tongue and caca, and the habits of the Hemipodii
and Bustards would partly authorize the change. But so little does the presence or
absence of a hind toe influence form, habits, organization, and affinities as a general rule,
that I found it absolutely necessary to class Charadrius hilobus and Vanellus Goensis in
the genus Vanellus, the former having four toes, the latter only three. Thereis also
no natural affinity between the Bustards and some of the smaller Plovers, particularly
Charadrius Philippensis, both with three toes ; yet there is a very close affinity between
the latter and the Sandpiper (Totanus) a four-toed bird.

Brisson made the combined characters of bill and feet his elements of classification.
He says, " Les pattes et les bees sont les parties que j'ai choisies pour etablir les carac-
t^res. Le nombre des doigts, &c." He has twenty-six orders, and his characters,
for the most part, produce natural associations : but there are some genera in juxta-
position that have little or no natural affinity, such as Jacana and Rallus ; Ciconia and
Tringa. Vanellus is removed from the Plovers ; Otis and Himantopus are associated ; and
the system would place Hemipodius near Ostralega : it approximates Parus and Alauda;

QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 3

and places Bucco and Cuculus in adjoining sections. The Woodpeckers and Parrots are
in tlie same order, and removed only a few sections from each other, although having
only one common characteristic, the arrangement of the toes.

M. Temminck considers that the form of the wing, whether sharp or rounded, is suffi-
ciently valid to characterize a genus ; and he gives the following dictum to distinguish
Quails from Partridges generically. " J'indiquerai prealablement le moyen le plus sur
pour distinguer une caille d'une perdrix. Ce caract^re marquant est pris de la forme
des ailes. Tous les oiseaux qui composent le genre perdix ont les trois remiges extdri-
eures les plus courtes et egalement etagees entre elles, et la quatri^me et cinqui^me les
plus longues : tandis que chez toutes les esp^ces qui forment le genre coturnix c'est la
premiere ou la remige exterieure qui est la plus longue. J'ai trouve ce caract^re inva-
riable dans toutes les esp^ces."' Vieillot similarly says, "Les cailles se distinguent
specialement de tous les precedens [Colins and Partridges] par la forme des ailes, et de
la queue."2 But. in giving characteristics of the family Gallinacei, he says, "Tous, k
I'exception des Gangas et de I'Heteroclite, ont le port lourd, les ailes courtes et ar-
rondies."^

With respect to another distinguishing external character of the Quails, M. Tem-
minck says that they have " les pieds k tarses lisses, sans eperons ou la moindre apparence
de tubercule calleux."* The males of my specimens, designated by me Cot. Argoondah
and Cot. Pentah, are furnished with distinct tubercles ; and the varieties ^ of the same
two species, one variety from the Himalayan mountains, and the other from the neigh-
bourhood of Madras, equally have them. With the greatest respect for M. Temminck's
judgement, I would submit to him that his generic characters separate from Coturnix
three of the species of Quails described in the following pages ; two of them having
the rounded wing and tubercles of Partridges, but a much higher bill, while the third
differs only from his Coturnix in the rounded wing : birds, therefore, which all sports-
men unhesitatingly pronounce to be Quails, would be otherwise designated by naturaUsts,
in consequence of variations in characters which do not modify their form or organi-
zation.

I doubt whether the true objects of science, and the due extension of natural know-
ledge amongst the non-scientific part of the community, are hkely to be promoted by
the multipUcation of genera consequent on the above distinctions, and less so by the
multiphcation of species, when it is possible to avoid it. I would, therefore, always,
where it could be done in other genera, as in the case of my Quails, instead of forming
new genera to meet the deviations from the t}'pe, throw the species into sections,
A, B, C, characterized "with rounded wing, and tubercles," " with rounded wing, no
tubercles," &c.

If we look to habits and manners to afford us generic or specific cheiracters, we should

■ Pig. et Gall., torn. iii. p. 461. « Gal. des Ois., torn. ii. p. 46. ' Ibid., torn. ii. p. 1.

•* Pig. et Gall., torn. iii. p. 468. * In the possession of the Zoological Society.

4 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE

be careful to point out exceptions and limitations. M. Temminck, in his preliminary
observations on the true Tetraones, says, " lis different en cela des francolins, des colins,
et des caiUes qui sontoiseaux voyageurs." • Again he says, " Les cailles vivent la plu-
part du temps solitaires ; les jeunes se separent desqu'ils se sentent n'avoir plus besoin
de la protection des parens ; mais un meme instinct les reunit subitement en association
nombreuse, ce qui a lieu vers le temps de leur migration."^ These observations are appli-
cable to a single species, Cot. dactylisonans, and with limitation even to this single species.
I have compared the common Quail of Europe with specimens from China, from several
parts of India, and from the Cape of Good Hope, and am clearly of opinion that they
all belong to the same species ; and others have thought the same before me. The only
differences I could discover were in the transverse marks on the throat being more or
less distinct, the minute spots on the breast more or less numerous, and the colours of
the back of the Chinese Quail being brighter than in the other specimens. Numerous
specimens varied also a little in size, as is the case equally in European individuals : yet
this species, which is migratory in Europe, and which visits the coasts of France and
Italy in such incredible numbers, M. Temminck admits to be stationary in the Isle of
Roben at the Cape ; and I can testify, from more than twenty-two years' residence in
India, that it is found at all times in Dukhun and Goojrat : it is probable that it is also
stationary in China. With respect to other species of Quails, we have not any satis-
factory accounts that they are migratory ; for though M. Temminck, on the authority,
I believe, of Sonnerat, says that Cot. perlata, a native of Madagascar, goes to the
eastern shores of Africa, yet as so little of the bird is known that the female remains
to be described, it is not unfair to infer that the account of its habits is problematical.
As far as my knowledge extends, none of the Quails described in the following pages
are migratory from India.

With respect to other habits of Quails, M. Temminck says, "Les cailles vivent la
plupart du temps solitaires."^ Again, " Les cailles sont des oiseaux peu sociables ; le
male apr^s avoir feconde la femelle s'en eloigne pour toujours."* And further he says,
" Hormis le temps de I'accouplement ou du voyage on voit rarement deux cailles re-
unies dans un meme endroit."^ Unquestionably the above-described habits, together
with M. Temminck's account of the monogamous character of Quails, are correctly appli-
cable to the species Cot. dactylisonans ; but my observation would not justify me in saying
that they are applicable to the species textilis, Argoondah, Pentah, and erythrorhyncha,
the last three of which are certainly always gregarious, and I fully believe polygamous.
Even with respect to the first-mentioned species, the statement must be received cum
grano sails : for it is notorious to all sportsmen in India, that when one Quail is flushed,
a second is within a few paces ; and as I have known thirty brace of Cot. textilis killed
for a wager in one field of Phaseolus Max, within an hour and a half, it might hence

' torn. iu. p. 106. » pp. 107, 108. ' p. 107. ■• p. 464. > p. 108.

QUAILS AND HEMIPODIl OF INDIA. 5

be inferred that it also is gregarious. There is at all times some risk of misconception
in propounding generic characters from habits and manners when we have not a familiar
acquaintance with the whole of the species.

M. Temminck says, " Les veritables perdrix n'habitent jamais les for^ts, ils ne se
perchent point habituellement.'" Again, " Toutes les esp^ces de perdrix francolins,
sur lesquelles je suis parvenu k rasserabler des notices sures, vivent dans les for^ts le
long des rivieres, se perchent sur les arbres durant le jour, et toujours pendant la nuit."-
And again, " Les tarses des males sont munis de deux ou d'un seul eperon."^

In India the most common game bird in the country is designated, in books, a Fran-
colin ; that is to say, the Francolinus Ponticerianus. The males have spurs, and the
bird sometimes perches on trees or bushes during the day, and frequently, if not com-
monly, during the night : yet it never inhabits forests, but almost exclusively gardens and
cultivated lands ; and has the form, air, and (with the exceptions above mentioned) the
habits and manners, of the common EngUsh Partridge, Perdix cinerea. It is known only
as a Partridge ; and to call it by any other name to sportsmen in India would be looked
upon as puerile pedantry. A living specimen now in the Gardens of the Zoological
Society affords European naturalists an opportunity of satisfying themselves how little
the bird has the air of a true Francolin.

Plumage, which can have little influence in generic distinctions, is of primary import-
ance as a specific character ; yet, used without mature consideration and a sound judge-
ment, it greatly tends to the multiplication of fictitious species, and the consequent
promulgation of error. I have long thought, and daily experience tends to confirm my
opinion, that the researches of present and future naturaUsts will deprive discoverers of
many of their honours in establishing new species of birds ; myself, I feel satisfied,
amongst others. Ignorant of the difference of plumage between individuals consequent
upon sex, upon nonage, and upon annual changes connected with productive develop-
ment, books abound with descriptions of supposed new birds which will ultimately
merge into previously known species. Mr. Stephens somewhere mentions that the
same bird is described under four different names in Dr. Latham's extensive work.
But although plumage cannot supply generic characters, yet the experienced naturalist
detects affinities in the extension or prevalence of particular colours or marks : for in-
stance, the dagger-shaped stripe down the shaft of the back-feathers of the common
Quail is found in Cot. tcxtilis and in the New Zealand Quail^; in the Cot. excalfactoria
it is narrowed to a mere line ; and it is traceable in their congeners the Colins of Ame-
rica ; in both species of the Cape Partridge it is broad and distinct, and there is a family
plumage in the breast-feathers of these birds in a broad longitudinal white stripe down
the shaft, which exactly corresponds with the markings of the Jungle Hen of India : the
males have spurs Uke Francolins, but they have not their air. Characteristic family

1 p 292. « p. 292. ' p. 299. * New species.

6 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE

plumage is seen in the Woodpeckers, although the species are from widely separated
countries ; and the Toucans are also remarkable for prevailing colours.

The above reflections originated in experiencing difficulties in the arrangement of my
Birds of the Tetraonidce, — difficulties which I have shown that even M. Temminck's able
elucidation of this family did not enable me to overcome. Naturalists are under great
obligations to this distinguished person for the views he has promulgated in different
branches of zoology ; but with his acute mind and candour he cannot fail to admit that
our daily increasing knowledge will produce trifling modifications in those views, ren-
dering them more defined, perspicuous, and conclusive. I will endeavour to illustrate
this in some short notices of the genera of his family Tetrao, which appears to afford
proof of the truth of the observations of the Rev. L. Jenyns, in his remarks on genera
and subgenera • , that in raising subgenera to the rank of genera, sufficient attention should
be paid to the necessity for the different groups having an equivalent or equal value.

In M. Temminck's family Tetrao, Coturnix is made as substantive a genus as Perdix- :
yet, setting aside difference of size and some trifling differences of habits in some of the
species of Quails, I do not know any positive and technical characters applicable to all
the species, by which they may be distinguished from the Partridges ; yet the eye will do
at once that in which language fails. The Francolins again are not generically separated
from the Partridges : yet they have characters (excluding the Francolinus Ponticerianus,
which is decidedly a Partridge, although it does occasionally perch and has spurs), in
their slenderer form, longer legs and tail, and particularly in their habits, which afford
distinctions I think more legitimate than those used to separate Coturnix from Perdix.
Lagopus has been separated from Tetrao by Ray, Vieillot, and Dr. Leach ; but M. Tem-
minck barely sections it from the latter genus.

Pterocles is a valid genus ; but from its form, habits, and partly from its organization,
I am strongly induced to believe that its natural position is between the Ptarmigans and
Pigeons proper. The HeterocUte, it appears to me, will prove a species of Pterocles, with
hirsute feet and toes arising from the climate it inhabits. M. Temminck only sections
the Colins of the New World from the Partridges ; but with the exception of the Ortyx
Temminckii {Perdix cristata, Lath.), which has the air and size of a genuine Quail, I
agree with Mr. Stephens, who has established the genus Ortyx, that it has a just claim
to the distinction. The genera Cryptonyx, Tinamus, and Hemipodius, have characters
too marked to render questionable their separation from the ancient genus Tetrao : but
to me it appears matter of doubt whether the last genus, from its form, manners, and
habits, might not merge into the genus Otis ; or at least might be removed to the
family Slruthionidee, and be placed immediately after Otis. Of the genus Hemipodius
it will be necessary to say a few words.

M. Temminck commences his notice of it with a sentence which is likely to give a

' Proceedings of the British Association in 1833, p. 441,

- In his ' Manuel d'Omithologie,' however, it is deprived of its honours.

QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 7

wrong impression of the size of the hirds constituting the genus. He says, " Ces
pigmes parmi les oiseaux qui composent I'ordre des GalUnacds'." These pygmies,
however, by his own measurements of Hem. nigrifrons, pugnax, nigricollis, thoracicus,
tachydromus, and lunatus, are about the size of Cot. textilis, and two inches larger
than the Chinese Quail, Cot. excalfactoria. My new species, Hem. Taigoor, is also
as large as Cot. textilis ; and the smallest of the genus, I believe, Hem. maculosus, is
larger than the Chinese Quail. With respect to their habits and manners, M. Temminck
says they are polygamous, and live in sterile lands and amongst herbage, and on the
borders of deserts : that they prefer running to flying ; and prefer to either, conceal-
ment in a tuft of grass, to escape pursuit : that they live principally on insects ; and
rarely touch minute seeds, and never grains.

These details are not exactly characteristic of the species that came under my obser-
vation, namely. Hem. pugnax, Taigoor, and Dussumieri -. the first two species frequent
cultivated lands, affecting the localities of Cot. textilis ; and the last, the thick grass
wastes which the Otis fulva dehghts in : it is also met with in fields. If polygamous,
a male and several females should have been found together ; but the first two species
were generally solitary when flushed, or at most in pairs, and Hem. Dussumieri always
solitary. With respect to food, black Ants and minute coleopterous insects and grass
seeds were found in the stomach of several individuals of the first two species, and
white maggots, minute insects, and seeds of the Panicum Italicum in the stomach of
individuals of Hem. Dussumieri. This last species certainly prefers concealment to
flight ; but Hem. pugnax and Taigoor take to wing, although not very readily.

Not having been quite satisfied that external characters had enabled me to form a
just and precise estimate of generic and specific differences, I sought in internal orga-
nization, and in the form of the tongue and the colour of the irides, for additional guides
and evidences of affinities or dissimilarities ; inferring that, although similar internal
organization, in its functionary results, might not absolutely regulate external form and
habits, yet with similar form, or nearly similar form, trifling differences in the organs
would be indicative of differences of habits, and would thus probably manifest the proxi-
mate or remote relation in which the individual stood to the type of the group.

The stomach, the caca, the proportional length of the caca to the intestine, the pro-
portional length of the intestine to the body, the tongue, and the colour of the irides,
were the principal matters to which I turned my attention ; but I did not overlook the
other organs. My examination extended through one hundred and ninety-eight species
of animals, and in most of the species several individuals had the internal appearances
carefully recorded : slight sketches were also made of the C(Eca and tongue, and of any
peculiarities in the other organs ; and the colour of the irides was drawn.

It would lead me into too wide a field to give in the present paper the general, much

' Pig. et Gall. torn. iii. p. 605.

8 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE

less the detailed, result of my inquiries ; and it must suffice to say that I quickly
found the tongue and the cceca of considerable importance in indicating affinities or
dissimilarities between genera. As an instance I may point out the Ciconia leucoce-
phala, which at this moment stands in ornithological works of the highest authority, as
an Ardea, but which its short tongue at once separated from that genus: and its double
short or rudimentary caca, instead of a single short ceecum, and the remarkable colour
of its iris contrasted with the prevailing yellow colour in the Herons, afforded further
proof of its distinction.

To be brief, and yet to afford sufficient evidence of my views connected with the
subject of the present paper, I have put into a tabular form some of the characters of
the Tetraonidas, which I consider likely to assist to give precision in the formation of
generic characters ; and I have added those of a Dove and a Pigeon, for the sake of
comparison with the organs of Pterocles exustus. The very close resemblance in the
form of the tongue, the cceca, the proportional length of the intestines and C(sca, and
the colour of the irides in the birds whose affinities are very close, is remarkable,
although there are some differences in the form of their bills. The Quails, the Part-
ridges, and the Francolinus Ponticerianus, have such trifling variations that the organs
noticed may be considered almost identical. When we proceed to the three-toed Hemi-
podii, we find with similar tongue and cceca, a more elongated form of bill, and a dif-
ferently coloured iris -. the tongue and caca indicate similar habits with the Quails and
Partridges ; but the colour of the irides, the form of the bill, and the three toes, mani-
fest generic distinctions. Although I possessed many specimens of the Francolinus
spadiceus alive, and no doubt subjected them to the usual examinations, I observe that,
by some chance, the sketch of the cceca and the proportional lengths of the intestines
are omitted in my note-book. I cannot therefore, at this period of time, say whether
they correspond with the figure and measurements of those organs in the Partridges and
Quails ; but as the real Francolin differs from them in habits, it is probable that there
is sufficient difference in the proportions if not in the form of the organs to establish a
generic distinction.

Applying the test of all the above characters to Pterocles exustus, it is apparent that
it has the aspect, the tongue, and almost the bill, with the air and flight of a Pigeon ;
and I observe, pigeon-like, that there is not, in my notes, any mention of a gall-
bladder. But when we compare the remaining organs with those of Columba tigrina
or Columba (Enas, we find that it has the caca and iris of the birds of the Partridge
family ; but the intestine and ceeca are proportionally a good deal longer than in those
birds : it may be considered, therefore, intermediate between the Tetraonida and Co-
lumhida. I may point out that, with the same form of bill and tongue, the Doves differ
from the Columba (Enas in being totally destitute of caca, the latter having rudimentary
c(Bca ; and it is worthy of inquiry to ascertain whether this difference be constant be-
tween the Doves and Pigeons proper.

QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA.

Name.

Tongu

CcEca,

Proportional
length of intes-
tine to body.

Proportional
length of intes-
tine to cftca.

Iris.

Coturnix
dactylisonans

2-00 to 2-77

5-65 to 7-20

Coturnix
textilis

2-19 to 2-57

6-38 to 6-19

<S "=■

Coturnix
Argoondah

^'^ \

Coturnix
Pentah

Coturnix
erythrorhyncha

2-6 to 2-7

7-64 to 7-94

Hemipodius
pugnax

Hemipodius
Taigoor

VOL. II.

'fi^

2-2

7-33

LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE

Name.

Tongue.

Hemipodius
Dussumieri

Perdix picta

Cepca.

/xv

'xvN

Proportional
length of intes-
tine to body.

Proportional
length of intes-
tine to cisca.

1-99 to 200 7-27 to 8-5 (f)

2-85 to 3-0

5-71 to 608

Bill.

Francolimls
Ponticerianus

1-94 to 2

5-63 to 6-25

FrancoUnus
gpadiceus

Columba humilis

and

Col. tigrina

None,
or mere
specks.

2-0 to 213
2-27 to 3-27

Columba CEnas

2-75 to 2-90

78 to 145

Pterocles
exustus

30 to 3-47

4-5 to 508

QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 11

Having in this paper ventured to call attention to some of the desiderata in the generic
characters of part of the Tetraonidm, and having ventured to suggest the use of internal
organization, as auxiliary to their formation, I will conclude with the assertion, that
neither external nor internal characters (excepting size) have enabled me to fix such pre-
cise generic distinctions {applicable to all the species) as shall satisfactorily separate the
Quails from the Partridges proper ; and that I am reduced to the necessity of believing,
with Theophrastus, that they are indeed dwarf Partridges : but as this very character
is permanent through all the species', for the convenience of research they may be left
with the honours of a family name ; and to link the different species of Quails in com-
mon ties I propose the following modifications of the generic character of Coturnix,
throwing anomalous species into sections.

Ordo III. RASORES, III. (Galling, Linn.)
Fam. Tetraonid^, Leach. (Genus Tetrao, Linn.)

Genus Coturnix.

Rostrum forte, capite brevius ; mandibuld superiore arcuata.

Nares laterales, basales, membrana arcuata semiclausse, antice implumes.

Pedes tetradactyli ; digitis anticis membrana usque ad articulum primum connexis.

Cauda brevis, rotundata, recumbens.

Obs. Magnitudine utplurimum Perdicis cinerese dimidium paullb superantes.

A. Mandibuld superiore pariim arcuata ; alis acuminatis ; tarsis muticis.

1. Coturnix dactylisonans, Mey.

Large gray Quail. Lohah and Lowah of the Mahrattas.

Although this species is well described by M. Temminck, I deem it necessary to put
into an English dress some details respecting the Indian bird.

Bill short, brown, or blackish brown, sharp, wider than high, -iV to -rV inch long.
Tongue fleshy, shortish, broad, but sharp-pointed. Legs pale or flesh-coloured. Tibia
1-[V inch. Tarsi 1 inch. Middle toe 1 inch. Nail -^ inch. Hind toe and nail -rV inch.
hides reddish brown or yellowish brown : in Shaw's ' Zoology' they are described as
yellow. Head chocolate brown, with the feathers tipped reddish. There is a tawny or
yellowish stripe over each eye, and a similar stripe down the centre of the crown. Ears
reddish brown. Throat gray or tarnished white, but in old males there is a disposition

' Size, although very convenient to separate the Quails from the Partridges, cannot generally be admitted
as an element in the fonnation of generic groups, otherwise the domestic Cat would belong to a difiFerent genus
from the royal Tiger, and the Shetland Pony would be far removed from the colossal dray Horse.

12 LIEUT. -COLONEL SYKES ON THE

to blackness under the chin : across the throat are two chocolate or black narrow bands
(frequently interrupted in the middle) in a semicircular form, one originating near the
gape, the other at the ears. Breast reddish, with one or two black specks on most
of the feathers. Belly and vent reddish white. The long feathers of the flanks, under
the wings, red chocolate, with a broad yellow stripe down the shaft, and some small
blotches of black and yellow on the webs. Back, scapulars, back-neck, and rump, black
or deep chocolate-brown, with a longitudinal dagger-shaped yellow stripe down the
shaft of the chief feathers, and barred transversely with two or three very narrow j'el-
lowish bands. Wings brown or gray brown, with short narrow bars or dots of tawny on
the outer web. Wing-coverts the same, with the addition of a thread-like yellow line
down the shaft. Tail very short, and covered by the rump-feathers.

The female is larger than the male, and has the bars on the throat frequently obscure
or wanting, and the specks on the breast are at times less numerous.

Nonage, and the difl^erent seasons of the year, produce slight variations in the plu-
mage, but not to an extent to render doubtful for a moment the species of an indi-
vidual. The black specks on the breast, I think, are more characteristic in general of
the male than the female ; but I have notes of several males shot in the valley of
Sasswiir, Poona CoUectorate, totally destitute of specks, and some females had them.

The usual length of the female of this species, from the tip of the bill to the end of the
tail, is 7+ inches ; but I have a female in my possession measuring 8 inches, inclusive
of the tail of 2 inches, and in which bird the length from the tip of the bill to the end
of the middle toe is 10^ inches.

In five birds examined, the intestinal canal varied in length from 13 to 18 inches, the
proportional length to the body ranging between 2'0 and 2/7 to 1. Duodenum wide.
Colon from H to 2 inches. Cceca long and large, club-shaped, with a boss at the end,
varying in length in diflFerent individuals only from 2-^ to 2-iV inches, full of green pulp.
Liver of two fleshy lobes without fissures. Gall-bladder subreniform, full of deep
black-green bile. Gizzard oval, compressed, the digastric muscles -^ inch thick. Spleen
nearly globular, its greatest diameter being -jV inch.

Contents of the stomach, grass seeds, insects, much vegetable fibre, apparently the
hairy calyces of Dolichos bijiorus and the seeds of Phaseolus Aconitifolius. The species,
indeed, appears omnivorous.

They are fond of tufts of grass round ponds, lakes, and in the neighbourhood of
water-courses in cultivated lands, and irrigated young wheats. During the monsoon
they are in pairs ; and in October I have met with young broods unable to fly ; the
period of incubation, therefore, is during the rains (from June to October inclusive).
I never found them congregated in numbers as if preparatory to emigration, and feel
fully satisfied that the Bird does not at any season quit any part of India I have been in.

QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 13

I have carefully examined and compared specimens from China, India, the Cape of
Good Hope, and England, and must pronounce them, in spite of the extraordinary
geographical range, to be one species, the differences between the specimens not being
greater than are found amongst individuals from the same locality. The Indian Bird
has the same cry of Pickerwick, or Peek-wheet-wheet, which, M. Temminck says, in-
duced M. Meyer to give it the specific appellation of dactylisonansK

A matter of considerable historical interest is associated with this Bird, as there is
the strongest ground for believing that it is the identical species, Tetrao Israelitarum,
of whose instinct it pleased the Divinity to avail himself in supplying the famishing
IsraeUtes with food in the wilderness. Authors have differed with respect to the real
nature of this food ; Rudbeck^ asserting that it was a Flying Fish, and Ludolph'' that
it was a Locust : but the 2Gth, 27th, 28th, and 29th verses of the 78th Psahn, deter-
mine it to have been a Bird. "He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven : and
by his power he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as
dust, and feathered fowls [fowl of wing] like as the sand of the sea : and he let it fall
in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. So they did eat, and were
well filled : for he gave them their own desu'e."

Bocharf* and Dr. Harris^ state that the Hebrew word used is Selav, in Arabic Selwee,
or Selvai (a Quail), which is constantly rendered by the Septuagint opTvyonnrpa, a large
kind of Quail. Aristotle, indeed, calls the Rail {Rallus and Crex) Ortygometra : but
on the whole it is to be inferred from Bochart that the Greeks used the word rather to
indicate the size of the ojotu? than as descriptive of a different Bird ; and Josephus
considers opTvyonr^rpa and oprv^ synonymous, and states that Quails abound on the Gulf
of the Red Sea" ; and we know that they abound in Egji^t, Barbary, Asia Minor, and
at certain seasons in Europe, at the present day.

There is another mode to connect the bird of Scripture with the Cot. dactylisonans,
and this is readily done by the simple fact of its being the only species of Quail that
migrates in multitudes ; indeed we have not any satisfactory account that any other
species of Quail is migratory. Aristotle mentions the habit ; and Pliny states they some-
times alight on vessels in the Mediterranean and sink them ! Belon found Quails ahght
in autumn on a vessel bound from Rhodes to Alexandria ; they were passing from the
north to the south, and had wheat in their craws. In the preceding spring, sailing from
Zante to the Morea, he saw flights of Quails going from the south northwards. Buffon
relates that M. le Commandant Godelun saw Quails constantly passing Malta during cer-
tain winds in May, and repassing in September; and that they flew by night. Tourne-

' Pig. et Gal. torn. iii. p. 501. - Ichth)-ol. Bibl.

' Comment, ad Hist. yEthiop. p. 108. * De Animalibus S. Scripturse.

' Natural History of the Bible, p. 317. ^ Lib. iii. cap. i.

14 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE

fort says that almost all the isles of the Archipelago are covered with them in certain
times of the year. In the commencement of autumn such great quantities are captured
in the isle of Capri near Naples, as in former times to afford the Bishop the chief part
of his revenue ; and he was called in consequence the Bishop of Quails. M. Temminck
says that in spring such prodigious numbers of Quails alight on the western shores of
the kingdom of Naples, about Nettuno, that 100,000 are taken in a day. They also
arrive in spring in similar numbers on the shores of Provence so fatigued, that for the
first days they allow themselves to be taken by hand. Sonnini states that they arrive
in EgN'pt in September.

With these facts before us, considering the positive testimony of the Psalmist that
the unexpected supply of food to the Israelites was a Bird, and that Bird, agreeably to
the Septuagint and Josephus, a Quail, — that only one species of Quail migrates in pro-
digious numbers, and that species the subject of the present notice, — we are authorized
to pronounce the Cot. dactylisonans to be the identical species with which the Israelites
were fed. We have here proof of the perpetuation of an instinct through 3300 years',
not pervading a whole species, but that part of a species existing within certain geo-
graphical limits ; an instinct characterized by a peculiarity which modern observers
have also noticed, of making their migratory flight by night. " And it came to pass,
that at even- the quails came up and covered the camp^." As might be expected, we
see the most ancient and most noble of all historical works and natural history reflect-
ing attesting lights on each other.

It is probable that these small defenceless birds fly only by night to avoid the attacks
of birds of prey ; in crossing seas they must of course continue their flight by night as
well as by day. I am aware, however, from personal observation, that the Grus Orien-
talis, whose size secures it from the attacks of other Birds, also migrates during the
night. M. Temminck thinks it probable that Quails emigrate for food rather than to
enjoy a uniform climate ; and in this opinion I coincide, as the great changes of tem-
perature in India do not influence the movements of this species, food being abundant
at all seasons.

I am not aware that this Bird is used for combats (although a species with tubercles
is) in India ; and it is not likely the people would warm their hands with it, as is said to
be the case in China.

From some experience I consider Quails very heating food ; and it is probable the
French proverb, " Hot as a Quail," may apply rather to its stimulating properties than
to its animal heat.

' 1491 years before Christ. « Query ■ night' ? ' Exodus, xvi. 13.

QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 15

2. CoTURNix TEXTiLis, Tewm.

This very handsome bird differs in some trifling respects from M. Temminck's descrip-
tion. Its medium size is a good deal smaller than the common Quail, although indivi-
duals frequently attain the magnitude of small specimens of the former. It varies in
length, measuring from the tip of the bill over the crown to the end of the tail, inclu-
sive of tail, from 6-V to 7-,^ inches: tail \-^ to l-jV inch. The colour of the bill
differs in different individuals from a reddish horn colour to nearly black ; length to
the gape -f^ inch, depth at the nostril .^V to -.V inch. Irides dusky red or brown red.
The whole upper surface of the bird has a very close resemblance to Cot. dactylisonans,
but the colours are generally brighter, and there are more feathers with yellow dagger-
like stripes down the shafts. The under surface differs entirely from the common Quail ;
and, as I before mentioned, in some matters from M. Temminck's description. The
chin and throat are pure white ; the throat has two narrow semicircular black bands
across it, and a broad longitudinal black band proceeds from the upper transverse band
to the base of the lower mandible. The sides and fore part of the neck and the flanks are
rufous. On the centre of the breast, in old males, there is a large patch of velvet black,
which ramifies into a multitude of black stripes on the white belly and sides down to the
vent. In younger males the black patch on the breast is small or broken into stripes.

The female differs in all the colours being less bright, in the absence of the longitu-
dinal band under the chin, in the obscureness of the transverse bands, and in the black
patch on the breast and stripes on the belly and flanks being broken into dots.

A friend, who is a sportsman and an amateur naturalist, has lately written to me
from India, that he is satisfied that the Cot. textilis is the male of Cot. dactylisonam. As
I possess both sexes of both species, it may be that my friend formed his opinion from
finding specimens of females of Cot. textilis, resembling to a certain extent the fe-
male of Cot. dactylisonans ; but they are always distinguishable by the inferior size of
the female of Cot. textilis. The males of the two species cannot be mistaken for each
other. I observe also, from a note in my journal, that the flesh of this species is brown,
that of Cot. dactylisonans being white : this fact alone would indicate a specific differ-
ence.

In a male and a female examined, the intestinal canal was 1 1-i inches long ; the caca
club-shaped, 1-iV inch long ; from the insertion of the cwca to the rectum 2-^ inches :
the proportional lengths have been stated in the tabular view. The remaining organs
were as in the other species.

Grass seeds, vegetable fibre, and other vegetable matter, apparently the calyces of dif-
ferent kinds of pulse, found in the stomach.

These birds are met with all over India, and I have seen specimens which were abso-

16 LIEUT. -COLONEL SYKES ON THE

lutely identical from Bengal, Madras, and Dukhun. In the monsoon, which is the period
of incubation, they are in pairs ; but at other seasons they are frequently found in great
numbers in the same localities. So abundant are the different species of Quails in
Dukhun, that in April 1829, five hundred and seventeen brace were killed in nine days
by four guns.

B. Mandibuld superiore pariim arcuata ; alls rotundatis ; tarsis muticis.

3. COTURNIX ERYTHEORHYNCHA.

Tab. I.
Cot. supra saturate brunnea, infra dilute castanea, nigro {preeter venfrem medium) unde-
quaque guttata maculataque, scapularium maculis maximis, pectoris guttis minimis ;
scapularium tegminumque alarum superiorum alio fasciatarum rhachibus albis, crucem
efformantibus ; remigum pogoniis externis rufescenti fasciatis maculatisque ; fronte ni-
gra ; strigd frontali utrinque supra oculum productd guldque albis.
Foem. Fronte, strigd inde ad utrumque latus ductd, guldque dilute castaneis.
Irides obscure flavo-ochracese ; rostrum rubrura.
Long, corporis 5 unc. ; caudee 1-fV-

This very handsome bird I have never met with out of the valley of Karleh in the
Gh^ts, frequenting the same ground as the black Partridge, Perdix picta. But there
is a single specimen in the British Museum, from whence I do not know.

The bill and legs are red, which colour nearly disappears in dried specimens. The
tongue is the same as in other Quails ; the irides are of a brownish yellow-ochre colour.
The tarsi are totally destitute of any tubercle or rudimentary spur. The whole crown
and base of the under mandible are velvet black ; the throat is pure white, and a white
bar passes across the forehead and is extended over both eyes to the back head. Whole
ujjper surface of the body and breast rich chocolate brown, studded with lunules of
velvet black ; the feathers of the scapulars, wing-coverts, and secondaries with large
patches of black ; a yellow line runs down the shaft, which is crossed by one or two
yellow lines. Wings red brown, spotted and barred with faint chestnut on the outer
webs. Tail brown, spotted with black and barred with yellow Unes. Lower part of the
breast, belly, and vent rufous ; each feather of the flanks with a broad spot of black,
and tipped whitish.

The female differs from the male only in the absence of the black on the head and
the white bar across the forehead, the latter being rufous ; and in the throat, breast,
and under parts being dilute chestnut, which on the breast is brownish.

In two males and a female, the intestinal canal was found to vary only from 13 to
13.V inches in length, the proportion to the body in these instances being respectively

UUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 17

as 2'60 to 1 and 270 to 1 . Canal wide ; duodenum barely wider ; from the insertion
of the cesca to the rectum \-^ to 1-fV inch. Ccsca thick, club-shaped at the end, vary-
ing in length in different individuals from Iw to l-jV inch, and not exactly of the same
length in the same individual. Cccca full of green pulp. Liver of two lobes, not equal
in size ; the left lobe with a deep fissure, and the right lobe ending in a long rounded
process, as in the Perdix picta, or black Partridge, a peculiarity not observed in other
birds of the Tetraonida;, excepting the Hemipodius pugnax. I did not observe a gall-
bladder, but traces of gall. Spleen ovate, tV inch long, situated on the right side of
the proventriculus at its junction with the gizzard. Stomach oval, compressed, mus-
cular, digastric muscles -rV inch thick, constituting a true gizzard. Testes very small,
oblong, TTT inch long only. Eggs numerous and very minute.

Stomach full of grass seeds, mth a few seeds of Ervum Lens.

Length of the bird, inclusive of the tail, 6-[V to 6-^ inches : tail 1-V to 1-iV inch :
bill to the gape ^lx to -ff inch ; height at the nostrils ^V to -^ inch : tibue 1-,V inch :
tarsi 1 inch : middle toe -jV inch, nail tV inch ; hind toe and nail -^ inch, rarely
touching the ground.

C. Mandibuld superiore vald^ arcuata ; alis rotundatis ; tarsis tuberculatis.

4. CoTURNix Argoondah.

Rock Quail of Dukhun.

Tab. n.

Cot. supra ruf escenti-brunnea, fasciis angustis dilute ferrugineis notata ; infra sordide alba,
fasciis equidistantibus nigris ; fronte mentoque ferrugineis ; strigd superciliari rufes-
centi-albidd.
Foem. Infra dilute ferruginea ; fascia nullce.
hides fusco-ioibrzE ; rostrum nigrum.
Long, corporis 5 unc. ; caudce \-^.

There are so many trifling variations in the markings of the plumage of the upper
surface of this Bird, that it is difficult to fix upon the exact type. The male is readily
distinguished by the numerous transverse narrow black bars upon the breast ; but the
young males and the females want these bars, and vary so much in the markings on
the back, that with those disposed to manufacture species from plumage alone, the
eleven specimens before me from Dukhun would furnish at least four new species.

This Bird affords another instance of the insufficiency of the received generic characters
of Coturnix to embrace all the species of Quail. It has a bill higher than broad ; and
in respect to the common Quail and Partridge the bill is comparatively short : it should
therefore be neither Quail nor Partridge. It has the rounded wing, and agreeably to

VOL. II. D

18 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE

M. Temminck, cannot be a Quail, but may be a Partridge ; but having rudimentary
spurs it might be a FrancoUn, save that it never perches. With the size, the air, the
internal organization, the general habits, and common characteristics of a Quail, would
the objects of natural history be advanced by constituting it the type of a new genus ?
I think not, and have therefore preferred throwing anomalous species into sections to
instituting genera for them.

The following is the description of the sexes in a mature state. Bill black, short,
compressed, higher than wide. Upper mandible the segment of a circle. Tongue of
the same form as in the other species. Legs and toes reddish. Irides reddish i'uscous.
Whole upper surface rufous chocolate brown, barred with hues of yellowish dilute
tawny, edged with thread-hke lines of black, and every feather freckled with the most
minute black dots ; on the scapulars, secondaries, and wing-coverts, are a few scattered
and irregular blotches of black : feathers of the head and back neck tipped with black :
tail barred with black, brown, and tawny : primary and secondary quills barred with
tawny, principally on the outer web : forehead and throat rufous, the latter with a spot
of white at the bottom of the rufous : over each eye a line of reddish white, continued
to the back neck : ears chocolate brown. Whole under surface of the body white,
barred with numerous parallel velvet black bars : a shade of rufous on the thighs and
flanks. Under wings uniform pale brown, without spots. The female differs from the
male in the whole upper surface of the body being destitute of any marked yellow or
tawny bars, or black blotches ; and a superficial view leads to the belief of its being of
a uniform rufous brown : but a closer inspection shows that each feather is crossed with
thread-like zig-zag lines of black and tawny, composed of the minutest dots. Head
brown ; throat and whole under surface dilute rufous light brown, faintest at the vent.
Female without tubercles on the tarsi. Both sexes have the feathers of the thighs,
vent, and under tail, long and downy.

The varieties, in eleven specimens, consisted in adult male Birds being destitute of
the black blotches on the upper surface, black bars on the tail, and black tips to the
feathers on the back neck, but having the tawny bars. One adult male exactly re-
sembled the female on the upper surface in the absence of distinct markings, but had
a more rufous shade of plumage. A female had faint black bars on the breast. Had
these Birds come to hand as isolated specimens, they would probably have been con-
sidered distinct species.

There is scarcely any difference in the size of the Birds, males or females. The mea-
surements are, bill to the gape -^V to -^V ; depth at the nostrils -^ to -Jj- inch : tip of
bill to end of tail 6-iV to 6-rV inches: tail 1-jV to l-jV inch: tibia 1-rV to l-j^ :
tarsi -jV to ^V§- inch: middle toe -^ inch, exclusive of nail of ^V inch ; hind toe -^V to
vt inch, nail -^.

QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 19

Grass seeds only were found in the stomach.

These Birds do not frequent cultivated lands, but are found all over Dukhun on the
general level of the country, amidst rocks and low bushes : they rise in coveys of from
ten to twenty, or more, from under the feet, with a startling suddenness and bustle ;
and the young sportsman is perplexed in selecting his bird. They are gregarious, and
I infer polygamous, as I never saw them solitary, or in pairs. Flesh perfectly white.

This is the species used for Quail fights by the natives, and not Cot. dactylisonans
or textilis.

5. CoTURNix Pentah.
Mountain Quail.
Tab. III.
Cot. supra saturate brunnea ; infra rufescenti-albida nigra fasciata ; ventre crissoque albido-
ferrugineis ; interscapulio scapularibusque nigra maculatis, plumarum rhachibus dilute
flavis ; remigibus brunneis pallide ferruginea maculatis ; strigd superciliari sardide
albd; menta rufescente.
Foem. Infra rufescens, haud fasciata ; plumarum rhachibus albis.
Irides ochraceo-brunneae ; rostrum rufescenti-brunneum ; pedes flavescentes.
Long, corporis 5-^ unc. ; caudes \-^.

Bill as in the last species, but stouter, and reddish fuscous instead of black ; tongue as
in other Quails ; legs yellowish, with a red tinge ; tarsi of males with tubercles. Whole
upper surface of a rich reddish dark brown, maculated rather than barred with obscure
rufous. The feathers of the scapulars, wing-coverts, and secondaries, are ornamented in
a remarkable manner : most of the feathers of the scapulars have a yellow or tawny cross
on a velvet black ground, the lines of which cross swell or thicken at the intersection ;
the feathers of the wing-coverts and secondaries have one transverse arm of this cross
shortened or wanting ; and instead of the whole field of the feathers being black, tliis
colour is confined in most of the feathers, though not in all, to the lower interior inter-
section of the arms, the remaining three places of the cross being rufous brown. Shafts
of the feathers on the back neck and back white. Tail barred with a few narrow
bars of black. A reddish white line over each eye edged with black ; also a faint
whitish line going back from the gape. Throat deep rufous. Whole under surlace
white, barred with parallel narrow black bars, the bars disappearing towards the vent
and the ground colour becoming rufescent. Primary quills spotted on their outer web
with tawny.

The female differs from the male in the whole of the under surface, from the chin to
the vent, being brownish dilute rufous, part of the shaft of each feather being white : in
some specimens there is a faint disposition to transverse black bars on the breast. The

20 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE

upper coverts of the tail have also some yellow dots down the shafts, and the bars of
the tail are more obscure than in the male.

Like the last species, these birds have the feathers of the thighs, vent, and under
tail, long and downy.

Length of sexes 6-rV to 7 inches, inclusive of tail of l-pV and l-i-% inch: bill to
the gape, ;■§- to i-l- inch ; height at the nostrils, ^\ to ^v inch : tibia: \-{^ to l-pV inch :
tarsi 1-rV to 1-^ inch ; middle toe 4-§- inch, inclusive of nail of -^ inch ; hind toe -fV to
Tjij- inch, inclusive of nail of -rV inch.

These birds are met with only on the mountains, on the slopes and sides of which
they rise in coveys from amidst reeds and long grass and brushwood, with the same
startling whirl, uttering cries of alarm, as Cot. Argoondah. My specimens were shot at
4000 feet above the sea.

Some accident has placed out of my reach the notes of the internal organization of
this species, but I have not any impression upon my mind that it differed materially
from the other Quails examined.

A male and female from the Himalayah mountains, belonging to the Zoological So-
ciety, are characterized by the pecuUarities of Cot. Pentah, and are undoubtedly identi-
cal in species with it. Nevertheless, there are trifling discrepancies which are indicative
of its distinct habitat ; namely, in the blackness of the bill, greyish cast of the rufous
brown of the plumage above, in the deeper tint of the rufous of the throat in the male
and female, and in the female being of a uniform rufous below : if anything, the size is
also somewhat greater, being from 7-iV inches in tire female to 7-,^ inches in the, male,
inclusive of tail of Iw inch.

In nine specimens of the same species from the Madras Presidency, probably from
the table land of Mysore, the first feature is that of somewhat smaller size and less robust
form than Cot. Pentah. Some of them have the black bill and greyish cast of the upper
plumage of the Himalayan birds ; others the reddish dark brown bill and rufous cast of
the brown plumage of those from Dukhun : all the males have the black transverse bars,
and the females the uniform rufous tint below, of the Himalayan variety ; but three of
the females have the deep rufous (almost dark chestnut or bay) throat of the male, while
three others want this character. Six birds have the black blotches, yellow shafts, and
imperfect yellow crosses on the scapulars and secondaries so characteristic of the Duk-
hun and Himalayan birds ; while two others have the black blotches, but neither yellow
crosses nor yellow shafts ; and one specimen is destitute of black blotches, yellow
crosses, and yellow shafts. Indeed, in two specimens only, and these are females, are
the markings of the upper surface of the bird exactly like Cot. Pentah. One of the
birds has so strong a cast of rufous above and below, has also so few spots of black
on the scapulars and secondaries, and moreover has a bill approaching so nearly to

QUA.ILS AND HEMIPODIl OF INDIA. 21

that of Cot. dactylisonans, although with a rounded wing, that 1 should have hesitated
to consider it of the same species as the other birds, had it not formed part of the same
batch. From these anomalies I would scarcely pledge myself that Cot. Argoondah and
Cot. Pentah are absolutely distinct species : but my observations enable me to say that
there are reasonable grounds for beheving them to be distinct.

The above notices of the variations in plumage in twenty-two specimens of the same
species from three distinct locahties, afford ample proof of the extreme caution requi-
site in instituting species in consequence of the absence of certain markings, or on va-
riations in plumage and type. Even in those birds of widely separated countries, which
resemble each other in every respect excepting in some permanent blotch or blotches of
black or white or other colour, or in certain band or bands, I would consider them
rather varieties of the same species than distinct species, and would denominate them,
from their locahty, the China, Dukhun, Himalayan, or Cape variety.

M Temminck' has given drawings of the Perdix Cambayensis. He says, " L'article
que nous publions ici peut servir de preuve nouvelle que les publications trop pr^coces
nuisent plus ou moins k I'^ude de I'histoire naturelle." The accidental loss of a nail
to the hind toe of a specimen induced him to consider it a Cryptonyx. I notice the
drawings here because they resemble very much my Cot. Pentah, and yet have some of
the characters of Cot. Argoondah. The drawings differ from my birds in havmg a white
line down each feather on the back instead of the yellow cross I have described ; in yel-
low instead of reddish-vellow legs ; in the lower mandible being yellow instead of brown,
and in the upper mandible brown instead of reddish fuscous. The colourings appear
to me to be too strongly marked. It is stated to be from Bengal, but no account is
given of its habits. I am not quite satisfied that my bird is not intended. M. Temminck's
bird, however, is only 5a to 6 inches long, whilst mine is nearly 7 inches.

Genus Hemipodius, Reinw.
1. Hemipodius pugnax, Temm.
M Temminck's coloured figure of this bird^, which he obtained from Java, gives a
very good idea of it ; and his detailed description in the ' Pigeons et Gallinaces■^
is sufficiently close not to require modification : the only omissions appear to me to be
the mention of the yeUowish white margins of the end of each feather on the back, and
of the rufous of the mid-belly being separated from the black and yeUowish white bars of
the breast by a defined fine. It is necessary to notice also the very rich character of the
plumage above, consisting of a multitude of bars of chestnut, velvet black, and yeUow
white or straw colour.

. PI. Col. 447. fig. 1& 2. ' PI. Col. 60. fig. 2. » torn. iii. p. 617.

22 LIEUT. -COLONEL SYKES ON THE

The sexes do not differ in plumage. M. Temminck received several individuals from
Java ; and as they all resembled each other, he drew the just inference that the female
could not differ much from the male. I mention this the more particularly, as the
absence of varieties in his specimens will assist to justify me in considering the next-
described bird as a new species.

The first four quill-feathers are nearly of equal length ; but in some specimens they
gradually lengthen from the first to the third, manifesting a disposition to a rounded wing.

I never met with Hem. pugnax in coveys. The birds were frequently in pairs, but
mostly sohtary. They affect cultivated lands, particularly chillee fields {Capsicum an-
nuum), and the resorts of Cot. textilis. Their flight is lazy and short, and they are
not readily put to the wing.

The remains of black ants, minute coleopterous insects, and grass seeds, were found
in the stomach.

The flesh is in layers brown and white.

The following are the measurements of a male and female : bill to the gape -^
inch and -H- inch ; height at the nostrils -^ and -^ : length, inclusive of tail, 6-;^ and
6-^ inches : tail 1-iV and \-^ inch : tibia U%- and l-^^v inch : tarsi J-Z- and -rV inch :
middle toe and nail -^ and -^ inch, nail barely -iV inch ; no hind toe nor rudiment
of one.

The liver consisted of two lobes, each with a ligulate process, as in Cot. erythrorhyncha
and the black Partridge. With this exception, the internal organization bore a close
i-esemblance to Cot. textilis. The intestines were singularly tender, and 1 1 inches long :
the ccBca H inch long, club-shaped, and full of green pulp ; their insertion was at
1j inch from the rectum. The stomach was very muscular. The testes and ovaries were
distinctly marked.

The muscular stomach and proportionally long intestines, compared with Otis, would
prevent its being placed in that genus ; but its cursorial habits and the form of its
bill would justify its displacement from the Tetraonida, and it might come in after
Otis in StruthionidiE.

Its pugnacious qualities are quite unknown in Dukhun and even in Java.

The Zoological Society has a specimen of this bird from Madras. It would appear,
therefore, to have an extended geographical range over the eastern islands and India.

QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA. 23

2. Hemipodius Taigoor.

Tab. IV.

Hem. supra castnneus ; plumis stramineo marginatis nigroque undulatim fasciatis ; tegmi-
nibus alarum stramineis nigro fasciatis ; remigihus fuscis ; mento guluque albis ; pec-
tore nigra alboque fasciato ; ventre crissoque dilute ferrugineis.

Irides pallidii flavse ; rostrum nigrescens.

Long, corporis 4-^ unc. ; caudce, l-ps-

I was at first disposed to regard this species as the immature bird of the Hem.pugnax;
but finding the manifestations of sex fully developed, and some peculiarities of plumage
permanent, I proposed it as a new species : and my opinion has been strengthened, as I
before mentioned, by M. Temminck not meeting with it among his specimens of Hem.
pugnax. It differs from Hem. pugnax only in its more slender bill, its white chin and
throat, its dilute red instead of rufous belly and vent, and in the colours of the plumage
being much less brilHant. It has the same chestnut, black, and straw-yellow bars and
bands above, and the same black transverse numerous bars on the breast, although the
latter are somewhat more slender than in Hem. pugnax. Its measurements correspond
very closely with those of Hem. pugnax, but the bird on the whole is less robust.

I did not remark any peculiarity in the internal organization differing from the pre-
ceding species to call for notice.

3. Hemipodius Dussumieri, Temm.
Button Quail of European sportsmen in India.

This bird, which is not in M. Temminck's ' Pigeons et Gallinaces', is very well figured
and described by him in his ' Planches Coloriees',^ excepting probably that the colours
on the back are scarcely dark enough and rich enough. His specimens were obtained
from Bengal.

Tongue as in the Quails. Irides yellow. Legs whitish. Sexes alike.

They affect thick short grass and fields of pulse of Dolichos bijlorus, Phaseolus Max,
and Ervum Lens. I never found the bird otherwise than solitary. It is so difficult to flush,
that it not unfrequently rises from beneath the feet ; and when on the wing, its flight
is so abrupt, angular, and short, that it is generally down ere the gun is well up to
the shoulder.

The following are the measurements : bill to the gape .^^V inch ; height at the nostrils
barely ^V i°ch : length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail 5-^ to StSj- inches :
tail I-[V and 1-;^ inch, very narrow and subulate : tibice 1^ inch : tarsi -^ inch :
middle toe and nail 4-?- inch, nail -rV inch.

■ PI. 454. fig. 2.

24 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES ON THE QUAILS AND HEMIPODII OF INDIA.

The intestine varied in length only from 8 to Si inches, and the caca from 1 to IVo
inch : the latter were inserted into the intestine at 2 inches from the rectum. The
liver consisted of two lobes ; but there was a deep fissure in the left lobe of one bird.
Stomach muscular, oval, compressed ; digastric muscle ^v thick, which was consider-
able for the size of the bkd. Organs of sex minute. Eggs numerous, very mmute. I
do not observe any mention of a gall-bladder in my notes.

■s.

« t

■< V-

4^-

■^

(

[ 25 ]

II. Descriptions of a few Invertebrated Animals obtained at the Isle of Prance.
B?/ Robert Templeton, Esq., Corr. Memb. Z.S.

Communicated July 28, 1835.

The following paper is devoted to the description of a few Invertebrate Animals which
were selected from the specimens I brought home with me from the Isle of France, and
of which descriptions, as far I can ascertain, have not yet been offered to the public.

Genus Actinia, Linn.
Actinia sanguineo-punctata.
Tab.V. Figg. 1, 2.
Act. flavescenti-rufescens, guttulis punctisque sanguineis confertis per series lonyitudinales
numerosas dispositis ornata ; ore guttis cceruleis quinque circundato ; tentaculis viri-
descentibus, hyalinis.
Reddish brown, or yellow, with longitudinal rows of brilliant red dots, the interspaces
being charged with minute concolorous points. The tentacula are subulate, hyaline,
greenish brown with pinkish tips : from their base white streaks pass towards the
centre, becoming lost in the depression which surrounds the truncate cone bearing the
mouth. The mouth is very small, and has five blue patches coalescing and encircling
it. The base is lobed, formed of a very fine membrane, which is thrown into folds by
a set of internal, apparently muscular, partitions, which radiate irregularly from the
centre.

This species appears hitherto undescribed. It is exceedingly pretty in the water, but
never arrives at a large size, an inch being the utmost hmit I have ever found it to
attain. It is found on the rocks, beneath low water mark, nearly all round the Isle of
France ; but does not appear to thrive well where the water is much agitated by the
wind or south-east swell.

Genus Xenia, Lam.
Xenia Desjaediniana.
Tab. V. Figg. 3—8.
Xen. pallide livido-cwrulea ; polypis 8-, rarius 9-radiatis.

VOL. II. B

26 MR. TEMPLETON ON SOME INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS

Disc livid, or pale blueish, with a small corrugated mouth on a gently raised central
eminence. Rays eight or nine, thick, fleshy, the discoid surface with numerous little
bodies which resemble the suckers of the Sepim. Peduncle thick, corrugated into annuli
when undistended, blueish with some lividity, gradually becoming carnose as it reaches
the common soft cortical texture from which the peduncles all spring.

On stones below low water mark within the reefs, near Black River, Isle of France,
not uncommon.

I have named this curious species in honour of my friend M. Desjardins, a distin-
■niished naturalist, and the indefatigable Secretary of the Natural History Society of
Mauritius.

The material from which the peduncles arise is spread over the surface of the stones
to an extent in many places of more than a foot. It is about the eighth or tenth of an
inch in thickness, though it is at parts occasionally much thicker, from the substance
diving into the minute hollows of the stone, and yet leaving the outer surface without
evidence of the depressions. When cut into it appears composed of irregular tubes
interlacing in everj' possible way, and of various sizes. Among them, and apparently
outside of them, I detected a vast number of minute whitish grains, spherical and
l)oUshed, which I should have reckoned ova, but from the circumstance that little
knobs were here and there apparent, which were obviously rudimentary peduncles,
leaving no doubt of the mode of growth or propagation. Eight or nine (according
to the number of the rays) of these tubes coalescing, and receiving a common cover-
ing from the base, form the stem, in the centre of which is found the ahmentary
canal, a distinct and separate tube, the inner membrane being corrugated and minutely
papillated. On tracing these tubes up the peduncle, we find them compressed, so as
to become somewhat quadrangular, but easily detachable from each other, a fine cellular
tissue alone connecting them. Their inner surface resembles that of the central ali-
mentary tube, except that they are destitute of the folds : they continue together until
they arrive at the disc, when each separates from its fellows, and is continued into a
ray, and ultimately sends a branch into each of the little suckers ; it forms here, how-
ever, a ml de sac, there being no communication that I could detect with the external
surface. The mouth is a simple fleshy ring when contracted, either forming a slit or
three or four irregular plaits, but not more rigid than any other part of the animal.

The discs are perpetually in motion, waved from side to side, as if in search of
objects ; and the moment anything comes in contact with any part of the rays, the
suckers or cilia close in upon it, and the ray doubles up like a finger, and carries the
prey to the mouth : if the object be large, two or three of the rays are employed ; and

OBTAINED AT THE ISLE OF FRANCE. 27

if its size be such as not to admit of its being swallowed, it is again disengaged and
permitted to escape.

The back of the rays and of the suckers or cilia is marked with transverse lines,
pointing out the positions of the places where the greatest motion ensues on the curving
up of these members.

Genus Anisomelus.
Os tentacuhs simplicibus octo, per paria dispositis, fihformibus, prehensiUbus in-

structum.
Branchiri;? simphces, tentacuUformes, pedibus baud mult6 longiores, in segmentis

corporis quatuor anterioribus sitae.
Testa cylindrica, calcarea, erecta, ad basin in saxis immersa.

Obs. Numero et symmetrid tentaculorum, necnon branchiarum simplidtate?, a Terebella
c<Eterisque generibus affinibus distinguitur.

Mouth simple, with numerous elongate tentacula surrounding the oral disc. Superior
rings of the body presenting ventrally from six to ten small tentacula or cilia, which are,
probably, the branchia: : the remainder each with a spatulate foot, from which project
four spines capable of slight retraction.

Forming an erect calcareous tube partially immersed in the coral rock.

Anisomklus luteus.
Tab. V. Figg. 9—14.
An. totus pallida luteus.

Yellow. Tentacula eight : one pair very short ; another pair long ; and an interme-
diate pair on either side of moderate length : dilating slightly towards their apices, and
with transverse folds. Beneath the disc and the roots of the tentacula is a double circle
of minute black dots, and a contracted part or neck, which stands out from, and is
capable of being received into, the first ring. The rings of the body are only obvious
in the undistended state of the animal : the three or four superior have minute arms, re-
sembling tentacula, proceeding from them ; the lower have on each side a somewhat
spatulate foot, declining slightly, and from its apex project four elongate spines, which
are capable of a moderate amount of retraction.

On the coral rocks, Black River, Isle of France.

This minute species forms for itself a thin calcareous tube, which stands up from
the surface of the rock, but not a sufficient way to admit of the concealment of the
whole body of the animal within it : in consequence, the tube is prolonged into the

28 MR. TEMPLETON ON SOME INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS

substance of the coral, as becomes at once apparent when the attempt is made to re-
move the animal, the least touch breaking sharp off the exterior tube. When anything
disturbs it, it immediately retires within the cell, the long tentacida being in many in-
stances placed also within, along the side of the animal, but most usually permitted to
float about in the water. When it comes out from the tube, it does not project further
than about the fourth or fifth foot : it then swings itself from side to side, tossing the
tentacnla about ; and whenever anything is discovered suitable for its food, the tentacula
seize on it, as the Sapajous grasp an object with their prehensile tails, and it is then
carried to the mouth, and is swallowed or rejected as the case may be. The tentacula
have a vast number of annuli, and in their interior is discovered a tube in which oval
globules are distinctly seen moving to and fro, as the motions of the tentacula affect a
few adjoining joints.

Genus Pi rates a.

Os tentaculis seu branchiis numerosis, long^ ciliatis, subulatis, simplici serie dispositis

cinctum.
Testa cylindrica, calcarea, erecta, e saxo parum prominente.

Obs. Genus propter tentaculorum hranchiferorum dispositionem a Sabella, Cuv., sejun-
gendum.

Mouth simple, at the summit of a gentle elevation : oral disc with numerous ciliated
tentacula. Beneath slightly contracted, so as to form a neck capable of being received
within the first ring of the body. Body sharply annulated, the rings bearing each a flat
spined pedicle or foot, that proceeding from the second ring being the largest : the last
ring, forming the tail, very small and with three pedicles or feet, two lateral and one
dorsal.

Forming a calcareous tube projecting a little way from the surface of the coral rock.

PiRATESA NIGRO-ANNULATA.

Tab.V. Figg. 15—18.
Pir. hrunnea, tentaculis pallidioribus nigro confertim interrupte annulatis.

Near Black River, Mauritius, in the coral rock within the reefs.

Not being able to find any genus exactly suited for the reception of this little animal,
I have, with a considerable feeling of doubt, created one for it. The orifice of the mouth
is simply a round opening in the centre of the oral disc, with the edge a little elevated and
lined with a flocculent membrane which is thrown into folds, and continues of t)ie same

OBTAINED AT THE ISLE OF FRANCE. 29

character down the centre of the body of the animal. The outer surface of the body
resembles very much that of the common Lumbricus, but has numerous corrugations
over the surface of the rings, which, however, become obliterated in particular motions
of the animal. The tentacula have a double row of cilia, arising laterally from the supe-
rior surface, which turn in upon anything that is seized, so as to embrace it tightly : but
when at rest, they are doubled up into little coils or knots, and are only expanded when
the animal is searching for food. When engaged in this occupation, it elevates itself
out of the tube, turns the disc down upon the adjacent part of the stone with very deli-
berate motion, and examines the surface with minute attention, the tentacula moving
about, so as to ensure the entrapping of any minute objects which may rest there.

PLATE V.
1 , 2. Actinia sanguineo-punctata.

Fig. 1. The entire animal.

2. The oral disc, with several of the tentacula.

3 — 8. Xenia Desjardiniana.
Fig. 3. Exhibits the appearance of the animal of about twice the natural size.

4. Is an enlarged view, showing the mode of origin from the cortex.

5. Exhibits the posterior surface of one of the rays.

6. The superior surface.

7. A section of the peduncle.

8. A section just beneath the disc, showing the tubes branching off into the

various rays.

9 — 14. Anisomelus luteus.

Fig. 9. Represents the animal of the natural size.

10. A magnified view.

1 1 . The superior rings, and inferior part of the disc, still more enlarged, to exhi-

bit the dots, the neck, the small tentacula, and the feet.

12. A foot, with its spines.

13. Shows the proportion of the tube and globules in the middle of one of the

tentacula.

14. The apex of the same tentaculum.

30 MR. TEMPLETON ON SOME INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS.

]5 18. PiRATESA NIGRO-ANNULATA.

Fig. IT). Represents the animal of the natural size.

16. Gives a magnified view of the animal.

] 7. Part of one of the tentacula, exhibiting the form and size of the cilia.

18. The tip of a foot with its spines.

"A,,,,., .,;./ ,/nr. 4^ ^ /^4 /..?/^.

R Trntplfhrn. tM

/-^,

'^ ■/■/<'/.

</e^(/ ,if///f/f/' ///r //f///f

•//f/

/rf/?/ . .y-d'. ///-////f iJ/fiyy/iy/A

//!/af/a

^ /.J . ' ^^/z. ff'Wf/'/.) u//ff/.i . /.'>' M'. , '/f>(fA:f/f /u^>r -f'y/////4r/if.

f 31 3

III. On a Remarkable Species o/Pteropine Bat. By E. T. Bennett, Esq., F.L.S.,

Sec. Z.S.

Communicated October 13, 1835.

A. BAT that has just come into the possession of the Society, exhibits a character so
striking as to authorize its being especially signalized : and it is with the view of di-
recting general attention to so curious a creature that I oft'er a description and figure
of it. To these I shall add occasional remarks on other animals with which it is con-
nected by some of the more remarkable points of its external organization.

On the first glance at this Bat the attention is arrested by a singular projecting patch
of long white hairs placed on each side of the neck in front of the shoulders, and look-
ing almost like a mass of white feathers. They seem so unlike the rest of the fur and
so different from any appearance usually observed in Bats, as to excite a suspicion
that they are a deceptive introduction into the skin ; an artificial attempt at the creation
of a remarkable object, designed to be mistaken for a natural body of singular interest,
yet having no real existence in nature. A close examination is induced by this suppo-
sition ; and it then appears that these curious appendages really form part of the ani-
mal, and that, however incongruous their appearance and however uncommon their
occurrence, they require to be considered with reference to it and to its congeners.

The oval patch on either side of the neck occupied by the white and peculiar tufts
measures about an inch in its longest diameter, which is from before backwards. The
skin is in this part altogether destitute of the ordinary hairs of the body, and has no
covering but that which is pecuhar to the spot itself. This consists of straight, soft
hairs, which diverge in all directions as from a common centre. Those that are
situated towards the middle of the patch are longer than the others, and are partly
directed forwards and partly backwards, having generally a dorsad incUnation : their
length is twice as great as that of the longer hairs of the body. The mode of their in-
sertion into the skin is unlike that of the ordinary fur : in the latter, the hairs are im-
])lanted either singly or a few only near each other, so that the covering by them be-
comes nearly uniform ; in the patches on the sides of the neck the hairs are gathered
together into bundles, and are inserted in fascicles into the skin, leaving between the
several minor tufts interspaces altogether naked. Each of the separate fascicles con-
tains probably from fifty to sixty hairs : and the approximation of these at their base
and their divergence towards their tips might almost be regarded as bearing a distant
analogical resemblance to the quill and the dilatation of the feather of a bird. The same

32 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON A REMARKABLE

character of implantation in fascicles belongs to some of the shorter hairs on the verge
of the white patches ; which are also so far influenced by their proximity as to assume
a portion of the colour that belongs to those parts, being white at the base andbecom-
in'' towards the tips of the dull pale chestnut tinge that prevails on the body generally.

But althouo-h in the Bat under consideration the curious arrangement which has just
been described exists at perhaps its maximum of development, it is not to be looked
upon as being confined to a single species. It is found also, but to a much less extent,
in the nearly allied animal, obtained from the same country and by the same collector,
to which Mr. Ogilby has recently given the name of Pteropus macrocephalusK In the
latter it is, however, so little conspicuous that it would scarcely fail to be overlooked
if the attention were not especially directed to the ascertaining of its existence. The
hairs of the sides of the neck in that species are of a pale dull fawn colour, are gene-
rally slightly longer than the adjoining ones, and pass insensibly into those of the
under surface, which resemble them in all respects except in being paler. There is
among them no mass remarkable either for its colour or for its length, or indeed for any
extraordinary appearance. Yet among them there will be found, on separating the fur
so as to allow of an inspection of its mode of insertion, a part in which the hairs are
implanted in bundles ; and it will be seen that the hairs so implanted have a tendency
to diverge as from a common centre, which, however, on account of their softness, is
by no means striking. The part at which these fascicled and diverging hairs are
detected corresponds precisely with that of the white patches that deck the sides of the
neck in the species that forms the subject of this communication ; and the structure
may consequently be safely regarded as analogous. M. Temminck has also described
a corresponding structure in another species, designated by him, in his ' Monographies
de Mammalogie'2, ^s the Pter. tittacheilus. He speaks of the males of his Bat as having
on each side of the neck a tuft of hairs diverging from a common centre, which are
white in the young animal, and become in the adult male (like the adjoining parts) of
a bright red and eventually of an orange colour : and he believes that a similar arrange-
ment exists also in the Pter. amplexicaudatus. That eminent zoologist is of opinion that
the tuft of diverging hairs on the sides of the neck in his Pter. tittcecheilus cover a glan-
dular apparatus for the secretion of an odorous substance, which may probably afford
indications to these animals in the season of their amours : and he suggests as ana-
logous cases the cavity on the forehead of Rhinolophus Speoris, Geoff. ; the opening on
the chest of Phyllostoma hastatum, Ej. ; the Uttle cavity under the throat oi Dysopex
velox, Temm. ; and the large pouch beneath the chin of Taphozous Saccolaimus, Ej.

The view which has been taken by M. Temminck of the purposes for which this
apparatus is designed is probably correct : if the possession of it be limited, as he

' Proceedings Zool. Soc, part iii. p. 101. * torn. i. p. 198.

SPECIES OF PTEROPINE BAT. 33

has stated, to the males alone, it can, indeed, scarcely be doubted that he has justly
determined its use. A secondary use might perhaps be assigned to it by the supposi-
tion that the secretion poured forth from it might serve to sheathe and protect a pro-
jecting part of the animal from the friction to which it must be subjected during its
passage through the air ; and it is possible that some advantage may, in this way, be
derived from it : it is worthy of remark too, as bearing in some degree on the subject,
that in all the analogous cases just adverted to the secreting organ is placed in front of
the body, and generally in situations especially exposed to the impulses of the air. A
suggestion that has been made with reference to my species alone, may be mentioned
merely to guard others against incautiously advancing the same proposition ; that the
bright white tuft might serve to attract night-flying insects within reach of the Bat's
jaws : it was forgotten, at the moment, that the Pteropi feed on fruits.

Another suggestion that has occurred as to the use of the largely developed shoulder-
tuft in the species under consideration connects itself with a curious point of structure
which the animal appears to exhibit. The wings, in the specimen as preserved, are
placed so far backwards as to be apparently behind the centre of gravity ; and on this
account it seems possible that the projecting tufts of hairs, looking almost like little
wings, may aid in giving buoyancy to the animal and in sustaining the ill-poised weight
of its head and neck. But as there is evident distortion in the mode in which the skin
is preserved, it is impossible to determine to what undue extent the wings may have
been kept backwards and the neck have been elongated ; and until these points can be
ascertained, by the examination of specimens preserved in spirit, no deductions can
safely be founded upon them. If the present condition of the specimen should prove
to be even a near approximation to the correct form of the animal, the backward
position of its flying membranes would justify its separation as the tj^pe of a distinct
genus, for which the name of Epomophorus might be used. It is possible that the
Pter. macrocephalus of Mr. Ogilby might be generically associated with it, as in that
animal also the alar membranes appear to be affixed to the body at a more backward
point than usual ; although by no means so remotely as in my species.

The Pter. macrocephalus of Mr. Ogilby has other relations with the Bat which I am
now describing. Besides the apparently backward position of the wings, and in addi-
tion to the fact, already adverted to, of its inhabiting the same country, it has also the
same system of dentition, with a single trifling and anomalous exception. The same
system of dentition is also exliibited by another Bat from the same country, the Pter.
Gambianus, Og. When describing the two species referred to, Mr. Ogilby remarked
that they " present some modifications of dentition which have not yet been observed
in other species, and which appear to indicate a subgenus, probably representing the
common Asiatic forms on this [the western] coast of Africa. These animals have the

VOL. II. F

34 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON A REMARKABLE

incisors and canines of the same form and number as the rest of the genus, hut there
are onlj' three molars in tlie upper and five in the lower jaw. The incisors are small
and regular : the canines of intermediate size : the first false molar in the lower jaw is
small and of the normal form, but the second in this jaw and the first in the upper are
of the same form as the canines and very little inferior to them in size, so that when the
mouth is opened there appear to be four canines in each jaw ; next follows in either jaw
a tooth with a large lobe upon the outer edge and a smaller one within, which is of
intermediate form between the true and false molars ; after which come two normal
molars in the lower and one in the upper jaw. All the molars are separated from one
another by a vacant space on each side : this gap is particularly large between the real
and spurious canines or first false molars in the upper jaw, the corresponding space in
the lower having in its middle the small false molar already mentioned." These words
describe so correctly the form, position, appearance, and number of the canine and
molar teeth in my specimen, that it is unnecessary to do more than quote them as
fully descriptive of its dentition so far as those teeth are concerned. The incisors,
however, present a slight deviation in one respect, which can only be regarded as acci-
dental : there are on the left side three of these teeth in the upper jaw. The upper
incisors are small, conical, and pointed : the lower are expanded towards their tips,
and somewhat lobed.

So perfect an agreement in dentary characters between three animals inhabiting the
same country, and distinguished by those characters from all other known species,
Avould apparently indicate the necessity of distinguishing them as a separate group :
but the dentary characters of the Bats seem to vary so irregularly that it would be
hazardous to rely on them alone for generic distinctions. The organs of locomotion,
and the appendages to the organs of the senses, furnish, in all their variations, im-
portant elements in the construction of the genera of Bats : and with the latter is con-
nected even the grand division, indicated also by the form of the molar teeth, into
fruit- eating and insectivorous. But the number of the teeth is of far less moment.
That of the incisors is notoriously diff'erent in the same individual at various periods of
its life. The molar teeth also are equally liable to vary by the presence or absence of
the first or of the last of the series, either singly or conjointly.

In the PteropideB the normal number of the teeth appears to be thirty-four, of which
sixteen belong to the upper and eighteen to the lower jaw. In Pteropus, as restricted
by M. F. Cuvier, there are four incisors in the upper jaw ; two canines ; two false
molars; six true molars ; and two small posterior molars: in the lower jaw there are
four incisors ; two canines ; two false molars ; eight true molars ; and two small poste-
rior molars. This full and perfect set of teeth is liable to modification by omissions in
various ways : among the incisors ; among the false molars ; and among the posterior

SPECIES OF PTEROPINE BAT. 35

small molars. According to these modifications several genera have been proposed ;
and others might, doubtless, be created on the same principles and to a considerable
extent. Thus the genus Pteropus of M. F. Cuvier has the full number of teeth above
mentioned. If the false molars in each jaw be omitted, the dental formula is that of
Macroglossus, F. Cuv. If the false molars be retained, and the posterior smaU molars
be omitted, the formula is then that of Cynopterus, F. Cuv. The loss of two incisors
from each jaw, and the retention of molars like those of Macroglossus, constitutes the
character of the genus Cephalotes, Geoff. The absence of all incisors except two in the
upper jaw, and the presence of the full number of molars, belongs to the genus Har-
pyia, F. Cuv. The removal from the Pteropine formula of the false molar from the
upper jaw and of the small posterior molars from both jaws, would constitute a dentary
character for Epomophorus : but it seems to me more advisable to abstain from regard-
ing that genus as constituted until better opportunities have been secured for the clear
understanding of the organs of flight in the animals apparently referrible to it.

In the Bat that constitutes the typical example of this group the head is more length-
ened than is usual in the Pteropidce, a character in which it accords with the Pter. ma-
crocephalus. Its other characters of external form, excepting as regards the position of
the alar membranes, are common to it with the remainder of the animals comprehended
in the family. In the skin, as preserved, there is no vestige of a tail : but this organ,
when it exists in the Pteropi, is in so rudimentary a state as to be easily destroyed or
overlooked, and can exercise no perceptible influence on the habits of those species that

possess it.

The fur of the body is closely set and soft ; and consists of slightly wavy hairs which
are generally of a moderate length. It extends along the anterior extremities nearly as
far as the wrist, densely covering the limbs ; and is equally furnished on the hinder
limbs as far as the ancle. The interfemoral membrane is entirely invested with fur ;
and a band of short hairs passes along the hinder edge of the flying membranes for
some distance from the ancle. On the flying membranes, in the part that interA'enes
between the bones of the arm and leg, a few very short adpressed hairs are implanted
in small distant tufts, as in other species. The hairs of the large humeral tufts are
much longer than any of the others, and are perfectly straight ; they are not, however,
harsh or rigid, and, when minutely examined, are not found to differ in the type of
their construction from the rest of the fur.

In this Pteropus, as in other Bats, the hairs of the body generaUy have a serrated
appearance along their margins, when seen under a high magnifying power ; and thus
exhibit a tendency to become decompounded, which may be regarded as analogous in
some measure to the decomposition of the feathers of Birds. But the projecting points
of the sides of the hairs in Bats are not the tips of processes lateraUy given off from a

36 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON A REMARKABLE

continuous central stem, to which they are attached by their lower extremity : they
rather resemble the free extremities of sheaths surrounding the stem of the hair, and
slightly lengthened out in an oblique direction, which detach themselves at their tips
and there recede, in a greater or less degree, from the common axis. The general effect
thus produced is by no means unlike that which occurs on the lower part of the stem
of some monocotyledonous plants, where the sheaths of many abortive leaves follow
each other in rapid succession. Such is the appearance observed on the hairs of the
body of this Pteropus generally, as well as on those which form the tufts on the sides
of the neck. It is, however, variously modified on the hairs of different parts of the
body, and even on different parts of the same hair ; the seeming sheaths being much
more closely set in the middle and towards the base of the hair than near the tip, and
the serration in the immediate vicinity of the base being almost entirely obliterated, so
as to produce the appearance of annulation rather than of imbedded obUquely truncated
cups. The tips of the hairs offer consequently the most favourable opportunity for ex-
amining their structure, in as much as the lateral processes which form the serrations
become gradually more remote from each other, and eventually assume in many cases
an appearance by no means unUke that which characterizes the articulations of some
species of Sertularia.

In so minute and difficult a subject, seen only by transmitted light, (for the high
magnifying power necessarily employed precludes the possibihty of observing the hairs
as opake objects,) the risk of optical delusion is so great, that it would be unsafe to
affirm that they are really jointed. Such, however, is the appearance assumed by the
tips of the hairs, and more especially of those which form the fasciculated tufts so often
referred to. Each joint seems under these circumstances to be terminated by a process
inclined away from the general axis of the hair, the succeeding joint (by which the hair
is lengthened out) being attached to its side prior to the divergence of its point. The
terminal joint when present has usually the shape of a pointed stylet ; but it is fre-
quently wanting in consequence of the injuries to which the fur of the animal is ex-
posed : and the mode in which it, as well as the other joints, separates from the remain-
ing portions of the axis at its apparent articulations might be regarded as an argument
in favour of the actual composition of the hair. This hypothesis is still further sup-
ported by the appearances presented by some of the more wooUy hairs of the under
surface of the body, the tips of which are apparently composed of obconical joints, the
narrow part of each joint being attached to the centre of the truncated extremity of that
next preceding it.

The microscopic characters here described, although common to all the Bats vfhich I
have examined, are considerably modified in the different species, and even (as has been
seen above) on different parts of the body of the same individual ; in this respect re-

SPECIES OF PTEROPINE BAT. 37

sembling the scales of Lepidopterous Insects, which vary greatly both in form and struc-
ture according to their position on the wings. Nor is the serrated appearance in ques-
tion confined to the Bats, although more common among them than in other tribes. It
is most usual on those hairs which are crisped and woolly, assuming however in the
more woolly kinds a totally different character, on which the property of felting pos-
sessed by such hairs evidently depends. It is, however, beside my present purpose to
enter further into the details of the modifications which occur in the hair of different
animals : I content myself with having thus lightly touched upon them, with the view
of recommending them to the attention of the practical zoologist, as well as to that of
the microscopic observer, who has long been familiar with many of their more remark-
able appearances. The subject is well worthy of a careful study, both in a structural
and physiological point of view ; as an attentive examination of the different modifica-
tions, and of the circumstances attending them, is evidently calculated to throw much
light on many obscure questions connected with the growth and production of hair.

In conclusion of these somewhat desultory observations, I subjoin a description of the
remarkable Pteropus which has given rise to them.

The general colour of the animal is a dull and pale brown, slightly tinged with rufous.
This extends over the whole of the upper surface, but is rather lighter towards the
hinder part of the back. On the under surface the colour generally is similar to that
of the back, but has somewhat of a grey appearance on account of the lighter tips of
the loose hairs that occur in this situation : on the middle of the belly, where the hairs
are short, frizzled, and by no means adpressed, they are entirely of a pale ash-colour
approaching to white. A line almost equally pale with the middle of the under surface,
and equally composed of loose waved hairs, extends along the under surface of the
flying membranes immediately behind the fore-arm. The only other deviations from
the generally sober colouring of the animal are the remarkable shoulder-knots of white,
and a small and inconspicuous patch of short white hairs placed both before and be-
hind, at the base of the naked ears.

The species may be thus characterized :

Pteropus Whitei.
Pter. pallide brunneus, postice pallidior ; ventre albido ; scopd humerali alba magna.

Long. tot. 6^ poll. ; capitis, 2^^; expansio alarum, 12.

Hab. in regione Gambiensi, D. Rendall.

Obs. Scopa humeralis forsan maribus propria.

In naming this remarkable Bat in commemoration of an individual who had no share
in its discovery and by whom it was never seen, I may seem, strictly speaking, to have
erred ; but it is time that technical zoology should record the name of one who was bv

38 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON A REMARKABLE PTEROPINE BAT.

no means unversed in its mysteries, and who has long maintained the highest rank as
a popular zoologist. GUbert White, of Selborne, was the first Englishman who ascer-
tained the existence of indigenous Bats other than the two known as European to Lin-
naeus : to that good man and excellent observer be this singular species dedicated, — a
species belonging to one of the few groups of Bats that are of direct utiUty to the human
race, and which, preying not on other animals, rest contented with the simple fruits of
their native woods.

PLATE VL

Pteropus Whitei.

PLATE Vn.

Fig. 1. One of the heiirs of the lateral tufts of the neck of Pteropus Whitei, highly
magnified.

a. A portion of the same hair, near its base ;

b. Another portion, near its middle ;

c. A third portion, nearer to its tip ;

d. The tip : all seen under a still higher power.

2. One of the hairs of the back, magnified to the same extent as Fig. 1 .

e. A portion of the same hair from its base ;
/. Another portion from the middle ;

g. The tip : all more highly magnified.

3. Portions, very highly magnified, of one of the hairs from the under surface

of the neck.
■ h. The base ;
i. The middle ;
j. The tip.

^^MU.^l^^. ^/^/fe*.*?.

HdJdcO,^.

[ 39 ]

IV. Some Account of the Crustacea of the Coasts of South America, with Descriptions of
new Genera and Species : founded principally on the Collections obtained by Mr. Cuming
and Mr. Miller. By Thomas Bell, Esq., F.R.S., L.S., G.S., &i Z.S.

Communicated November 10, 1835.

X HE rich acquisitions which have accrued to science from the indefatigable exertions
of Mr. Cuming have already furnished matter for numerous communications to the
Zoological Society, which have hitherto been principally devoted to the description of
new species of Mollusca, or to the anatomical structure of animals of the same great
group. The collection of Crustacea procured by the same gentleman, amounting to
about one hundred and fifty species, promised to afford many new forms ; and it was
at first my intention to content myself with the description of such new genera and
species as were contained in that collection. Finding, however, that in some particular
genera the new species were either so numerous, or so interesting and important in their
characters, as to throw an entirely new light upon the character of the groups to which
they belonged, and having these means of information enlarged by the kindness of my
friend Mr. Miller, who has, with his usual liberality, presented me with the whole of a
small collection made by him principally on the coast of Brazil, I have been induced to
extend my original plan, by embodying an account of the whole of the species collected
by these gentlemen ; and offering, in a few instances, monographs of such genera as
require an entirely new arrangement, or new distinctive characters, in consequence of
these acquisitions. In furtherance of this object I have already communicated to the
Zoological Society, a monograph of the restricted genus Cancer, enriched by no less
than three new and highly interesting species ' ; and I now proceed to offer the further
detail of the contents of these collections in a systematic form, commencing with the
Oxyrhynchi.

The arrangement which I have adopted is generally that of Dr. Milne Edwards, whose
work on the natural history of Crustacea is not only by far the most complete that has
ever appeared, but offers a classification which, though not free from some inconsiderable
objections, yet, as being founded upon structural rather than mere formal characters,
must be allowed to constitute the nearest approach hitherto made to a natural arrange-
ment.

' Trans. Zool. See, vol. I., p, 335.

40 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

Classis CRUSTACEA.

Subclassis DECAPODA.

Ordo Brachyura.

Tribus Oxyrhynchi.

Familia LeptopodiadjE, Bell.

Genus Leptopodia, Leach.

Leptopodia Sagittaria, Leach.

Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

Found by Mr. Cuming at Valparaiso.

Genus Eurypodius, Gue'r.
EuRYPODius Latreillii, Guer.

Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

Found at Valparaiso by Mr. Cuming, and at Rio Janeiro by Mr. Miller.
Tbose procured from the latter locality were more than twice as large as those from
the former place.

Familia Maiad^e (Maiens, Edw.).

Genus Microrhynchus.

Testa subtriangularis, postic^ rotundata, antic^ rostro brevissimo terminata.

Oculi pedunculo elongato multo crassiores, retractiles.

Orbita suprk unifissa, extrorsum unidentata.

AntenncB exterior es ad latera rostri insertse, articulo basilari rostro pauUo breviore.

Antenna interiores in fossula integra, antic^ aperta, et ad apicem rostri fere attinente,

locatse.
Pedipalpi externi caulis interni articulo secundo cordiformi, antic^ emarginato.
Pedes antici maris corpore vix longiores, reliquis multo crassiores, digitis arcuatis ;

FCEMiN* minimi : pedes octo posteriores subconsimiles, corpore fer^ duplo longiores,

unguibus leviter curvis.
Abdomen maris 7- fcemin^ 5-articulatum (hujus articulis tribus ultimis conjunctis).

The genus thus characterized agrees in several remarkable and important relations
with Camposcia -. a comparison, however, of its structure with the essential characters
of the latter genus, will warrant the step I have taken in forming a new genus for the
two beautiful and very peculiar species about to be described, especially as they both
agree in all the most striking and obvious characters in which each of them differs from
Camposcia. The exact situation of the present genus it is perhaps not easy to ascertain.

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 41

From the characters of the feet, and the form of the body, as well as some other charac-
ters, it might probably be placed between Camposcia and Inachus, without any consider-
able violation of its affinities. There are, however, some indications about the structure
of the external pedipalps, and the form of the abdomen, especially of the female, which
would seem to intimate some not very obscure relations to a group remote from those
genera.

MiCRORHYNCHUS GIBBOSUS.

Tab. VIII. Fig. 1.
Micr. testa gibbosd, rostro bifido.
Hub. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
c? Mus. Soc. Zool.

The carapax is broadly pyriform, gibbous, rounded ; the regions elevated, and sepa-
rated by rather deep furrows ; the surface covered, particularly on each branchial
region, with numerous distinct rounded tubercles resembhng very minute pearls. The
rostrum is very small and bifid. The orbits are wide, and have a hollow at the outer
side for the lodgment of the eyes when at rest, though not deep enough to conceal
them entirely. A small fissure divides the upper margin of the orbit from the rostrum,
and another externally from the tooth of its outer angle. The eyes are larger 'than
their peduncles.

The external antennce are half as long as the body, the basilar joint as long as the ros-
trum, with a tooth at the outer angle. The internal antennas are lodged in a single cavity,
open in front, bounded above by the rostrum., and on each side by the basilar joint of
the external antennas. The pedipalps resemble those of Camposcia, excepting that the
second joint of the inner footstalk is more heart-shaped, and deeply notched for the at-
tachment of the moveable palp, which is long and greatly developed.

The abdomen of the male (the only sex yet observed) has seven joints, each of which
has an elevation in the centre : the first, which is wholly apparent when the animal is
viewed from above, is somewhat quadrate, with a small tubercular tooth in the centre ;
the second very short ; the third much broader than the rest, and the remainder ab-
ruptly narrower.

The first pair of legs are thicker than, but not much more than half as long as, the
others ; the surface granulated ; the hand rounded, and terminated by arched fingers which
meet only at the apex, where they are denticulated. The four posterior pairs of legs are
on the average nearly twice the length of the body, diminishing in the order 3.4.2.5.
They are cylindrical and hairy ; and the nails are long, slender, and but slightly arched.

The general colour of the specimen is yeUowish white.

Length of the carapax G hnes ; breadth ^ lines.

One specimen only, a male, was obtained by Mr. Cuming at the Gallapagos Islands,
in sandy mud at six fathoms depth.

VOL. II. o

42 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

MiCRORHYNCHUS DEPRESSUS.

Tab. VIII. Fig. 2.

Micr. testa depressd, granulatd; rostro minuto, triangulari, integro.
Hah. cum Micr. gibboso, ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
? Mus. Soc. Zool.

This very singular species diifers greatly in general form and aspect, no less than in
more minute detail, from the former. The carapax is much broader, suborbicular, very
depressed, although the specimen is a female, and the regions, though sufficiently
distinct, are but little elevated. The surface is covered with numerous minute granular
elevations, with here and there a few larger ones. The orbits resemble those of Micr.
gibbosus, excepting in being much larger, as are also the eyes. The rostrum is very
small, triangular, and entire, the margins minutely granulated.

The tooth of the basilar joint of the external antenruE is incurved at the point. The
internal antenna resemble those of the former species, but their cell is still more open.
The first joint of the inner footstalk of the external pedipalps is longitudinally chan-
nelled ; the second joint cordiform, but less deeply notched than in Micr. gibbosus.

The sternal disc (in the female) is almost orbicular, and not nearly covered by the
abdomen, which is five-jointed. The first joint is somewhat bell-shaped, with a long
central tooth or spine projecting directly backwards ; the second, third and fourth, ex-
tremely short ; and the fifth, consisting of a perfect union of the last three joints, forms
a flat orbicular disc, having a broad, depressed, longitudinal elevation.

The first pair of legs is, in this sex, extremely small ; the arms much curved ; the
fingers very slightly arched, and minutely toothed towards the extremity. The remain-
ing legs are similar to those of the former species.

Colour nearly white, but with a very slight pinkish tinge.

Length of the carapax 6 lines ; breadth the same.

Of this species one specimen only, a female, was procured by Mr. Cuming with the
former.

Genus Libinia, Leach.

LiBINIA ROSTRATA.

Tab. VIII. Fig. 3.

Lib. rostro producto, valido, bidentato, dentibus compressis, acutis, divergentibus.

Hab. ad oras Peruvise.

cJ Mus. Soc. Zool.

The whole of the body and legs are covered with close short hair, the surface beneath
the hair being minutely punctate. Carapax almost globose, the regions much elevated.

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 43

with numerous strong spines and tubercles, one longer than the rest standing out hori-
zontally on each branchial region. Latero-anterior margin with three spines, and a
fourth behind them which forms the commencement of a flattened ridge extending
backwards to the posterior margin. Orbits with a strong spine over the inner canthm.
Rostrum very prominent, flattened, terminating in two strong diverging teeth.

Exterior antenna cylindrical, inserted at the side of the rostrum, and not at all con-
cealed by it. The pedipalps similar to those of the other species of the genus.

The abdomen of the male formed of seven distinct joints, each elevated in the centre,
so as to form a longitudinal carina. The divisions of the sternum very distinct.

The anterior pair of legs twice the length of the body ; the arms furnished with nu-
merous obtuse spines : the hands granulated, and without spines : the fingers touch
each other only at the points, which are rather acute. The four posterior pairs of legs
diminish regularly from the second to the fifth ; they are wholly without spines, con-
siderably thickened at the joints, and terminate in a strong curved nail.

The colour of the hair which covers the whole animal is a light brown ; the body

itself paler.

Length of the carapax, including the rostrum, 2 inches 8 hues ; breadth 2 inches 3 lines.

A single male specimen only was found by Mr. Cuming on the Peruvian coast, in
soft mud, at the depth of five fathoms.

This species differs from all others previously known in the genus, in a character
which, unless a new genus were formed for its reception, requires the revision and al-
teration of the generic character as hitherto assigned to it. The rostrum, instead of
being extremely small, and merely notched at the extremity, is broad, projecting, and
terminates in two strong, diverging teeth. The other characters of the species, and its
general habit and form, are, however, so essentially those of the genus Libinia, that I
cannot but consider it as belonging to the same natural group.

Genus Rhodia.
Testa pyriformis, in rostrum parvum, bidentatum antic^ producta.
Oculi retractiles, globosi, pedunculo crassiores. ^

Orbit a fissura magna, supern^ aperta.

Antenna interior es in foveolis profundis, lunatis, antic^ separatis receptse.
Antenna exteriores rostro dupl6 longiores, articulo basilari bidentato, reliquis cylindricis,

ad rostri latera insertse.
Pedum par anticum maris (immaturi) reliquis brevius ; digitis minutissim^ serratis :
paria quatuor posteriora testa longiora, k secundo ad quintum sensim paullo breviora.
.abdomen MARIS 7-articulatum. Fcemin^e?

This genus is allied to Herbstia, from which, however, it differs remarkably in tbe
structure of the anterior feet. The fingers in Rhodia meet throughout their whole
length and the margins are minutely serrated : in Herbstia they meet only at their

44 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

points, and are furnished with rounded tubercles. In the present genus the anterior
legs are shorter than the posterior, and very slender ; in Herhstia they are much longer
than the others and very robust. One species only is known of the genus, of which
but a single specimen exists in the collection formed by Mr. Cuming.

Rhodia pyriformis.

Tab. IX. Fig. 1.

Hah. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
cJ. Mus. Soc. Zool.

Carapax pyriform, somewhat depressed, the regions slightly and evenly elevated •.
rostrum about as broad as it is long, small, consisting of two pointed teeth : lateral
margin with four distant, minute teeth : posterior margin produced. Orbits large, with
a triangular hiatus above, and a tooth at the outer and inner canthus. Eyes large,
globose, fixed on very short peduncles, which are small at their junction with the eyes,
but larger at their insertion into the orbit.

Internal antenna lying in deep, circumscribed, longitudinal, somewhat lunulate ca-
vities. External antenna twice as long as the rostrum, the basilar joint broad, biden-
tate, the outer tooth being the shortest, and placed further back, at the inner canthus
of the orbit. The pedipalps were so much injured in the specimen as not to admit of
description.

Abdomen of the male seven-jointed, decreasing in breadth from the third joint to the
last.

The anterior pair of feet rather thicker but shorter than the others ; the arm and
wrist hairy and beset with small spines ; the hand hairy above, but without spines :
the fingers are slender, and are in contact throughout their whole length, and the mar-
gin is very minutely serrated. The remaining feet are longer than the carapax, the
second pair by nearly one third ; tlie remainder diminishing gradually to the fifth. They
are nearly cylindrical, hairy but without spines or tubercles, and terminate in a small,
shghtly curved claw.

The colour of the only specimen known is pink, the hairs brown ; the legs are whitish
with pink annuli or bands ; but as the specimen is considerably bleached and injured,
it is impossible to judge of the natural colour.

Length of the carapax 8 lines ; breadth 6 lines.

A single male specimen only, probably immature, was procured by Mr. Cuming, at
the depth of six fathoms, on coral sand. It had evidently been long dead.

Genus Pelia.
Testa pyriformis, rotundata, antic^ rostro elongato, apice bifido, terminata.
Orbita supra fornicata, extern^ unifissa, infr^ emarginata.

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 45

Oculi retractiles, globosi, pedunculo crassiores.

AntenncR interiores in basin rostri insertse.

Antennce exteriores rostro haud niullo longiores, articulo basilari longissimo, ad medium

roslri attinente, extus uni-denticulato ; articulis secundo et tertio cyhndncis ; re-

liquis setaceis gracilibus.
Pedipalpi externi caule externo semifusiformi ; caulis interni articulo primo elongato-

rhoraboideo, secundo trapezoideo, margine integro.
Pedum par anticum reliquis paullo crassius, secundo brevius ; digitis apicem versus

serrulatis, digito immobiU ad medium excavato, tuberculum umcum digiti mobihs

recipiente : paria quatuor posteriora gracilia, compressa, pilosa.
Abdomen maris 7-articulatum.

Amongst the Crustacea brought by Mr. Cuming from the western coast of South
America, there occurs a single specimen of a very small species, which, with some
characters allied to those of Herbstia, and some by which it is related to Pisa, oilers
certain peculiarities which appear to me to establish it as the type of a distinct genus.
From the foregoing account of its characters, the relations which I have mentioned will
probably be recognised ; but the structure of the anterior feet, of the extenor antenna,
and of the pedipalps, is very peculiar. The fingers of the first pair of feet, when closed,
are in contact throughout their whole length ; the apical half of each is minutely ser-
rated and there is a single tubercle about the middle of the immoveable finger, received
into a corresponding cavity in the moveable one. This is a combination of the serrated
with the tuherculated form of finger, which at least is not common ; and the accurate
closing of a broad tubercle into a corresponding excavation in the other finger, is a
structure which I have not observed in any other species. The extension ot the basilar
joint of the exterior antennce so far beyond the line of the orbit as to be exposed above
throu<^h nearly its whole length, is also a peculiarity which I bebeve belongs to no other
genus of this section. These characters, with the peculiar form of the external pedi-
palps, appear to constitute the essential data for the foundation of a new genus.

Pelia pulchella.
Tab. IX. Fig. 2.

Hab. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.

cJ Mus. Soc. Zool.

Carapax pyriform, gibbous, rounded, pohshed, somewhat hairy : the regions elevated,
particularly the gastric and cardiac, the latter of which forms a rounded tubercle : la-
teral margin entire. Rostrum straight, much produced, nearly half as long as the rest
of the carapax, bifid at the extremity, with a slight groove continued backwards from

the bifurcation. i j .. tu

Internal antennw inserted at the base of the rostrum: external antenrue placed at the

46 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

sides of the rostrum ; the basilar joint reaching to about half its length, almost wholly
exposed above, slightly tapering towards its extremity, where there is a small external
tooth ; the moveable portion setaceous, extending a little beyond the apex of the rostrum,
the second and third joints cylindrical, and much larger than the terminal portion.
External pedipalps with the external footstalks semifusiform ; the first joint of the in-
ternal footstalk elongate, rhomboid ; the second joint of an irregular four-sided figure,
the margins entire.

Abdomen in the male seven-jointed, the joints becoming gradually smaller from the

third to the last.

Anterior feet longer than the body ; the arm three-sided, having a toothed carina
above, and two carin(B beneath, the outer of which is minutely serrated ; the hands
sU^htlv compressed, smooth: the fingers, when closed, in contact throughout their
whole length, the half towards the apex being serrated, and a tubercle of the immove-
able finger received into a corresponding excavation in the moveable one. The re-
raainino- feet compressed, carinated and hairy above, the second pair longer than the
first, the rest becoming gradually shorter.

Length 4 lines ; breadth 2+ lines.

A single male specimen was taken by Mr. Cuming from sandy mud, at the depth of
six fathoms.

Genus Herbstia, Ediv.

The genus Herbstia was formed by Dr. Milne Edwards on the characters offered by
Cancer condyliatus of Herbst, and named in honour of that indefatigable carcinologist.
That species, which is a native of the Mediterranean, has been successively placed in
the genera Inachus, Maia and Mithrax, by Fabricius, Latreille, and M. Risso, and very
properly separated from these by the acute naturaUst above mentioned. The correct-
ness of this separation receives an interesting confirmation in the discovery of the
present species, which may, with peculiar propriety, be dedicated to him who first distin-
guished the characters of the genus.

Herbstia Edwardsii.

Tab. IX. Fig. 3.

Herbst. pedum pare antico inermi.
Hab. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
S Mus. Soc. Zool.— ? Mus. Bell.

The carapax is depressed, much rounded, the post-frontal portion being nearly of a
circular form, but rather narrowed forwards. The surface is minutely punctated. The
gastric region has four small tubercles placed transversely, and there are several similar
ones on other parts, particularly on the branchial regions and the lateral margin. The
front is moderately prominent, the rostrum very small, bifid, the horns being pointed

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 47

and a little flattened, as in Herbst. condyliata. The orbits are large, and furnished with
a tooth at the upper and inner angle, another at the outer angle, and a third, small and
rounded, beneath ; between which and tlie basilar joint of the external antenna is a
considerable hiatus. The eyes are scarcely larger than their peduncles, which are of
moderate length.

The external antenna; have the basilar joint broad and prominent, with a large tooth
anteriorly, and a smaller one at the base of the latter : the second and third joints
cylindrical, the latter extending a little beyond the rostrum. Internal antenna lodged
in a circular hollow, having a raised margin, and a tooth in front, directed a little back-
wards and downwards. External pedipalps with the second joint of the inner footstalk

cordate.

Abdomen of the male formed of seven joints of nearly equal length, becoming gra-
dually narrower, and the terminal one rounded. The abdomen of the female nearly cir-
cular. First pair of feet in the male more than twice as long as the post-frontal portion
of the carapax, rather robust, and nearly cylindrical ; the hand rather larger than the
other joints, perfectly smooth ; the claws rounded and minutely denticulated at the ex-
tremity, slightly hollowed, and having one large strong tooth on the finger and another
on the thumb. The remaining pairs decreasing in length from the second to the fifth ;
the third joint much larger than the others, with a row of small spines above, and
sparsely hairy ; the nails very slightly curved.

The general colour above is a greyish brown ; beneath yellowish ; the anterior legs
plumbeous, the others somewhat flesh-coloured.

Length of the carapax 7 lines ; breadth 6~ Unes.

This species diflTers from Herbst. condyliata, which in most of its characters it much
resembles, in its diminutive size, the greater proportional length of the anterior feet,
and the absence of tubercles on the hands.

A male and a female specimen were taken by Mr. Cuming at the Gallapagos Islands,
in coral sand, at the depth of six fathoms.

Genus Thoe.

Testa subtriangularis, depressa, horizontaUs, rostro minimo, apice leviter fisso termmata.

Orbita edentata, fissuris tribus inconspicuis.

Oculi subretractiles, globosi, pedunculo brevi.

Antenna interior es in fossula antic^ tantum divisa insertse.

Antenna exteriores ad latera rostri insertae, rostro triple longiores, extrorsum pilosae,

articulo basilari latissimo, antic^ et posticfe producto.
Pedipalpi externi introrsiim ciliati, caulis interni articulo primo subrhomboideo, secundo

rotundato margine integro.
Pedes antici maris reliquis longiores, brachiis supra et externe serie cellularum erosis ;

48 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

manibus laevibus, digitis arcuatis, ad apicem tantum contingentibus : posteriores

depress!, lateribus pilosis.
Abdomen in utroque sexu 7-articulatum.

This genus, founded on a single known species, approaches Herbstia in the character
of the antenna;, the hands, the claws, and some other parts ; but it differs materially
from that genus in the form of the rostrum, the depressed and horizontal form of the
body, and from every other genus in the remai'kable excavations on the upper and outer
sides of the arm. Its natural situation in the system is probably between Herbstia and
Hi/as. The genera, however, constituting the Maiens of Dr. Milne Edwards, require a
thorough examination, in order to ascertain the real value of the characters upon which
generic distinctions have hitherto been founded.

Thoe erosa.
Tab. IX. Fig. 4.

Hab. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.

Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

Carapax somewhat triangular, longer than it is broad, rounded behind, depressed,
horizontal, covered with low tuberosities ; the lateral margin without teeth, perpendicu-
lar. Rostrum minute, tapering to the point, which is slightly divided. Orbits nearly
round, without teeth, with three small fissures, one above the inner canthus, another at
the outer angle, and the third beneath. Eyes subre tractile, globose, smaller than the
base of the peduncle.

Internal antennas lodged in a fossa, which is anteriorly divided by a tooth projecting
backwards and longitudinally excavated. External antenna with the basilar joint very
broad, produced forwards and backwards, the moveable portion three times as long as
the rostrum, ciliated on the inner side. External pedipalps with the outer footstalk ex-
panded at the outer margin ; first joint of the inner footstalk nearly rhomboidal, with
entire margins, ciliated on the inner margin ; second joint without any emargination for
the insertion of the palp.

Abdomen in both sexes seven-jointed. In the male, the third to the sixth joints are
scarcely broader than the first and second.

Anterior legs in the male longer and much more robust than the remainder. The
arm with a series of quadrilateral excavations on the upper and outer surfaces diminish-
ing backwards. Hands smooth, carinated beneath, the fingers meeting only at the point,
not excavated or serrated, but with a single tubercle near the middle of the moveable
finger: remaining feet flattened above, longitudinally rugose, the sides furnished with
rather long hairs ; beneath rounded and smooth.

Colour light yellowish brown above, paler beneath.

Length 6 lines ; breadth 5 lines.

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 49

Taken by Mr. Cuming at the Gallapagos Islands in sandy mud at the depth of seven
fathoms.

Genus Hyas, Ediv.

Hyas Edwardsii.

Tab. IX. Fig. 5.

Hy. testd antice angustatd, post orbitas hand coarctatu, pilosa ; orbitanm dente interno
mediocri ; abdominis (maris) articulo penultimo utrinque unidenticulato.

Hab. apud Valparaiso et ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.

Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

Carapax pyriform, elevated, posteriorly rounded, anteriorly narrow, but without a
distinct contraction behind the orbits ; covered with brown hair. Rostrum formed of
two elongated compressed teeth slightly converging at the apex. Orbits spacious, with-
out spines, having a triangular tooth of moderate size at the outer canthus. Eyes globu-
lar, larger than their peduncles.

Interior antenna lodged in & fossa at the base of the rostrum,, which is open anteriorly,
and undivided. Exterior antenna longer than the rostrum, very hairy, the basilar joint
with raised margins ; the second and third less expanded than in the other species of
the genus. The pedipalps offer no pecuUarity.

Abdomen of the male with the penultimate joint with a small tooth on each side.

Anterior legs in the adult male rounded, the hand much thicker than the arm, and
terminated by curved fingers, which touch each other only at the apex, which is ser-
rated ; moveable finger with a single tubercle near the base. In the female the hands
are scarcely larger than the arms, the fingers are less curved, and there is no tubercle.
The remaining legs are somewhat flattened above, obtusely carinated beneath, and very
hairy : the second pair is the longest, and they diminish regularly to the fifth.

Colour reddish brown ; the hands red.

In size the specimens from the two localities differ exceedingly. There are adult
males from the Gallapagos Islands, of which the length is 6 lines and the breadth
4 lines. From Valparaiso I have examined a specimen of an immature male, as ap-
pears by the want of development of the anterior feet, the length of which is 9 hnes
and the breadth 7 lines. This remarkable discrepancy led me at first to expect that I
should discover some specific differences ; but the most careful examination has con-
vinced me that they are all of one species.

VOL. 11.

50 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

Genus Pisa, Leach.

Pisa spinipes.

Tab. IX. Fig. 6.

Pisa testd ovatd ; dente articuli hasilaris antenna exterioris dente superorbitali longiore ;
margine antico-laterali et pedibus omnibus spinosis.

Hab. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas, et apud Sanctam Elenam.

(? Mus. Soc. Zool.— ? Mus. BeU.

This is an elegant little species, bearing considerable resemblance to young specimens
of Pisa tetraodon, Leach, but differing in many essential particulars from this and
every other known species.

The carapax is depressed and granulated : the lateral margin on each side beset with
about seven or eight sharp spines, which are much smaller and shorter in the female
than in the male. The former sex has a strongly-marked granulated line over the pos-
terior margin, which is much less conspicuous in the male ; a circumstance which I
have observed in many species, not only of tliis but of several other genera. The tooth
above the orbit, unUke many other species, is shorter than that of the basilar joint of
the exterior antennee. The horns of the rostrum are separated throughout their length,
and are somewhat divergent.

The abdomen of the male specimen was lost : that of the female is as broad as it is
long, and has a low longitudinal carina.

Tlie feet are all furnished with small spines, particularly on the third joint ; the ante-
rior pair in the female scarcely larger than the rest : those of the male specimen were
lost.

This species differs from all the others, excepting Pisa Styx, Latr., in having numer-
ous spines on the legs.

Length 8 lines ; breadth 5 lines.

The male specimen was taken by Mr. Cuming at the Gallapagos, at the depth of
sixteen fathoms ; the female at St. Elena at six fathoms : both on sandy mud.

Pisa aculeata.
Tab. IX. Fig. 7.

Pisa testa, triangulari, dente articuli basilaris antenna exterioris dente superorbitali breviore ;

margine antico-laterali inermi, regione branchiali spinis quatuor armatd ; pedibus supra

spinosis.
Hab. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.
Carapax triangular, nearly as broad as it is long : the latero-anterior margin without

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 51

spines, but furnished witli tliree subimbricated processes, directed forwards. Branchial
regions with about four small spines, of which two are placed near the lateral margin on
each side ; the rest of the body with small scattered tubercles. Rostrum with rather long,
diverging, acute teeth. The orbits with a very short tooth over the inner canthus.

Exterior antenncs with the tooth of the basilar joint very long, acute, slender, and
directed forwards and a little outwards. The pedipalps offer no peculiarity.

The penultimate joint of the abdomen in the male has a small tooth on each side.

Anterior legs of moderate size and length, the fingers but Uttle curved ; the arm with
a few short, obtuse, and compressed spines : the remaining feet hairy and spinous above,
the nails curved and very acute.

Colour fuscous.

Length 8 lines ; breadth 7 lines.

Taken by Mr. Cuming on sandy mud at the Gallapagos Islands, at the depth of seven
fathoms.

This and the preceding species belong to the third section of the genus, according to
Dr. Edwards's arrangement, with Pisa Styx, Latr. They are characterized by the greater
length of the basilary tooth of the antenna:, compared with that of the orbit.

Genus Mithrax, Leach.

MiTHRAX ROSTRATUS.

Tab. X. Fig. I.
Mithr. testd spinosd, rostro elongato, bidentato, dentibus divaricatis, ad apicem incurvis,
terminatd ; pedibus spinosis ; manibus Icevibus.

Hab.

c?. Mus. Bell.— ?. Mus. Soc. Zool.

Carapax rounded, anteriorly produced, moderately elevated, the regions distinct;
surface granulated, tuberculous, and with the margins and outer part of the branchial
regions spinous. Rostrum much longer than broad, consisting of two strong diverging
teeth, the apices of which are a Uttle inclined. Orbit nearly circular, surrounded with
warty tubercles. Eyes globular, smaller than the base of the peduncles.

Interior antenna lodged in a fossa, which is divided only at the anterior half by a
projecting tooth-hke process. Exterior antenna rather longer than the rostrum ; the
basilar joint with a small tuberculated tooth at the outer edge ; second and third joints
rather broad, and furnished with long hairs on each side ; fourth joint cyhndrical and
elongated. Pedipalps as in most other species of the genus.

Abdomen of the male slightly and obtusely carinated ; of the female nearly orbicular.

Anterior feet of the male moderately robust, of the female rather slender ; the move-
able finger in the former sex with a tubercle near the base ; hand smooth, the other
joints spinous and tuberculated. Remaining feet spinous and tuberculated, excepting
on the last two joints, which, like the others, are hairy. The nails in the male are fur-

52 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

nished with a series of small denticulations beneath, as in the genus Pisa ; the female
is without them.

Colour lightish brown; the hands mottled.

Length of the carapax 2 inches 2 hnes, including the rostrum which is 4 lines long
and 2 broad ; breadth of the carapax 2 inches nearly.

Two specimens, a male and a female, were obtained by Mr. Cuming.

Notwithstanding the length and spinous form of the rostrum, the more elongated
form of the carapax, and the moderately developed character of the claws, I cannot but
consider this species as belonging to the genus Mithrax, as all its essential characters
correspond with that group. It may perhaps be considered as offering a step towards
the genus Pisa, not only in the characters already mentioned, but also in the denticu-
lations on the under surface of the nails in the male ; a character which, although con-
sidered as essentially distinguishing the last-named genus, can only be ranked as of very
secondary importance, as in the present species it constitutes but a sexual distinction,
the male possessing it, and the female being wholly destitute of it.

Mithrax Ursus.

Tab. X. Figg. 2, 3.

Mithr. testa granulatd, verrucoso-tuherculatd, rostri dentibusobtusis, granulosis ; tuberculis
octo pone rostrum, et sex circum orbitas ; manibus lavibus.
Junior. Cancer Ursus, Herbst, I. p. 217, t. xiv.f. 86.
Hub. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

Carapax in the young specimens somewhat pyriform, in the adult nearly orbicular,
granulated, and with numerous warty tubercles, of which there are four immediately
behind the rostrum, forming a square, and four a little behind them similarly disposed.
The latero-anterior margin has three or four strong prominent tubercles each with one
or two smaller ones at its base. Rostrum projecting, formed of two strong rounded
teeth, each terminated by a warty tubercle. Orbits with six similar tubercles, of which
that over the inner canthus is the most prominent. Eyes globose, smaller than the base
of the peduncle.

The exterior antenna hairy in the younger specimens ; the basilar joint with a large
tubercular tooth at its outer angle, the apex of which, like all the other tubercles in
this species, is granulated or warty. The interior antenna, the external pedipalps, and
the abdomen do not materially differ from those parts in the other species of the genus.

The anterior pair of feet are, in the female, a little longer and more robust than the
others ; the arm and wrist covered with prominent tubercles ; the hand smooth, the
fingers in this sex, and in young males, serrated at the margin, but without a tubercle.
(It is probable, that in the adult male the hands are more robust and the iingers fur-

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 53

nished with a strong tubercle as in Mithr. verrucosus, Edw.) The remaining feet co-
vered with similar tubercles above, and a few very small ones beneath. The nails much
hooked and acute.

In the young state, the carapax, the legs, and the antennce are covered with a thick
coat of hair, and the tubercles are small and sharp, so that the margin of the shell, tlie
rostrum, the orbits, and the legs, may rather be described as spinous than tuberculated.

Colour of the adult a deep purplish brown ; of the young, light brown.

Length of the carapax in the adult female 2 inches ; breadth 2 inches.

Two adult females and several young specimens of both sexes were obtained by
Mr. Cuming from sandy mud at the Gallapagos Islands at the depth of six fathoms.

The Cancer Ursus of Herbst has not, I believe, been observed since his figure was
published. Dr. Edwards suggests that it may be a species of Paramithrax, and the
erroneous drawing of the anterior feet in Herbst's figure might authorize such a suppo-
sition. The examination, however, of several specimens of different ages has enabled
me to ascertain that it is a true Mithrax, and that the characters of the genus are so im-
perfectly developed in the young state, that not only in this, but in many other instances
such a mistake might readily occur. It was from a specimen about half grown that
Herbst's figure was taken, and I now offer a figure of a still younger individual, and
one of an adult female, with the assurance that the intermediate states enable me con-
fidently to consider them as the same species. The Uttle spines in the young are every-
where identical with the tubercles in the adult.

The observations which I have here ventured to make, show the importance of ex-
amining Crustacea in various degrees of development, in order to ascertain the specific
and even the generic characters. The parts which differ most in the two sexes, are
generally found to be those which undergo the greatest changes by age. And in those
genera which, like the present, exhibit a peculiar structure in the hands, — organs which
offer the greatest variation in both these circumstances, — it is peculiarly necessary that
the structure of these parts in both sexes and at various ages should, if possible, be
described.

Herbst gives his own collection as the place where the specimen he figured was de-
posited, and states the South Sea as its habitat.

Mithrax nodosus.

Tab. XI. Fig. I.

Mithr. testd trigono-rotundatd ; margins tuberculis tribus fortibus, rotundatis, et dente
unico ; rostra brevi ; pedipalpis articulo secundo caulis externi irregulariter lunulato ;
manibus lavibus, supra carinatis ; brachiis et carpis tuberculatis ; pedibus posterioribus
supra spinosissimis et pilosis.

Hob. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

54 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

Carapax somewhat depressed, rounded, slightly triangular, broader than it is long ;
the surface wth broad elevations, which are highest over the gastric region ; the latero-
anterior margin with three strong rounded tubercles, and a small spine behind them.
Rostrum very short, rounded and bifid. Orbits with a small round tubercle over the
inner canthus, and a small fissure above.

Exterior antenncE with the basilar joint as prominent as the orbitar tubercle, but
rather less so than the rostrum ; second joint somewhat heart-shaped, furnished with a
tuft of rather long hair on the inner edge, as is also the remaining portion of the an-
tennee. Pedipalps with the second joint of the inner footstalk of an irregularly semi-'
lunar form, much broader than it is long, not cordate as in the other species of the
genus.

Abdomen with the seven joints very distinct.

Anterior legs above covered with tubercles ; the hand quite smooth, with a carina on
the upper edge. The fingers are much curved, and in contact only at the apex, which
is scarcely denticulated ; the moveable one has a strong tooth near its base. The pos-
terior legs are covered on the upper surface with hairs and numerous spines, many of
which are furnished with two or three distinct hairs at the point.

The colour above is brown ; that of the hands dark plumbeous : it is paler beneath.

Length of the carapax 1 inch ; breadth 1 inch 3 hnes.

Found by Mr. Cuming in considerable abundance under stones at low water.

This species belongs to the third section of the genus, as divided by Dr. Edwards :
his Mithraces deprime's.

MiTHRAX DENTICULATUS.

Tab. XI. Fig. 2.

Mithr. testa profunde sculptd ; margine laterali dentibus quatuor obtusiusculis ; pedipalpis
articulo secundo caulis interni cordato ; manibus lisvibus; pedibus posterioribus pilosis,
spinosissimis.

Hab. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas, sub lapidibus.

Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

A small species resembhng in most of its characters the former one, though differing
sufficiently to be distinguished from it at the first glance. The markings on the carapax,
though similar in situation, are much more distinctly and deeply incised ; the teeth on
the lateral margin, though rather obtuse, have not the rounded, tubercular character
of the same appendages in Mithr. nodosus. The arms and the feet also are more sharply
spined. But the character which at once distinguishes them, on a closer inspection, is
the form of the second joint of the inner footstalk of the external pedipalp, which in
Mithr. nodosus is crescent-shaped, and much broader than it is long ; and in the present
species is cordate, and as long as it is broad.

Colour plumbeous, passing into fuscous.

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 55

Length 5 lines ; breadth 6 hnes.

Found by Mr. Cuming in considerable numbers with the former.

MiTHRAX PYGMiEUS.

Tab. XI. Fig. 3.
Mithr. testd depressd, rotundatd, hevi; fronts obtusissimo lato, obsolete bilobato ; pedibus

anticis corpore duplh fere longioribus ; manibus lavibus.
■ Hob. ad Panama, Americas Centralis.
Mus. Sec. Zool., Bell.

Carapax depressed, broad across the branchial regions, contracted forwards, and ob-
tuse in front ; the regions rather distinct ; the surface smooth ; the lateral margin with
a few small teeth or spines. Front very obtuse, obscurely bilobed, laminated. Orbits
with a minute tooth over the inner canthus, and two externally, much excavated be-
neath. Eyes large, prominent, globular.

External antennce with the basilar joint very broad, anteriorly denticulated, the
moveable portion cylindrical, half as long as the body. External pedipalps with the
first joint of the inner footstalk nearly quadrate, the second emarginate at the anterior
and inner angle.

Abdomen of the male seven-jointed, nearly triangular.

Anterior feet nearly twice as long as the carapax ; the arm and wrist with a few mi-
nute tubercles ; the hand robust, smooth ; the moveable finger with a small tubercle
near the base, the apex excavated and serrated at the margin. The remaining feet
slender, shorter than the first pair ; having a few tubercles on the first three joints, the
remainder smooth.

Colour pale brownish above, reddish beneath ; hands a red brown.

Length nearly 3 lines, breadth the same.

Of this little species Mr. Cuming procured two male specimens at Panama, on sand,
at the depth of ten fathoms.

The characters ofiered by this pygmy Crab, are such as to occasion some hesitation
whether to consider it as a species of Mithrax, or as the type of a new genus. It has
certainly many important relations to the genus mentioned, and I have preferred placing
it therein to increasing the number of genera upon what may appear to be too slender
foundations. The characters in which it difiers from the other species, are the smooth-
ness of the carapax and arms, the slenderness and extraordinary length of the anterior
feet, the laminated and obtuse form of the rostrum, and the length of the external an-
tenna.

Genus Othonia.
Testa late ovata, rostro parvo, brevi, bifido, baud deflexo, terminata.
Oculi pedunculo elongate, cylindrico, subcurvo baud crassiores.

5fi

MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

AntenncB interiores minutissimse. ...

Antenna exteriores breviusculs, articulo basilar! lamelloso, extus dente triangular, ar-
mato ; secundo compresso cordato, antic^ eraarginato, et tertio multo majore ;
reliquis parvis cylindricis. , j ^

Pedinalpi externi caulis interni articulo secundo triangular!, extrorsum subproducto.
Perfe^ mediocres. Par anticum maris....? f(emin^ reliquis minus, digitis minute
serrulatis, digito mobili longiore : paria quatuor postenora ordine 2.3.4.5. gra-
datim breviora ; digitis subtus minutissim^ denticulatis.
Abdomen maris . . . . ? fcemin;e 7-articulatum.

The relation of this genus to Micippa, Leach, and Paramicippa, Edw., is very
striking It agrees with them in most of its essential characters, as well as m its ge-
neral aspect ; but is readily distinguished from them by the form of the ro.^r^m, which
in those genera is large and deflexed, whilst in Othonia it is extremely sma 1 and hori-
zontal There are two species in the coUection brought from South America by
Mr Cuming, of each of which two female specimens only were found: the characters
of the anterior feet and of the abdomen must therefore at present be confined to those

of that sex.

Othonia sex-dentata.

Tab. XII. Fig. I.

0th. testa; margine laterali dentibus sex triangularibus acutis.

Pitho sexdentata, Bell, in Proc. Zool. Sac, Part Hi. p. 172.

Hab. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.

? Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

Carapax broadly oval, moderately elevated, the surface rough, granulated, and slightly
hairv ■ the lateral margin with six flattened triangular, falciform teeth, the points acute
and directed forwards; a ridge of prominent granulations over the posterior margin.
Rostrum very small, bifid, with a small sulcus continued backwards from the division.
Orbits with a broad triangular fissure above, the tooth on each side flattened and trian-
gular, the outer one the larger. Eyes not larger than the peduncles, which are elon-
gated, slender, projecting forwards and slightly curved inwards. ^

Internal antenna extremely minute, and placed far back beji^ the rostrum. Ex-
ternal antenna hairy, short, the basilar joint broad and flaUja^g a trian^lar external
tooth which extends forwards as far as that of the opMf; second joint flat, cordate
anteriorly emarginate for the insertion of the third joint, which is also compressed, and
much smaller than the previous one: the remaining joints are small and cylindricaL
External pedipalps with the outer footstalk graduaUy acuminated: the inner footstalk
with the first joint rather broad and rhomboidal ; the second triangular with the an-
terior angles somewhat produced.

Abdomen (in the immature female) oval, consisting of seven nearly equal articulations.

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 57

obtusely carinated along the centre ; each of them delicately ciliated at its anterior
margin.

Feet of moderate length : the anterior pair (in the female) considerably smaller than
the rest, slender, slightly compressed, and smooth ; hand with a small obtuse tooth
above and one beneath, at the base ; the fingers with the margins minutely serrated.
The moveable finger longer than the other, and curved over its extremity. The re-
maining pairs of feet decreasing in length from the second to the fifth, depressed, and
slightly hairy ; the antepenultimate joint has a shallow sulcus on each side ; the ter-
minal joint is minutely toothed beneath.

Of the colour nothing can be said, as both the specimens preserved by Mr. Cuming
were bleached.

Length 9 hnes ; breadth 8 lines.

Found by Mr. Cuming at the Gallapagos Islands in sandy mud, at the depth of six
fathoms.

Othonia quinque-dentata.
Tab. XII. Fig. 2.
0th. testa margine laterali dentibus quinque triangularibus acutis armato.
Pitho quinquedentata. Bell, in Proc. Zool. Soc, part Hi. p. 172.
Hab. cum praecedente, ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
? Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

This species resembles the former one in most of its characters. It differs, however,
in the number of teeth on the lateral margin, and very considerably in size. The frontal
portion of the carapax is more produced, and the surface more scantily granulated,
and without spines. The two specimens of the former species are nearly an inch long,
and are both evidently immature, as the abdomen is but very little developed. Those
of the present species, which are very little more than half an inch in length, have the
abdomen fully developed, being very prominent, and of a circular form.

The general colour is brown ; the feet with alternate rings of reddish and brown.

Two female specimens were found by Mr. Cuming with the former.

Genus Tyche.

Testa oblonga, depressa, angulata, antic^ decUvis, fronte lato, rostro bidentato piloso
terminata ; rostri dentes compressi, obtusi, apicem versus intern^ emarginati.

Orbita supr^ latissima, in dente prominenti complanato antic^ producta, infr^ carens.

Oculi pedunculo elongato minores.

Antennas interiores in fossula ad basin rostri insertae.

Antenna; exteriores rostro longiores, articulo basilari latiusculo, antice angustiore ; arti-
culo tertio secundo abrupt^ minore ; omnibus extern^ pilosis.

VOL. 11. I

58 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

Pepipalpi extemi rugosi, caule exteriore subulato, caulis interioris articulo prirao canali-
culato, extiis profundi emarginato ; secundo securiformi, tridentato.

Pedes antici graciles, simplices, pari secundo breviores, digitis inermibus ; posteriores
cylindrici, unguibus acutis, curvis, complanatis terminati.

Abdomen maris 7-articulatum. Fcemin^e . . . . ?

This genus offers in its general form and aspect, as well as in its more minute and
important characters, several very remarkable peculiarities. The flattened bodywith its
recun^ed and angular margin, the sloping direction and extraordinary size of the front,
the laminated and extended form of the superior margin of the orbits, the absence of
any inferior process of those parts, the eyes lengthened so as just to peep out beyond,
the extraordinary development of the orbits, whilst they are wholly uncovered beneath,
the forms of the antenna and pedipalps, — altogether present a very interesting assemblage
of characters, which, whilst they indicate a near affinity to the genus Criocarcinus Guer.,
show it to be essentially distinct not only from that but from every other genus of Crus-
tacea.

TyCHE LAMELLIFRONS.

Tab. XII. Fig. 3.

Hab. ad Panama, America Centralis.

c? Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

Carapax depressed, of an oblong irregularly four-sided figure, flattened behind the
gastric region, which is considerably elevated and with the lateral and posterior margin
forms a hexagonal outline : posterior margin turned up. The lateral margins are
parallel, and anteriorly separated by a minute fissure from the superior orbitar process,
which expands outwards, in a broad and flattened plate, covering the elongated eyes,
so as to allow only the extremity of those organs to be seen from above ; it is curved
forwards in a prominent flattened tooth which extends nearly to the level of the apex of
the rostrum. The orbits are wholly wanting beneath. The rostrum is formed of two
flattened teeth, separated from each other from its base ; they are obtuse, and excavated
at the inner margin near the apex : both margins are furnished with hooked and cla-
vated hairs. The eyes are smaller than their peduncles, which are elongated, somewhat
larger at their base, gradually attenuated towards the apex, and wholly exposed from
below, though concealed above (excepting at their tips) by the superior orbitar plate.

The interior antenna are placed in an excavation at the base of the rostrum, which is
partially divided by a small process of the anterior margin. Exterior antennce a little
longer than the rostrum ; the basilar joint broad, compressed, becoming rather narrower
forwards, and having a very shallow longitudinal sulcus : the remaining joints cylin-
d'-ical, furnished on the outer side with numerous hairs, which are hooked at the extre-
mity ; the second joint with a minute tubercle at its base ; the third abruptly smaller
than the preceding one. External pedipalps with the outer footstalk subulate ; the first

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 59

joint of the inner footstalk longitudinally channelled, externally deeply emarginate for
the articulation of the second joint, which is somewhat securiform, and tridentate at its
inner margin.

Abdomen consisting of seven joints in the male, the third being longer and broader
than the contiguous ones.

Anterior feet simple, slender, smooth, shorter than the second pair ; the fingers per-
fectly simple, and meeting only at their points. The remaining feet cylindrical, sHghtly
hairy above, the hairs being thickened at the points and hooked, as are also those of the
antenruB and rostrum. The nails long, acute, compressed, and curved.

Colour a dull uniform brown, paler beneath.

Length of the carapax, including the rostrum, 7 lines ; breadth 4 lines.

Two male specimens were found by Mr. Cuming at Panama, on sand at the depth of
six to ten fathoms.

Genus Pericera, Latr.

Perxcera villosa.

Tab. XII. Fig. 4.

Per. testa depressd, villosd, regionibus elevatis, sulcis separatis, spina obtusd laterali utrin-
que ; rostri cornibus validis, sublamelliformibus, divergentibus ; dente articuli basilaris
antenna externa dente superorbitali multh longiore ; antennis exterioribus sub rostro
insertis.

Hob. in Sinu Guayaquil.

c? ? Mus. Bell.— ? Mus. Soc. Zool.

This species belongs to Dr. Edwards's second section of the genus, in which the tooth
of the upper margin of the orbit is much shorter than that of the basilar joint of the
external antenna. The general appearance of the carapax, its form, its remarkable
sculpture, and its dense villous covering render it one of the most interesting of the
genus.

The carapax is irregularly rhomboidal, longer than it is broad, considerably produced
anteriorly, the posterior margin obtusely angular. It is generally depressed, but the
regions are individually elevated, and separated from each other by deep sulci. The
whole surface is covered by a dense villous coat. The lateral margin is armed on each
side with a long, thick, horizontal spine, somewhat conical, obtuse, and bent a little
forwards. The eye is very small, placed on a moderate peduncle, and projects a little
beyond the margin of the orbit, which is furnished with a single short obtuse tooth
above. The basilar joint of the external antenna is prolonged forwards into a tooth,
wliich projects considerably beyond that of the orbit. The moveable portion of these
antenna does not extend to much more than half the length of the rostrum, by which
they are wholly protected and concealed. The rostrum is very broad, and prominent ;

60 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

consisting of two flattened, rather obtuse, diverging horns, which are nearly as far apart
at the apex as the distance between the eyes.

The abdomen in the male consists of seven segments, each elevated in the centre into
a tubercle, forming a sort of interrupted obtuse carina : in that of the female the seg-
ments, which are also seven, have each three elevations, producing a kind of tessellated
appearance of the whole.

The feet are covered with extremely short hair. The anterior pair in the male is
rather larger than the others, though less so than in Per. heptacantha. The fingers meet
only at the extremities, though they approximate throughout their length more nearly
than in some other species. The nails of the other feet are robust and somewhat curved.

The colour of the male is a brown red, the latter colour predominating on the outer
surface : that of the female is a darker brown without any admixture of red.

Length 1 inch 7 hues ; breadth the same, including the lateral spines, each of which
measures 3 lines.

Three specimens, an adult male, and an adult and an immature female, were obtained
by Mr. Cuming in the bay of Guayaquil, on sandy mud, at the depth of eleven fathoms.

Pericera ovata.

Tab. XII. Fig. 5.

Per. testa elongato-ovatd, spinis viginti adviginti quatuor armatd; dente superorbitali dente
articuli basilaris antenna externa longiore.

Hah. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas.
? Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

The carapax of this species is oval, longer in proportion to its breadth than in many
others, considerably elevated, at least in the female, the only sex as yet observed,
sparingly covered with short close hair, and furnished with numerous spines, of various
length and size, of which there are four small ones on the median line of the gastric
region, three on the cardiac and genital, of which the middle one is the largest, one on
the intestinal, a very small one on each hepatic, three on the branchial, and four or five
on each lateral margin. The orbit is formed nearly as in the other species, the upper and
anterior spine extending much beyond that of the basilar joint of the external antenna.
Between this spine and the outer one is a fissure, and below a considerable hiatus
bounded by the basilar joint of the antenna. The eyes are rather larger than their
peduncles, and extend beyond the margin of the orbit. The rostrum is formed of two
diverging horns, and has a depression at their base.

The basilar joint of the external antenna is very broad ; its outer spine is short and
triangular, and there is a very small tooth beneath the insertion of the second joint.
The moveable portion is as long as the rostrum, and beset with a double series of bristles.
The second joint of the internal footstalk of the outer pedipalps is triangular, the ante-
rior margin rounded, and scarcely notched.

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 61

The abdomen of the female is oval, seven-jointed, and has an obtuse interrupted carina
running its whole length, formed by a tubercle on the centre of each joint : the first
joint has a small tooth.

The legs are without spines, but covered with close hair ; the first pair in the female
is not larger than the others, and shorter than the second and third, which are the
longest of the whole. The hand is simple, naked, and slender ; the claw small and fur-
nished with extremely minute teeth.

The colour is a rich, rather hght, reddish brown.

Length 1 inch ; breadth 6 lines.

Two specimens, both females, were dredged by Mr. Cuming at the Gallapagos Islands
on coral sand at the depth of six fathoms.

Pericera heptacantha.

Tab. XII. Fig. 6.

Per. testd pyriformi, dorso quinque-spinoso, ordine 1 — 3 — I , lateribus utrinque unispinosis ;
rostri cornibus parvis, acutis.
Hob. ad Americse CentraUs oras. (Puerto Portrero.)
(J Mus. Soc. Zool. — 9 Bell.

The carapax of this species is broader in proportion to its length than in most others
of the genus, contracted forwards, and considerably elevated. It is moderately covered
with close short hair, longer towards the fore part, and has seven large spines, of which
one is placed on the genital region, one on the cardiac, one on the intestinal, one on
each branchial, and one on each side beneath the latter ; they thus form a cross, of
which that on the cardiac region forms the point of intersection. The two branchial
and the intestinal spines are a Uttle recurved. The orbit, as in all the species of this
section, is furnished above with a long tooth, which is recurved. The eyes project but
little beyond the orbit. The rostrum is small, occupying not much more than one third
of the distance between the external margins of the orbits ; the cornua are as long as
the breadth of the rostrum, acute, styliform, and divergent.

The external antenna have the basilar joint moderately broad, with the external tooth
shorter than that above the orbit ; there is a small tooth beneath the former, and the
tooth which goes to form part of the inferior margin of the orbit is long, acute, and la-
minated. The moveable portion of the antenna is setaceous, as long as the rostrum, and
furnished with a few hairs.

The second joint of the inner footstalk of the external pedipalps is quadrate and
emarginate at the anterior and inner angle.

The abdomen of the male is rather prominent ; the second joint has a small central
tubercle, the third three sUght elevations, the sixth, which is the longest, has a central
tubercle, and on each side a minute projection ; the seventh is rounded anteriorly. The
abdomen of the female is broad, rounded, and has a broad obtuse carina.

62 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

The first pair of feet in the male are much larger and longer than the others : in the
female they are the smallest of all. They are covered with scattered granulations, but
are without spines. The claw is obtuse, the fingers curved, meeting only at the point,
which is obtuse, rounded, and denticulated. The remaining feet are nearly equal, co-
vered with short hair, the nails moderately curved.

Colour light brown, covered with darker hair ; the first pair of feet reddish.

Length 1 inch 5 Unes ; breadth, including the lateral spines, 1 inch 7 lines.

Two specimens, a male and a female, were obtained by Mr. Cuming at Puerto Port-
rero, in Central America, on sand, at the depth of thirteen fathoms.

Genus Acanthonyx, Latr.

ACANTHONYX PeTIVERII, Edw.

Found by Mr. Cuming at the Gallapagos Islands on fine coral sand at the depth of
five fathoms ; and by Mr. Miller on the coast of Brazil.

Genus Epialtus, Edw.

EpIALTUS 0ENTATUS, Edw.

Ep. rostro bifida ; dente minimo utrinque ante orhitam ; margine laterali rotundato, hand
marginato, dentibus tribus et tuberculo unico.
Found by Mr. Cuming at Valparaiso in crevices of rocks in deep water.

Epialtus marginatus.
Tab. XI. Fig. 4. ?. Tab. XIII. cJ.
Ep. rostro bifida ; dente minimo utrinque ante orbitam ; margine laterali marginato, den-
tibus duabus antice et tuberculis duabus ad latera, quorum posterius absaletum.

Hub. ad Insulas Gallapagos dictas, D. Cuming ; et ad oras Brasilise, D. Miller.

Mus. Soc. Zool., Bell.

The carapax is rounded behind but angular and produced forwards ; the surface even,
punctate ; and the regions divided by impressed lines. The upper and under surfaces
are separated by a distinct marginal hne, on which are two small tubercles, of which the
posterior is obsolete, or marked only by a slight turn in the marginal hne. The anterior
margin has two acute prominent teeth. The rostrum is narrowed forwards and bifid ;
and there is a small tooth on each side in front of the orbit. The orbits are circular
and entire, and the eyes globular, accurately fitting the orbits and scarcely projecting
beyond them.

The internal antenna are lodged in a large /ossa, which is open and undivided ante-
riorly, but divided from behind forwards by a long narrow spine. The external antennec
are concealed by the rostrum ; the basilar joint broad and much produced forwards ;
the moveable portion cylindrical, shorter than the rostrum. Pedipalps with the outer

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 63

footstalk having parallel sides, except at the apex, which is triangular ; inner footstalk
smooth and polished, with the second joint truncated at the inner and posterior angle.

Abdomen of both sexes with seven joints.

Anterior feet of the male very robust, nearly twice as long as the carapax, very mi-
nutely granulated: the arm with two tubercles above and two beneath: the hand
rounded, smooth ; the fingers strongly tuberculated through their whole length, meeting
only at the points, which are somewhat excavated ; the moveable finger longer than
the other. Posterior feet cyUndrical, the joints tumid : the second pair longer than the
hinder ones, which decrease in length to the fifth. A tooth on the inferior side of the
penultimate joint, which is hairy at the point : it is smallest on the second pair and
longest on the fifth. The last joint is curved, acute, and finely toothed beneath.

Colour of the adult dark brown ; of the young female, paler and reddish.

Length of the carapax 4 inches ; breadth 3 inches 3 lines.

The large male specimen was found by Mr. Cuming with Ep. dentatus at Valparaiso
in crevices of rocks. The young female specimen was brought by Mr. Miller from Rio
Janeiro.

It is not without considerable hesitation that I have decided on giving to these Crus-
tacea the characters of distinct species. I was first led to the opinion that they were so,
by comparing with Mr. Cuming's specimens of Epialtus one of an immature female
which was kindly presented to me by Mr. Miller, and which he had taken at Rio : and
a subsequent more particular examination of the former specimens has tended greatly
to confirm this view, as the largest and finest of them, a very fine adult male, possesses
all the characters which had led me to consider Mr. Miller's specimen as distinct.
I have thought it desirable to offer a figure of each of these two individuals, and as they
differ from Ep. dentatus only in sUght characters, which are easily appreciated, it ap-
peared unnecessary to figure that species, especially as it has been described by my
friend Dr. Milne Edwards, and will I hope shortly be figured by him.

The characters upon which I have founded this distinction are these. In Ep. dentatus
the lateral margin is rounded, the sides of the carapax passing off from above to beneath
in a continuous rounded surface : in Ep. marginatus the upper and under surfaces are
separated by a distinct sUghtly salient margin ; the posterior tubercle, which in the
former is very distinct, is in the latter only indicated by a very slight degree of promi-
nence in the marginal fine ; and the lateral spine of the former is in the latter supplied
by a tubercle. The very great diflference in the size of the anterior feet probably de-
pends on age : but it is worthy of notice that in the rest of the feet the inferior spine
near the extremity of the penultimate joint, is much smaller and shorter relatively in
Ep. dentatus than in Ep. marginatus.

64 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA

PLATE VIII.

Fis. 1. MiCRORHYNCHUS GIBBOSUS, 6.

a. Abdomen.

b. Anterior foot.

c. External antenna.

2. MiCR. DEPRESSUS, ?.

d. Under surface of the head and anterior part of the body.

e. Abdomen.

f. Anterior foot.

3. LiBINIA ROSTRATA, ^.

PLATE IX.

Fig. 1. Rhodia pyriformis, i.

a. Under surface of the head.

b. Anterior foot.

c. Abdomen.

2. Pelia pulchella, ^.

d. Under surface of the head.

e. Anterior foot.
/. Abdomeh.

3. Herbstia Edwardsii, (?.

g. Under surface of the head.
h. Abdomen of the male.
i. Abdomen of the female.

4. Thoe erosa, <S.

k. Under surface of the head,
I. Anterior foot,
m. Abdomen of the male.
n. Abdomen of the female.
0. Abdomen seen from behind.

5. Hyas Edwardsii, c?.

p. Anterior foot.

q. Abdomen of the vaale.

r. Abdomen of the female.

6. Pisa spinipes, 6.

s. Under surface of the head.

t. Anterior foot.

u. Abdomen of the female.

7. Pisa aculeata, ? .

V. Abdomen of the male.

OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 65

PLATE X.

Fig. 1. MiTHRAX ROSTRATUS, S.

a. Abdomen of the male.

b. Abdomen of the female.

2. MiTHR. Ursus, ? adult.

3. Mithr. Ursus, $ young.

c. Abdomen of the young male.

d. Abdomen of the young female.

e. Abdomen of the adult female.

PLATE XL

Fig. 1. Mithrax nodosus, cJ.

a. Under surface of the head.

b. Abdomen.

2. Mithr. denticulatus, j.

c. Chela of the anterior foot.

d. External pedipalp, with its inner footstalk.

e. Abdomen.

3. Mithr. pygm^us, <?.

/. Under surface of the head.
g. Anterior foot.
h. Abdomen.

4. Epialtus marginatus, $ .

i. Under surface of the head.
j. Abdomen of the male.
k. Abdomen of the female.

PLATE Xn.

Fig. 1. OtHONIA SEX-DENTATA, $.

a. Under surface of the head.

b. Internal antenna.

c. Anterior foot.

d. Abdomen.

2. Oth. quinque-dentata, 5 . '

e. Abdomen.

3. Tyche lamellifrons, (?.

/. Under surface of the head.
g. Internal antenna,
h. External pedipalp.

VOL. n. K

66 MR. T. BELL ON THE CRUSTACEA OF THE COASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA.

t. Anterior foot.
j. Abdomen.

4. Pericera villosa, <?.

k. Under surface of the head.
I. External pedipalp.
m. Abdomen of the male.
n. Abdomen of the female.

5. Per. ovata, ; .

0. Under surface of the head.
p. External pedipalp.
q. Abdomen.

6. Per. heptacantha, (?.

r. Under surface of the head,
s. External pedipalp.
t. Abdomen of the male,
u. Abdomen of the female.

PLATE XIII.
Epialtus margin ATUS, C?.

. y^^mj. ^-o,^../^. k^.2.:i^/..y /iJjif.

. 7. 0.trt^bi-ot^d, tU7.

H/J.

.%^^. L^ .4r,.(i/. z. ://.a

<fd:

./■<■ tfesbfovd. U^

,^t^tUm£ itA

S^.. _S5^ ^ cj^s (^/ff^ ie

'0 7¥Ui»r*«JL4mi. te.

-, M^^^ re)^.^ £J. . ^M^ ^

nncj

X,,^.,. "rXo/.JL. fc.?2. M/Y./>y,:

J O- WtAufCed. j&V-

/. ^/'u//>fM- /U^:'cH/,l.

Z.^Mf^yU /<e//^/>v/!a'^y. 3 , M//rfi' lAya mo'uj .

4, (oAm/j^//J maia^m/Zf/.f .

•^^ila/rui ^W^ .-^cf 'ro/i Z. .^Zt^^Z.A^^f-

■ to.Wtaheooil deL-

y, uMr/fuf ,^,iY^'///a/e^. Z. (y^/. MMz/.m/^^/t/ff/i'. J. <. yMV//- /t?m/'//yA/yi^.

V. Some Observations on the Economy of an Insect destructive to Turnips. By William
Yarrell, Esq., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., Sfc.

Communicated November 24, 1835.

Although the days are for ever gone by when any one seen feeding a caterpillar,
digging for a grub, or with expanded net endeavouring to capture an insect on the
wing, would be considered as intellectually below the standard of his fellow men, still
there are not wanting those who require to be convinced of the utility of entomological
investigations ; and by no better mode can the entomologist prove the value of the
science he cultivates than by a practical application of the knowledge he acquires of
the properties and economy of insects, to secure the advantages to be obtained from
some, and to prevent the injuries inflicted by others.

To the agriculturist in particular the, labours of the entomologist are calculated to be
of the deepest interest. The injury that has recently been done to the sugar cane, to
the amount of one third of the produce of the crop, by the rapid and alarming progress
of a small but most destructive insect in the island of Granada, its ravages now ex-
tended over two thirds of the island, and its appearance in the neighbouring islands,
may be quoted as an instance abroad ; while the serious losses sustained by the growers
of turnips in our own country, particularly during the last summer, bring the various
sufferers to the entomologist for his assistance, perfectly aware that a knowledge of the
life of the insect through all its various states and changes is the first important step
towards the adoption of some effectual method of preventing its future depredations.

The destruction of a portion of the turnip crop in this country, usually effected by the
larva of two small insects, the Haltica nemorum and Halt, concinna of authors, has long
afforded a subject for investigation ; and the reader who is interested may consult with
advantage the ' Report of the Committee of the Doncaster Agricultural Association''
on this subject. I may here add that there is now a better prospect of checking the
ravages committed by the young of these little beetles, the larva and pupa having lately
been accurately ascertained, and specimens sent to the Entomological Society of Lon-
don, with a communication, by Mr. Lekeux.

But the destroyer of a very large proportion of the turnip crop, on the light and
chalky soils of this country, during the last dry summer, is an insect of a different
kind, and one that happily does not make its appearance in great numbers except at
wide intervals, and during those seasons that are remarkable for the ahnost total absence
of rain.

The first pubhc notice I am acquainted with on the subject of this particular insect,

' Ridgway and Sons, Piccadilly, 1834.

68 MR. W. YARRELL ON THE ECONOMY OF

and the extent of the injury it inflicts, is in the ' Transactions of the Royal Society'
for 1783: in which William Marshall, Esq., an agriculturist in Norfolk, details at some
length the particulars of the appearance of the parent fly during 1782, the year in
which he wrote his account ; and refers to a previous visitation, about twenty-two
years before that time, when the loss from the destruction of the turnip crop was but
little less severe.

In the year 1 782, Mr. Marshall informs us, many thousands of acres upon which a fairer
prospect for a crop of turnips had not been seen for many previous years, were ploughed
up ; and as the season was too far advanced to expect any profit from a fresh sowing,
the loss to the farmer individually was considerable, and to the county immense.

" It was observed," says Mr. Marshall, " in the canker year above mentioned, that
prior to the appearance of the caterpillars great numbers of yellow flies were seen busy
among the turnip plants, and it was then suspected that the canker was the caterpillar
state of the yellow-fly ; since that time it has been remarked, that cankers have regu-
larly followed the appearance of these flies. From their more frequently appearing on
the sea-coast, and from the vast quantities which have, I believe, at difierent times,
been observed on the beach washed up by the tide, it has been a received opinion
among the farmers, that they are not natives of this country but come across the
ocean ; and observations this year greatly corroborate the idea. Fishermen upon the
eastern coast declare that they actually saw them alight in cloud-like flights ; and from
the testimony of many it seems to be an indisputable fact that they first made their ap-
pearance on the eastern coast ; and moreover that, on their first being observed, they
lay upon and near the cliffs so thick and so languid that they might be collected into
heaps, lying, it is said, in some places two inches thick. From thence they proceeded
into the country, and even at the distance of three or four miles from the coast they
were seen in multitudes resembling swarms of bees."

Whatever may have been the source from which this country derived the original
stock, it is quite certain that during the last year the maritime counties on the east and
south coasts were the most infested ; but the simultaneous appearance of the insect in
some inland counties also but too clearly proves that it is now established as a native.

Early in July 1835 the yellow-fly was again seen in abundance upon the young
turnips, and it was recollected by some that this was the fly which prevailed also in the
year 1818, and which was followed by the caterpillar which they knew by the name of
the blacks. Another observer, as noticed in a popular weekly publication, said, " It is
of no use hoeing these turnips, for I perceive this year a fly which is the forerunner of
the ' nigger' caterpillar."

These predictions were soon verified. The female fly, by means of a delicately ser-
rated instrument under the abdomen, is enabled to make a small aperture on the under
surface of the leaf of the turnip, in which she deposits a single egg ; and each female
produces and deposits in different places about twenty of these eggs. In eight or ten
days the eggs are hatched, and the dark-coloured caterpillars crawl forth and commence

AN INSECT DESTRUCTIVE TO TURNIPS. 69

the work of destruction by feeding voraciously on the soft parts of the leaves of the
turnip, leaving the fibres untouched : after a few days they cast their black skins, and
then assume one of a more slaty or grey appearance ; they still continue, however, to
feed on the leaves, passing from one to another. The destruction is complete, a whole
field in a very short time presenting only an assemblage of skeletonised leaves, and this
too even when the turnip itself has gained a considerable size. The caterpillar having
passed through this feeding stage of its existence buries itself in the ground ; and an
exudation from its skin enables it to form for itself out of the soil, by the agglutination
of particles, a strong oval cocoon. Some of the earUer broods passed very rapidly into
the perfect insect, and were found on examination to be full of ova.

The insect thus bred proved to belong to the order Hymenoptera, the family Tenthre ■
dinidfs or Saw-flies^, the genus Athalia of Dr. Leach, and the species Centifoliee of
Panzer, described by Mr. Stephens in the seventh volume of his ' Illustrations of British
Entomology,' page 42, species 2, as follows : " Head and antennae black ; mouth yel-
lowish ; thorax luteous, with a large triangular black patch on each side, extending to
the metathorax ; abdomen pale luteous, with the base of the 1st segment black, and
the tip of the ovipositor in the female ; legs pale luteous, with the extreme apex of the
tibiae and of each joint of the tarsi black ; wings pale testaceous at the base, colourless,
and with nervures fuscous at the tip ; costa and stigma fuscous or blackish." " Length
of body three to four lines, breadth with wings extended seven to eight lines^."

The larva or caterpillar is from half an inch to five eighths of an inch in length, and
about the thickness of a crow-quill, with the head and upper part almost black, a
lighter grey hne along the side, six short articulated legs, and eight pair of accessory
membranous appendages. On opening one of the cocoons on the 16th of November,
the larva was found to have undergone little or no change at that time ; the caterpillar
was alive and soft, and the inside of the cocoon was perfectly smooth, and exhibited a
shining silvery-coloured Uning.

The crops of turnips in the counties of Kent, Essex, Sussex, part of Buckingham-
shire, Hampshire, and Wiltshire were considered a failure ; and so long did the various
broods continue their attacks, that the produce of a second and even of a third sowing

' From the serrated instrument on the abdomen of the females.

- The Rev. W. Kirby, who has perused this paper previously to its publication, has favoured me with a
reference to an obser^'ation which is closely connected with its subject. Fabricius, who regarded the Ath. Cen-
tl/oliie (Tenthredo Centifolitc, Panz.) as synonymous with liis Hylotoma Spinarum, the Ath. Spinarum, Leach,
remarks in his ' Systema Piezatorum' with reference to the latter, " Larva tota nigra victitat in Brassica Rapa
quam destruit." If these species be, as Mr. Stephens considers them, really distinct, the habit of destructively
feeding on the turnip would consequently seem to be common to both Ath. Centifolia and Ath. Spinarum ;
each of which occurs in this country. They are, however, so nearly allied to each other that the only distinc-
tion between them indicated by Mr. Stephens is the colour of the antenna : and as this character appears to
be variable in difiFerent individuals, Mr. Kirby is not disposed to regard the distinctness of the species as
being yet defirutively determined. In the indiWdual figured in illustration of the present communication, a
male, the antenna are of a dull yellow underneath.

70 MR. W. YARRELL ON AN INSECT DESTRUCTIVE TO TURNIPS.

did not escape destruction, nor was it till the occurrence of the rains in September, after
an unusually dry summer in many districts, that the mischief ceased. Some farmers who
sowed for turnips again, immediately after the first rain, were as successful as the late-
ness of the period would admit. It has been observed of those turnips that suffered in
the leaf from the attacks of the black caterpillar, but not sufficiently to produce the
death of the plant, that the turnip itself had become pithy and of little comparative
value. So great was the failure of the turnip crop generally, that in some of the coun-
ties on the coast where water-carriage was available, ship-loads of turnips were said to
have been contracted for from the Continent to supply the deficiency.

Of the degree of success which attended the various remedial measures adopted, I
possess but little precise information. On a former visitation of this insect in the
county of Kent, some farmers, it is stated, saved those fields in which the injury had
scarcely begun, by turning in hundreds of ducks, with a boy going before them with a
long pole, brushing the caterpillars ofi" the leaves of the plants ; and it is added that it
was an amusing sight to observe the ducks waddhng after their courier, and devouring
the insects with avidity, eyeing both sides of every leaf lest they should miss such
])alatable morsels. A heavy roller passed over the ground in the evening or night, when
the caterpillars were at their feed and exposed to its effects, was another remedy resorted
to. But that which was considered the most effectual was the strewing of quick-lime
hy broad-cast over the ground, and renewing it when dispersed by the wind. By this
means, I was told, one field of turnips near Dover was saved, though surrounded by
others that suffered greatly where no such preventative was employed.

PLATE XIV.

Athalia Centifoli.«.

Fig. 1. The perfect insect, magnified.

2. The same, of the natural size.

3. The antenna of the male, considerably magnified.

4. 5. The larva.

6. The cocoon.

7. The same, divided longitudinally and seen from the inside.

8. The pupa, of the natural size.

9. 10, 11. The same, magnified and seen in various positions.

12. A Dipterous parasite (one of the Muscida) which, having completely de-
voured the interior of a larva, has undergone its change to a coarctate
pupa within the skin of the larva of the Athalia, portions of which (greatly
stretched) are seen remaining on the outside of the Dipterous pupa, as well
as the head of the larva which remains entire. An analogous instance, in
Ophion Dorithea, has been recorded by M. Audouin in the ' Annales de la
Societe Entomologique de la France' for 1834.

. .X*»zrf. .Jm^. .Ac^. 'PU. z. ,^y4.jiy.7fi.

^OWntmod dU-

^-^Oia^ C'^y/tfi/r'^A

^fUa^''.

yjwAsne ^c^

[ 71 ]

VI. Memoire sur une nouvelle Espece de Poisson du Genre Histiophore, de la Mer Rouge.
Par M. E. Ruppell, M.D., Membre Externe de la Societe Zoologique.

Communicated December 8, 1835.

jVIESSRS. Cuvier et Valenciennes publi^rent dans le 8*°" volume de leur ' Histoire
Naturelle des Poissons," pages 293 et suivantes, la description des trois esp^ces du genre
Voilier ou Histiophorus qui leur ^toient connues, et qu'ils nomm^rent Hist. Indicus,
Hist. Americanus, et Hist, pulchellus. L'objet du present memoire est de faire connoitre
une quatri^me espece, que j'ai recueilli dans la Mer Rouge. Elle parait se rapprocher
de celle que les naturalistes de Paris indiqu^rent sous le nom de Hist. Americanus, ce
qu'un examen ulterieur de cette espece pent seul decider ; car ce que ces Messieurs ont
public sur cette espece est trop incomplet pour comparer et discuter les rapports de ces
deux poissons. J'ai recu mon nouveau Histiophore k Djetta, sur les cotes d' Arabic :
on venoit de le prendre dans les filets. Cependant cela ne devait etre qu'un cas accidentel,
car les p^cheurs Arabes ne savoient m'indiquer un nom trivial pour un poisson d'une
forme si extraordinaire.

Les deux esp^ces connues de la mer des Indes sont faciles k distinguer de celle dont
je vais donner la description, car le Hist. Indicus est reconnoissable par ses longues et
robustes pectorales, dont le premier rayon est tr^s large et tranchant, egalant -i- ou -5°'
de la longueur totale du corps ' . Le Hist, pulchellus se caracterise principalement par
I'^pine saillante h Tangle inf^rieur de son preopercule. Enfin ces deux espSces et meme
celle nommee Americanus ont la premiere dorsale mouchetee par des taches, pendant
qu'k celle que je vais decrire cette nageoire est d'une couleur noire imiforme, dont le
bord libre est decoupe en demicercle ; c'est meme cette particularite du manque des
taches qui m'a fait choisir pour nom specifique de ma nouvelle espece le mot de Hist,
immaculatus, sous lequel je propose d'introduire dans le catalogue systematique la de-
scription de la figure que j'ai fait sur le vivant, et dont j'ai depose le poisson original
conserve en alcohol au Musee de Francfort.

La forme du corps du Voilier sans taches {Histiophorus immaculatus) est un cylindre
allonge, comprime verticalement, lat^te en cone pointu, la queue assez plate, la nageoire
caudale formant un grand croissant, dont les pointes sont acutangles. Comme le bout
de la machoire sup^rieure est un peu us^, je prends pour unite de mesure la distance du

> Cuvier, loo. cit., p. 295.

72 DR. RUPPELL SUR UN NOUVEAU HISTIOPHORE.

milieu de la pupille jusqu'au bord posterieur de I'opercule, distance non Equivoque et
qui dans I'esp^ce en question correspond exactement au plus grand diam^tre vertical du
corps, qui est vis-k-vis du commencement de la premiere dorsale ; ce diam^tre se trouve
six fois et un quart dans la longueur du corps depuis le bord posterieur de I'opercule
jusqu'au bord externa du milieu de la caudale, et deux fois depuis le bord anterieur de
I'orbite jusqu'^ I'extremite de la machoire superieure, tel qu'elle est actuellement dans
mon individu. La pointe de la machoire inferieure ne s'avance du centre de I'ceil que
1-5- de la hauteur verticale du corps ; les nageoires pectorales n'egalent que ^ de ce
diametre, de sorte qu'elles se trouvent 13 J- fois dans la longueur totale du corps.

La premiere dorsale, qui commence vis-k-vis du bord du preopercule, est enti^rement
composee de rayons simples, dont le premier est tr^s petit, les suivants augmentent
en progression reguli^re, jusqu'au dixhuiti^me, qui est le plus long et egale trois fois
le plus grand diametre vertical du corps. Les rayons suivants s'accourcissent peu h
peu, mais depuis le quarantieme rayon jusqu'au quarante septi^me, qui est le dernier,
ils decroissent tres rapidement, et les quatre derniers sont petits. lis rdunissent la
nageoire dorsale k rayons simples h. la seconde dorsale, composee entierement de rayons
branchus, qui sont assez bas, mais dont le dernier surpasse les autres d'un tiers de leur
longueur. Vis-^-vis de cette seconde dorsale est une seconde anale, qui lui est absolu-
ment egale en forme et en grandeur ; elle est separee de la premiesre anale par un espace
de la longueur de cette nageoire : cette premiere anale est de forme triangulaire, ^-peu-
pres equilaterale, et composee de rayons simples. Les ventrales, situees perpendiculaire-
ment sous les pectorales, sont composees de trois rayons non articules ; le premier est
tres court et adosse fermement au second, qui est tres long, aplati, et qui se prolonge
depuis la base de la pectorale jusqu'k I'anus. Ce rayon est horde posterieurement tout
le long par une membrane etroite, qui lui r^unit h sa base le troisi^me rayon, lequel
est aussi petit que le premier rayon. Ces ventrales peuvent se cacher dans une rainure,
qui se trouve le long du ventre ; la peau en forme une autre le long de la dorsale, mais
elle n'est pas assez profonde pour pouvoir recouvrir toute la nageoire. J'ai dej^ observe
que les pectorales sont petites ; elles terminent en pointe, et leurs rayons n'ont rien de
particuUer. La membrane branchiostege des deux cotes de la tete est reunie sous la
gorge et entoure la poitrine sans y etre attachee k I'isthme. Toute la peau du corps est
garnie d'assez petites ecailles qui tombent facilement ; celles de la partie basale de la
nageoire dorsale et au devant des ventrales sont toutes pointues. La ligne laterale
de'crit pr^s des opercules une petite courbure, qui finit c\ I'extremite des pectorales ; de
la elle suit en droiture la moitie de la hauteur du corps ; il n'y a pas de car^ne, mais
deux cretes cutanees des deux cotes de la base de la caudale. Le nombre total des
ravons est :

DR. RUPPELL SUR UN NOUVEAU HISTIOPHORE. 73

P. 1 + 19. V.3 + 0. D.47 + 0, + 7. A. 10 + 0, + 7. C.5 + 17 + 5. M.B.7.

La couleur de la partie sup^rieure de la tete et du dos est bleu violet {onc6 ; celle du
ventre brille du reflet de I'argent ; I'iris est brun clair avec un cercle jaunatre k I'entour
de la pupille. Les deux nageoires dorsales, les ventrales, et la caudale sont d'un noir
bleuatre uniforme. Les pectorales et les deux anales sont grisatres ; la premiere anale
a de plus une tache noire k sa pointe inferieure.

Les deux machoires sont garnies a leur bord d'une bande de granulations fines,
qu'on pourroit nommer de petites dents en velours ; il y a au palais un voile membra-
neux, qui forme un cul de sac ouvert du cot6 de I'esophage, et derri^re lui sur les cot^s
est une faible bande de granulations dentaires. La langue et les arcaux branchiaux
sont lisses ; k ceux ci manquent ces longues pointes en forme de peigne, qui garnissent
le bord concave des arcaux branchiaux de beaucoup de poissons de la famille des
Scombres.

Comme je n'ai reru qu'un seul individu de ce poisson, je ne veux pas le sacrifier pour
des recherches anatomiques, qui probablement donneroient les memes resultats que le
Voilier dissequ^ par M. Ehrenberg, et qui ont et^ publics par M. Cuvier.

En communiquant la description de ce poisson, je ne puis faire k moins d'exprimer
mon etonnement que les recherches ichthyologiques sont la partie d'histoire naturelle
qui a le moins de cultivateurs, et cependant c'est la branche ou il y a peut-etre le plus
d'observations nouvelles ^ faire, et dont I'^tude devrait interesser d'autant plus, que cette
classe d'animaux est d'une utilite si eminente pour le genre humain. Lors de la publi-
cation de mon premier voyage de la Mer Rouge, j'ai decrit et figure une centaine de
poissons presque tons esp^ces nouvelles, que j'avois recueilli dans ces parages ; mon
dernier voyage m'a fait decouvrir dans la m^me mer k peu pr^s le meme nombre de
poissons, et j'enrichirai ainsi I'lchthyologie avec le portrait de deux cents esp^ces nou-
velles ou peu connues. Cependant je n'ai pu me procurer aucun poisson des grandes
profondeurs, k la capture desquels les pecheurs du pays ne sont pas pratique. Que de
decouvertes reste-il done k faire dans ces mers la ! Les excellens ouvrages de Russell
et de Hamilton Buchanan sur les poissons de I'lnde, pr^cieux sous bien de rapports, ne
contiennent qu'une bien petite partie des productions ichthyologiques de ces parages,
et j'espSre bien que les traces de ces naturahstes distingues seront bientot suivi avec
rivalite par leurs compatriotes qui ont tant contribue dans ces derniers temps pour
faire connoitre les productions naturelles Indiennes des autres classes d'animaux.

VOL. II.

74 DR. RiJPPELL SUR UN NOUVEAU HISTIOPHORE.

PLATE XV.

HiSTIOPHORUS IMMACULATUS.

VII. On the Genus Octodon, and on its Relations with Ctenomys, Blainv., and Poe-
phagomys, F. Cm. : including a Description of a New Species of Ctenomys. By
E. T. Bennett, Esq., F.L.8., Sec. Z.S.

Communicated December 22, 1835.

When early in 1832 I laid before the Society a specimen of a previously unde-
scribed Herbivorous Rodent brought by Mr. Cuming from South America, and pointed
out the characters by which it was generically distinguished from all the groups that
were at that time known, I stated it to be my intention to defer giving a more formal
account of it until there should occur, by the death of one of the individuals which were
then living in the Menagerie, an opportunity of entering into some details respecting
its anatomy, both visceral and osteological. That opportunity has not yet arrived ; and
there are, consequently, at my disposal no other materials than those of which I
availed myself when characterizing the animal in the ' Proceedings of the Committee
of Science and Correspondence'', as the type of a new genus, under the name of Oc
todon Cumingii. To these, however, I am induced again to call the attention of zoolo-
gists, at an earUer period than I had originally proposed, with the view of elucidating
the relations of Octodon with the nearly allied genus Ctenomys, described by M. de
Blainville in the ' Bulletin de la Socie'te Philomathique' for April, 1826,2 and of which
a hitherto undescribed species is contained among the collections made by our excellent
colleague, Capt. P. P. King, R.N., during his survey of the Straits of Magalhaens ; as
well as with another form which is even more closely connected with it, and which was
first made known to science by M. F. Cuvier, in the ' An'nales des Sciences Naturelles"
for June, 1834^ : to the latter M. F. Cuvier has given the name of Poephagomys, the
species on which it is founded being the Poeph. ater. The affinity between Ctenomys,
Octodon, and Poephagomys was first indicated by M. F. Cuvier, who, in a letter ad-
dressed to me in September last (some extracts from which were immediately commu-
nicated to the Society^), made known to me the fact that the molar teeth in Ctenomys
are destitute of true roots.

In the little group which these three genera appear to constitute, the genus Octodon
may be regarded as occupying a central station ; if, as is generally admitted, the struc-
ture and form of the molar teeth be considered as of primary importance in the arrange-

' Part ii. p. 46. t p. 62.

' Seconde Serie. Zoologie. Tome i. p. 321. •• Proceedings Zool. Soc, part iii. p. 128.

76 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON.

nient of the Rodentia. The Herbivorous Rodents exhibit more strikingly perhaps than
those of the Omnivorous tribe, characteristic forms in the configuration of the crowns
of their molar teeth ; and the form peculiar to each species or genus among them is
not liable, as in the other tribe, to vary with the progress of life, and with the conse-
quent extent of detrition which is occasioned by their continued use. The Herbivorous
Rodents are, indeed, rodents par excellence ; for in them a provision has been made for
the perpetual renewal of the rasping surface of all the teeth. In the Rodents generally
the incisors are always growing from their base forwards ; and a never-failing succession
of cutting or penetrating edges is thus ensured to them at their tips : their points, in
constant process of wearing, are in equally constant process of protrusion. In the Her-
bivorous tribe a similar arrangement prevails as regards the molars also. Destitute of
true roots, and growing, like the incisors, from an enduring pulp, their crowns, although
perpetually wearing away by the grinding and rasping actions which they exert upon
the food and upon each other, are never destroyed : as their upper surface is rubbed off
the deficiency is supplied from below, and by the continual growth from the base the
requisite length of the tooth is maintained, while the crown is always preserved of the
due height for mastication and furnished with those ridges and folds of enamel which
were originally bestowed upon it, and which are perpetually renewed. The action of
these teeth is rather that of rasping than of crushing, and it is in this manner that the
food is reduced in the mouth to that state of minute subdivision which is essential to
the animals that are provided with teeth of this description. In the animals of the
Herbivorous tribe the curious structure of the fauces, originally described by Mr. Morgan
in the Capybara, Hydrocheerus Capybara, Erxl., and since observed in other Rodents,
appears to be most developed : and it is only one among the numerous and beautiful
illustrations of the adaptation of various portions of the organization of an animal to
each other, to find in combination with a narrowing of the entrance of the pharynx
to such an extent as to allow of the passage through it of none but the most minutely
subdivided particles, a structure of teeth by which the existence of the means of so
minutely subdividing the food should be permanently secured at all periods of the
animal's existence.

At the time when Octodon was first made known to science it was remarked, as one
of its most distinguishing pecuharities, that the form of the crowns of its molar teeth
were, in the two jaws, strikingly dissimilar. But it was not at that time anticipated
that the two forms of dentition exhibited by Mr. Cuming's Rodent would each be found
to be characteristic of another nearly allied genus. It is in this manner that Octodon
becomes evidently intermediate between Ctenomys and Poephagomys, by having the
molars of its upper jaw constructed on the type of those of the former, and the molars
of its lower jaw on that of the latter genus. The relations of these several groups, as
indicated by their dentary characters, will best be understood by a brief consideration

MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON. 77

of the form of the molar teeth of Octodon, and by a comparison of them with those of
the alhed genera.

Tlie upper molars of Octodon have, on their inner side, a slight fold of enamel, in-
dicating a groove which has a tendency to separate, on this aspect, the mass of each
tooth into two cylinders. On their outer side a similar fold penetrates more deeply,
and behind it the crown of the tooth does not project outwardly to so great an extent
as it does in front. If each molar of the upper jaw were theoretically regarded as com-
posed of two cylinders of bone, surrounded by enamel on all their aspects except that
by which they are broadly united to each other, slightly compressed from before back-
wards, and somewhat oblique in their direction as regards the axis of the jaw, the an-
terior of these cylinders might be described as being entire, and the posterior as being
truncated by the removal of its outer half. Of such teeth there are in the upper jaw
of Octodon, on each side, four ; the hindermost being the smallest, and that in which
the peculiar form is least strongly marked. In Ctenomys the molar teeth, both of the
upper and lower jaw, correspond with the structure that exists in those of the upper
jaw of Octodon. They are formed on precisely the same type. The exceptions to their
perfect similarity consist in their crowns being slenderer and more obhquely placed,
whence their emargination becomes less sharply defined ; and in the hinder molar of
each jaw being so small as to be almost evanescent, and consisting of a single minute
triangular prism. As is generally the case, however, in the dentition of this tribe of
Rodents, the relative position of the teeth is in Ctenomys counterchanged in the two
jaws ; and the vacancy in the outline of the crown of the molars, which in the upper
jaw is external and posterior, becomes in the lower jaw internal and anterior.

In the lower jaw of Octodon the crowns of the molar teeth assume, as has been
already remarked, a figure very dissimilar from those of the upper, dependent chiefly
on the prolongation of both portions of the tooth to the same lateral extent, and on the
depth to which they are penetrated on their inner side by the fold or emargination be-
tween their anterior and posterior portions. Each of them may be regarded as con-
sisting of two cylinders, not disjoined in the middle, where the bony portion of the tooth
is .continuous on the crown, but partially separated by a fold of enamel on either side,
producing a corresponding notch, of which the innermost is the deepest. Placed ob-
liquely with respect to the general direction of the jaw, they resemble, in some measure,
a figure of 8 with its elements flattened obliquely, pressed towards each other, and not
connected together by the transverse middle bars. With the lower molars of Octodon
those of Poephagomys, as figured by M. F. Cuvier, agree in structure in both jaws.

Octodon thus evidently exhibits, in its dissimilar molars, the types of two genera :
the molars of its upper jaw represent those of both jaws of Ctenomys ; those of its lower
jaw correspond with the molars of both jaws of Poephagomys.

In the absence from any collection to which I have at present access, of a specimen

78 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON.

of Poephagomys, it is not in my power to pursue further a close comparison between
the whole of these three genera. But a few general remarks on them may be oiFered ;
and the comparison may afterwards be limited to that which can be made between the
two of which examples are now before me.

The general form of the animals of these several groups bears a close resemblance to
that of the Water Rat, Arvicola amphibia, La Cep. The compactness of the body is the
same ; the head is equally distinguished for its shortness and rotundity ; the limbs are
of moderate length ; and the tail, covered like that of the Water Rat with short adpressed
hairs, is, similarly with the tail of that animal, of less length than the body. In the
proportionate length of the latter member there exists, however, a considerable differ-
ence among the tyjies of the three genera : in Octodon the length of the tail is more
than one half of that of the body and head taken together ; in Ctenomys it is rather
more than a third ; in Poephagomys, according to M. F. Cuvier's admeasurements, it
is exactly one third. Another external difference is observable among them in the
size of the outward ear : in Octodon and in Poephagomys the auricle is of moderate size
and distinctly visible, its length being about equal to the distance interposed between
its base and the eye ; in Ctenomys it is so minute as to be concealed amid the surround-
ing fur. A third external difference among them is of far more importance than either
of the preceding, in as much as it is indicative of widely different habits : in Octodon and
in Poephagomys the claws are rather long, moderately curved, and acute at their points,
a form connected rather with arboreal than with terrestrial habits ; in Ctenomys the
claws are long, nearly straight, thick, and blunt, and have altogether the character
which belongs to those of a burrowing animal. In all the three genera the toes are five
in number on each foot : in Octodon and Poephagomys the claw of the inner toe on the
fore foot is flattened and nail-like ; in Ctenomys it resembles that of the other toes in its
strength, but is shorter and more curved. As the incumbent comb-like bristles sur-
mounting the inner claws of the hinder toes are observable in both the animals before
me, it is to be presumed that they exist equally in the other also.

Between the crania of Octodon and of Ctenomys there are some differences in general
form, resulting chiefly from the greater comparative length of the skull of the latter, and
from the more ample development of its auditory appendages : the extent of the cellu-
lar mass of bone connected with the internal organ of hearing bearing in these two
animals an inverse ratio to that of the external ear ; and the deficiency of auricle in
Ctenomys being compensated for by the enlargement of the auditory cells. On account
of the development of these cells in Ctenomys both laterally and posteriorly beyond the
occipital ridge, the hinder portion of the cranium acquires a breadth and squareness
which afford a marked base, as it were, to the somewhat lengthened /rMsirMWi of a cone
formed by the bones of the head and face : the greatest width of the entire mass is in
Ctenomys at its hindermost part, while in Octodon the greatest width is at the external

MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON. 79

opening of the auditory passage ; behind which, for the short portion of the mass that
remains, the cranium shelves away, both on its sides and upper surface, towards the
comparatively small flattened face surrounding the /oramen magnum and opposed to the
neck. With the exception of the abruptness of this posterior shelving in Octodon, the
outline of the upper surface of the cranium may be described as constituting in both
animals a slight and regular curve ; which is, however, more gentle in Ctenomys than in
the one with which it is now compared. The general outline, viewed from above, is in
Octodon of an ovate form ; in Ctenomys it resembles that of a lengthened triangle, trun-
cated at the apex. If, however, the comparison in the vertical view be limited to that
portion of the bony mass which lies anterior to a hne crossing the skull at the upper
and hinder part of the orbit, the outline in Ctenomys will be found to be nearly paral-
lelogrammic, while that of Octodon will resemble a truncated and lengthened triangle,
widening posteriorly : a figure which is produced chiefly by the greater comparative
breadth of the frontal bones, consequent on the greater width of the ascending ramus
of the incisive at the point where it is united with the branch of the maxillary forming
the slender line of bone that separates the orbit from the large suborbital foramen. In
both these animals, as in most of the tribe, the infra-orbital /oramen is single, and
attains its maximum of possible development ; involving the whole of the external face
of the maxillary bone except a slender process passing to where the malar joins it after
limiting the lower edge of the orbit, and of another equally slender process arising from
this point to form the anterior margin of the orbit and unite above with the frontal and
the ascending ramus of the incisive bone. Excepting in thus limiting below the infra-
orbital foramen, and in separating that foramen by a hinder margin from the orbit, the
maxillary bone is reduced, in animals of this type, to an alveolar ridge for the entire
series of the molar teeth, and to affording capacious space for the implantation and
growth of the prolonged roots of the exceedingly developed upper incisor.

To the subjoined table of some comparative admeasurements of the crania of these
two animals the remark must be prefixed that the individual of Ctenomys is not yet fully
adult, as is evidenced by the incomplete state of closure of its anterior fontanelle.

Length of the skull

Breadth of the skull at the meatus auditorii . . .

Breadth of the skull at the zygomata

Distance between the orbits above

Diastematic distance, upper jaw,

Diastematic distance, lower jaw,

Length of the molar series

Length of the mastoid process or mass of the tympanic cells

Octodon.

Ctenomys.

Id.

In.

1-6

1-75

•75

■95

•9

I-

•45

•4

•55

•4

•33

•45

•6

80 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON.

Octodon.

In.
. -225

Ctenomys

In.

. 1-3?

1-5

. -5?

•5

Greatest breadth of ditto

Length of the lower jaw, (including the teeth) . .

Height of the coronoid process

Having thus adverted to some of the more interesting points in the consideration of
these animals conjointly, I now proceed to describe individually the two that are con-
tained in the Society's Museum. For the third, to the most important distinctive cha-
racters of which I have already alluded while comparing it with the others, I cannot do
better than refer to the paper of M. F. Cuvier previously quoted, in which all the neces-
sary details respecting it will be foimd. That able zoologist possessed the opportunity
of inspecting the viscera of Poephagomys, the only one of the three genera that has yet
been anatomically examined ; and by his sketch, as well as by his description, it appears
that the intestinal canal is lengthened, as is usual in herbivorous animals, and that the
ccecum, as is also generally the case in such animals, is of considerable dimensions : in
length it exceeds the stomach, is not greatly inferior to it in circumference at its larger
end, and rapidly tapers towards the opposite extremity into a point'.

Fam. Arvicolid^?
Genus Octodon.

Denies primores \, acutati, antice laeves : molares utrinque utrinsecus 4, complicati, sub-
sequales ; superiores subtransversi, facie antica lata, postica (ob incisuram externam
profundam) duplo angustiore, interna in medio unipUcata, plicis a primo ad postre-
mum sensim minoribus ; inferiores obliqui, singulo plica externa internaque sub-
oppositis coronidem in areas duas obliqui trans versales, figuram 8 vel clepsydram
quodammodo simulantes, subdispartientibus, plica externa in postremo vix con-
spicua.

' Since the above was written, the Octodon which was then living in the Society's collection has died : but,
by some oversight, I was not informed of the occurrence until long after it had taken place ; and the oppor-
tunity of anatomically examining the animal was consequently lost to me. From Mr. Martin's notes of the
dissection, however, I learn that the cacum was very capacious, and measured in length more than the sto-
mach, the length of the one being 3, and of the other 2, inches ; and that it was sacculated ; its precise form,
however, could not be ascertained, the ulceration which had taken place in it having prevented its distension ;
that the stomach was of a regular, nearly oval shape, equally rounded at both extremities : and that the small
intestines measured 2 feet 6 inches in length, and the large intestines 1 foot 6 inches ; making a total length of
4 feet, and being about seven times the length of the body : and that the commencement of the colon was dis-
posed in a long loop or fold, its latter portion, with the remainder of the large intestines, scarcely equalling in
diameter the small intestines. In all these particulars the alimentary canal of Octodon, like that of Poepha-
gomys, accords with the general structure of the same part in other Herbivorous Rodents.

The details of Mr. Martin's dissection will be found in the Proceedings of the Society for July, 1836.

MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON. «1

Artus subsequales, omnes pentadactyli, digitis liberis ; unguibus falciilaribus, subcurvis,

acutis ; ungue poUicari lamnari.
Cauda mediocris, subannulata, pilosa, ad apicem floccosa.
America Auslralis incolcs, terrestres vel arborei, subsalientes.

OcTODON CUMINGH.

Tab. XVI.
Oct. supra fusco-jlavescenti-griseus nigrescente intermvrtus, infra et ad pedes pallidior ;
caudd supra et ad apicem jloccosum nigrd.

Octodon Cumingii, Benn., in Proc. Comm. Sci. Zool. Soc, part ii. p. 46.
Dendrobius Degus, Meyen, in Nov. Act. Acad. Cees. Nat. Cur., torn. xvi. p. 600.
tab. 144.

Hab. in Chili, prope Valparaiso.

In size and shape the present animal generally resembles the Water Rat, with which
it is, systematically, nearly connected. The facial line is regularly and strongly arched,
and the muzzle obtusely truncate ; the eyes are small, and seated nearly midway between
the base of the ears and the nostrils ; and the ears are of moderate size, thinly covered
both within and without with short adpressed hairs, and rounded at the tips. The
whiskers are rigid, and the longest exceed the head in length. On the body, which is
compactly proportioned, the fur consists almost entirely of straight hairs, lying flat, and
varying in length from half an inch to nearly an inch : they become shorter on the
limbs and beneath the body, and still more so on the tail and feet. Of the limbs the
hinder are somewhat the longest, but the disproportion is by no means so great as
might have been inferred from the saltatory habits of the animal. All the feet have five
toes ; but the innermost, both before and behind, is very short, and is separated by a
wide interval from the rest. Except the thumb of the fore-feet, which has a short,
flattened, obtuse nail, all the toes are armed with rather long, sHghtly curved, sharply
pointed claws, partially concealed by long bristly hairs. Of the four outer toes ante-
riorly the two intermediate are nearly equal in length, and the two lateral somewhat
shorter : posteriorly the three intermediate toes are of nearly equal length, and con-
siderably exceed the outer. The tail^ although covered rather thickly with short stiff"
hairs, is distinctly annulated.

The general colour of the upper surface and sides is of a brownish gray, intermixed
with frequent indistinct and undefined spots and patches of dusky black. It becomes
slightly darker towards the rump ; and the upper surface of the entire tail, together
with its under surface for one third of its length from the tip, is so deep in colour as to
approach closely to black. The under surface of the animal is dusky gray, mingled
with a shade of brown, lighter and nearly white beneath the base of the tail, and deeper
on the breast and neck, where it is almost of the same general hue with the upper sur-

VOL. II. M

82 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON.

face and head. The ears are dusky, with a few stiff gray hairs at their base anteriorly,
and some whitish and more closely set hairs on their inner surface. The shorter
whiskers are for the most part white, and the longer black. Tlie legs are grayish mixed
with brown, becoming of a paler gray towards the feet ; and the claws are deep black.
The following admeasurements are taken from a stuffed specimen :

In.

Length of the head and body 666

Length of the tail . 4

Length of the head 1'66

Length of the muzzle, anterior to the eyes .... "66

Length of the longest whisker 2

Height of the ears 75

Breadth of the ears 1

Length of the carpus to the end of the longest toe . . '75
Length of the tarsus to the end of the longest toe . . 1"25
To Mr. Cuming, to whom I have dedicated this species, the Society is indebted for
all the representatives of it that it has yet occurred to me to see. The animal, how-
ever, although apparently local, is exceedingly abundant in its native country. Captain
King informs me that he has seen thousands of them at Valparaiso : and Mr. Cuming
refers to them as being very numerous in that neighbourhood. To the latter gentleman
I owe the subjoined information respecting their habits in a state of nature. " These
animals burrow in the ground, but always under brushwood fences or in low thickets.
They are so abundant in the neighbourliood of Valparaiso, that in the high road be-
tween that place and St. Jago, more than a hundred may frequently be seen at one
time in search of food. Sometimes, but not often, they are observed on the lower
branches of the shrubs, and on those which form the fences. They fly at the least
alarm, and in running carry their tufted tails bent like a bow. A species of horned Owl,
of which I had the pleasure of presenting a specimen to the Society, feeds principally
on these pretty little creatures."

Two living specimens, brought from Chili by Mr. Cuming, were placed by him in
1831 in the Society's Menagerie. One of them has since escaped, but the other
remains alive, and is still as active and as lively as it was on its first arrival. In capti-
vity they appear rather shy, and have but little playfulness. They readily leap, with
great agility and without any appearance of exertion, from the floor of their cage to a
narrow perch placed at the height of nearly a foot, on which they remain seated quite
at their ease. Their food is, of course, entirely vegetable.

These were probably the first individuals of the species that were brought to Europe.
They arrived here in 1831 ; and were described by me, early in the ensuing year, under
the name and with the characters which are still retained for them. In 1833 the ani-
mal was again described by Dr. F. J. F. Meyen, in a communication made to the German

MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON. 83

Academy on the subject of certain of the animals collected by him during his travels in
South America. Regarding it as constituting the type of a new genus, but not aware
that it had previously been characterized elsewhere, he proposed for it the name of
Dendrobius : and, as he considered the animal identical with the Degus of Mohna, an
obscure species (like many others noticed by that author) , he gave it the appellation of
Dendr. Degus : referring to it, as synonymous, the Sciurus Degus, Gmel. et Auct. ; the
Myoxus Getulinus, Pcepp. ; and the Tamias Degus of several travellers. If, however,
Mohna's description of the Degus be correct, I cannot regard his animal as identical
with the one under consideration : and even assuming that the name used by that
writer is applied (as would seem from Dr. Meyen's statement to be the case) to Mr.
Cuming's species, it is by no means improbable that it may have rather a generic than
a specific value, and that it may not be limited to one animal, but include several allied
to each other in outward form. Dr. Meyen briefly adverts to the habits of the species,
but his remarks add little to the information furnished by Mr. Cuming and by Captain
King. The position assigned by him to the genus, — which he places among the
Squirrels, in immediate apposition with Myoxus, — appears to me to be altogether forced,
the only important point in which they agree being their arboreal habits : the form of
the molar teeth as regards their lamination is altogether dissimilar ; while the absence
of fangs to those teeth in the one and their presence in the others indicate a distinction
of such high value as to place them in different tribes of the order to which they belong,
the one ranking among the Herbivorous and the others being referrible to the Omnivo-
rous Rodentia.

Genus Ctenomys, Blainv.

Denies primores a, acutati, antic^ Iseves : molares utrinque utrinsecus .f, postremo sub-
obsoleto, cseteris similibus, simpliciusculis, veluti e lamina simplici subarcuata
constantibus, in maxilla superiore extern^ et postic^, in inferiore intern^ et antic^,
lat^ exsculpta.

Artus subsequales, omnes pentadactyli, digitis liberis ; unguihus falcularibus, unguUfor-
mibus, subelongatis.

Cauda breviuscula, subannulata, pilosa.
Americee Australis incolee,fodientes.

Ctenomys Brasiliensis, Blainv.

Cten. supra nitide rufus, suhtus rufescenti-albidus ; caudd nigrescenti-brunned. (fide Blainv.)

OrycteromysstVe Ctenomys Brasiliensis, Blainv., inBull. Soc.Philom., Avr. 1826,
p. 62. — Icon. Ibid.
Hah. in Brasilia, in provincia Minas Geraes.

M 2

84 MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON.

Ctenomys Magellanicus.
Tab. XVII.

Cten. flavescenti-fusco-griseus, subtus pallidior ; pedibus cauddque albentibus.

Hab. ad Fretum Magellanicum, prope Cap. Gregory.

In general form this animal appears, as far as can be judged of from a skin alone, to
resemble very nearly the Octodon Cumingii, and to have the same short and broad head,
compact body, nearly equal limbs, and sparingly haired tail : the latter member is,
however, comparatively shorter, and is destitute of any marked tuft of longer hairs at
its extremity. The facial line is probably less strongly arched than in that species ;
the eyes are, as in it, small, and seated about midway between the ears and the muzzle ;
but the ears are remarkably different, being so short as to be inconspicuous on account
of their being buried within the surrounding fur : the short auricle is slightly pointed,
closely covered on its outer surface with short hairs, nearly naked within, and furnished
at the base of its upper edge with a ridge of stiff short bristles. The whiskers are nu-
merous, chiefly white, but having among them, especially at the upper part of the tuft
which they form, a few black ones : these are generally longer than the others, and
some of them considerably exceed the head in length, their tips reaching as far as the
shoulder. The hairs of the body are soft, silky to the feel, wavy towards their base,
and straight at their tips ; they are generally about three quarters of an inch in length,
but some of them exceed an inch and a quarter : beneath the body they are almost en-
tirely of the shorter kind ; and on the head they are much shorter, as they are also on
the lower part of the limbs. Of the five toes the innermost, both before and behind,
is much shorter than the others ; the intermediate the longest ; those that adjoin to the
middle one nearly equal to it in length, and of equal length with each other ; and the
outer one much shorter, the tip of its claw scarcely reaching so far as the base of the
claw of the next toe. All the claws, especially those of the anterior feet, are strong,
lengthened, nearly straight on their lower surface, slightly curved towards their tip on
the upper, and rounded above : those of the fore feet are contracted below so as to
form an edge, while the lateral margins of the hinder claws remain disunited on the
under surface, leaving a vacancy within them : the claw of the inner toe on the fore
feet is comparatively short, but has the same structure as the others, except in being
much more curved. The whole of the claws are of a horny colour. The hairs covering
the tail are shorter than those of the feet, and are rather silky, and almost altogether
destitute of the rigidity of the hairs on the tail of Octodon : those towards the end unite
to form a shght conical tip to the tail, but there is no approach to a distinct tuft.

The general colour of the upper surface and sides is a brownish grey, tinged with
yellow, and scarcely varied by blackish ; the colour is, in fact, the same as that of Oc-
todon, but of a rather lighter tint. The separate hairs are of a dull leaden colour to-

MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON. 8S

wards the base, and the tips of most of them are pale brownish ash : the tips of the
longer hairs, which are few in number, are almost black. On the under surface none
of these longer, black-tipped hairs occur, and the tips of the ordinary hairs being at
the same time paler in this situation than on the back, the colour of the belly is consi-
derably lighter than that of the upper surface : on the chin and throat it is a pale fawn.
On the feet and on the tail the short hairs are almost white.
The following admeasurements will aid in the comparison of this animal with Octodon :

In.

Length of the head and body 7'5

Length of the tail 2*75

Length of the head 1'9

Length of the muzzle, anterior to the eyes "9

Length of the longest whisker 225

Height of the ears '1

Breadth of the ears '25

Length of the carpm to the end of the longest toe . . . "75
Length of the tarsus to the end of the longest toe . . . 1 "375
Captain King, to whom zoology, among other sciences, is deeply indebted for much
valuable information acquired during his various and arduous surveys, made on the
subject of this animal the following memoranda. " From the size of the jaw, as com-
pared with the abundant remains of this little animal which are scattered over the sur-
face of the ground, I think that the present specimen is rather a young one. On exa-
mining the teeth I find that it cannot be referred to any of the genera of M. F. Cuvier's
arrangement in his ' Dents des Mammif^res ': that to which it approaches most nearly
is Helamys ; but it is sufficiently distinct to constitute a new genus. The red colour of
the incisive teeth is very remarkable in all the specimens which I have seen. The little
animal is very timid ; feeds upon grass ; and is eaten by the Patagonian Indians. It
dwells in holes, which it burrows, in the ground : and, from the number of the holes,
it would appear to be very abundant.

" It inhabits the East entrance of the Strait of Magalhaens at Cape Gregory and the
vicinity."

PLATE XVI.

OcTODON CUMINGII.

Fig. i. The skull seen from above.

2. Tlie same seen laterally.

3. The upper jaw, exhibiting the crowns of the molar teeth.

4. The lower jaw.

g^ MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON.

PLATE XVII.

Ctenomys Magellanicus.

Fi^. 1 . The sKall seen from above.
2 The same seen laterally.
.3. The upper jaw, exhibiting the crowns of the molar teeth.

4. The lower jaw.

fifv^^ 7^^

51.

[ 87 ]

VIII. On the Anatomy of the Lamellibranchiate Conchifera. By Robert Garner,
Esq., F.L.S. Communicated by Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S.

Communicated December 8, 1835.

L HE molluscous animals, the anatomy of which I propose to describe, whilst they are
distinguished from the Thnicata' by their calcareous parts, differ from the Brachiopo-
dous Conchifera by being furnished with two lateral lobes to the mantle, secreting a
right and a left valve ; by having commonly an elastic intervalvular cartilage, and a
more simple muscular system to open and close the shells ; by having also four fixed,
membranous, pectinated organs at the mouth, and four others for respiration, &c.

The Anomia 1 consider to be an intermediate genus between the Lamellibranchiata
and the Brachiopoda ; some parts of its structure being more in unison with that of the
former, and some with that of the latter. The position of the animal in the shell is
neither vertical as in the one, nor horizontal as in the other, but obhque with respect
to the disposition of its organs. It agrees with Orbicula in having a divided muscular
system, a rudiment of a pedal disc, a short intestinal canal, ovaria ramified in the
mantle, the labial and branchial appendages conjoined, &c.; whilst in other respects it
resembles the Monomyarious Lamellibranchiata.

I would suggest that the fossils called SphcBrulites are allied to the Anomia, and
would intimate how desirable it would be to examine the anatomy of Thecidea, Crania,
Placuna, and the different species of Anomia, Terebratula, &c.

Some degree of obliquity, and a difference of size in the two valves, is present in
many genera of Lamarck's first division Monomyaria ; whilst, if any inequality exist in
those of his second division, Dimyaria, it does not arise from a tendency, as in the former
case, to that relative position of the soft parts to the shell, which characterizes the
Brachiopoda, but results from the nature of the hinge.

It is unnecessary here to enter upon the affinities of the order, or to describe the growth
of shell. In the distant layers of shell in the valves of some Lamellibranchiata I think I
see a resemblance to the elongated cellular valves of certain fossil genera and to multilo-
cular shells. The figure and size of the foot influence most materially the form of the
anterior part of the shell ; whilst that of the posterior is dependent upon the modifications
of the siphons. In order to explain the remoteness of the beaks of the valves in some

' I find in some British Tunicata calcareous pieces, under the form of two conical, reticulated tubes,
situated in, and projected externally from each orifice of the tunic. These, overlooked by Savigny, were
found by Eysenhardt.

VOL. II. PART II. N

88 MR. GARNER ON THE ANATOMY OF THE

Conchifera, I would observe that it can only happen when there is an erosion or giving
way of the cartilage, as the beaks, by means of the cartilage, are always originally in
connexion. In Isocardia, for instance, we see the beaks remote and the valves volute ;
and it may be seen that as the cartilage increases behind, it gives way and becomes bi-
furcate before. Sometimes this giving way takes place more from one valve than from
the other, in which case one valve may be much longer in its beak than the other, as is
seen in Gryphcea, &c. We cannot account for the growth of some shells, without ad-
mitting that the animal has the power of lessening them at certain points ; thus in the
under valve of the Anomia, how can we explain the enlargement of the notch, an almost
perfect foramen, without admitting such a power, which appears exerted through the
influence of the constant currents of water produced by the vibratile cilia of the animal ?

The coloration of the valves, of the foot, of the siphons, &c. is produced by a secreted
colouring matter, the chemical nature of which is not known, but a similar secretion to
which is found in all Mollusca. This secretion has the property of taking a much
brighter tint on exposure to light'. It is secreted either from the veins or from
venous secreting organs, to be hereafter mentioned". The markings of the valves
appear to be caused by the disposition of the veins of the mantle, and are often inter-
rupted, from the cessation of the secretion at certain periods.

The varieties in the articulation of the valves, in the cartilage, ligament, and teeth,
may be thus explained. When, as in the Cardium, the cartilage is external, and con-
vex and prominent above, its compression does not happen from the pressure of the
valves, as is the case with the species possessing internal cartilages, but from its bend-
ing upon itself. The cartilage of this conformation differs from that of the other by
its containing a portion of carbonate of lime in its composition. The teeth are wanting
or weak when there is great strength of muscle or cartilage ; when the irregularity of
the edge of the valves prevents sliding motion ; or when the shell is small, flat, and
polished, and hence little exposed to violence ; also when the hinge and cartilage are
long ; though they are numerous in the long hinge of the Arcacea, compensating for the
weakness of the cartilage. We see a distinct pinnate process of the mantle for the pur-
pose of secreting the numerous teeth of the Nucula. In those genera which have long
fleshy siphons and gaping shells, the cartilage is internal, and situated upon a project-
ing process of one of the valves, as in the My.a, by which disposition the shell is not
readily quite closed, nor far opened. The shell is only allowed to be opened widely
when the lobes of the mantle are conjoined to a small extent, as is done by the internal
cartilage of many of the Monomyaria. When, as in the Area, the foot is thick, we see
in the straight linear hinge, and in the remoteness of the beaks, a provision for the con-

' To produce tlie famous purple of the ancients, it appears only necessary to e.xpose the soft parts of ths
animal of the Purpura to the influence of the light and air, when its natural brownish secretion becomes of a
bright purple colour.

' And not from the liver, as BlaLnville says.

LAMELLIBRANCHIATE CONCHIFERA. 89

siderable opening of the valves by that organ ; and in some species the valves them-
selves are gaping inferiorly for its exsertion.

There is a cartilage between the two small spinous processes of the hinge in the
Pholas candidus. In other species of Pholas, which have no rudiment of it, and allied
genera, which have a particular character of articulation, I consider the motion of the
valves as but a secondary cause in the perforation of the substances in which these ani-
mals are found.

Muscular System.

The gland for the formation of the byssus (the existence of which is denied by Blain-
ville) may be found readily at the base of the foot (in the Modiola, for instance,) with
a duct opening at the bottom of its groove. It is bilobate, and of a dark granular
appearance. I consider the foot of the Pecten, Spondylus, &c. to be an organ of pre-
hension of the food, collected by the vibratile currents near the mouth. In these it has
but one long slender muscle. The uses of the foot as an organ of locomotion are de-
scribed by naturalists. One use of the part called the crystalline stilette, I consider to
be the giving resilience to the foot. It projects above into the stomach, and is directed
inferiorly to the pore by which water is admitted into the foot, as it is in many species.
The upper extremity has a small membranous cartilage upon it, called the tricuspid
body. In the Anomia the stilette supports a free portion of the mantle ; in the other
Monomyaria it is absent ; the membrane is always present. The whole appears to be
the analogue of the curious tongue of other Mollusca.

Some species have two sacs of the mantle, containing sometimes a gaseous fluid,
which is probably formed by the secreting organs, with which they are connected.
These animals can thus lighten themselves, and easily change their situation at the ebb
and flow of the tide.

Nervous System.

In more than twenty genera examined, I find a great similarity in the Nervous
System. Poli, Cuvier, and Blainville are rather incorrect in their description of the
nervous system of the Lamellibranchiata. Mangelli describes that of the Anodonta with
great accuracy.

When a foot is present, there are three ganglia or pairs of ganglia ; when absent, but
two. These ganglia are of an orange colour externally, and white within. Two ganglia
are situated at the mouth, more or less removed from each other, but always connected
by a swpra-cesophageal nerve ; they are sometimes on a level with, or before the mouth,
sometimes behind it. They give off" on each side filaments to the anterior muscle, ten-
tacles, lips, and anterior part of the mantle. Each ganglion likewise gives off a twig
going to the posterior ganglia, which are situated between the branchias on the posterior
muscle. These are united into one, when the branchia are themselves united medianly,
as in Mactra, My a, Solen, &c., but are at a distance from each other, when the branchiee
are remote ; but in this case, are always connected by a transverse nerve, as in Modiola,

90 MR. GARNER ON THE ANATOMY OF THE

Avicula, Lithodomus, Area, &c. These ganglia give nerves to the iranchice, siphons,
posterior muscle, mantle, &c. The anterior ganglia also give off two twigs, which
enter the foot and unite into a double ganglion, from which that organ is supplied with
nerves. Only a transverse connecting filament exists when there is no foot. The
posterior and pedal ganglia are totally unconnected with each other. The mouth then
is surrounded by a ring, of which the part posterior to the situation of the labial ganglia
upon it, is double. In the Pecten it appears evident that the labial ganglia are com-
pound. There is no visible sympathetic system, though said to exist by some.

Digestive System.

Poli supposes the tricuspid body to regulate the flow of bile into the stomach ; with
which opinion I coincide, from finding its extremities always in the bile ducts. The
intestine in molluscous animals gives origin to an abundance of veins, which probably
act as lacteals. The first part of it is glandular. Sometimes it is not so long as the
animal, at other times twelve times the length. A ridge is generally seen in it similar
to what we find in the naked Acephala. This part of the subject has, however, been
exhausted by Poli ; and we pass to the

Circulating System.

Bojanus has given a correct description of the circulation in the Anodonta, and has
shown it to be less simple than it had been described by Cuvier. The result of the
labours of Bojanus has been this : that the real respiratory organs are two dark-coloured
spongy bodies, situated at the root of what are generally considered to be the branchia,
and which are formed by the meeting of many of the veins of the system. I do not
come to the same conclusion. By means of mercurial injections I find that in the
Scallop {Pecten maximus) the whole of the venous blood returning from the body does
not go immediately to the branchiee ; but a large portion of it, that of the ovaries, liver,
and intestine, first circulates in part through the two dark-coloured, venous, secreting
organs, (lungs of Bojanus,) and in part enters a large sinus or venous dilatation situated
upon the adductor muscle, which sinus appears to form the branchial artery on each
side, communicating, however, freely with branches from the secreting organs, these
last again having a third set of branches entering the branchial artery. The sinus
above-mentioned, which Ukewise exists in the Dimyaria, situated under the pericar-
dium, receives in the Pecten also the veins of the mantle in part, one termination of
them being directly into the auricles. The branchial arteries are formed by the large
branch of the sinus, the branches from the secreting organs, and a few small ones from
the mantle and roots of the branchiee. The blood from the branchial veins enters the
auricles, which have appendages upon them, probably secreting the pericardial liquid.
The auricles, which in the Oyster are joined together, here communicate by a channel ;
generally they are quite separate. Two semilunar valves exist at the entry of each

LAMELLIBRANCHIATE CONCHIFERA. 91

auricle into the ventricle ; valves also exist at the origin of the aorta. It is well known
that the rectum commonly pierces the ventricle, and that in the Oyster there is an
exception to the general rule. In the Anomia the ventricle hes upon the rectum'. In
Area, Lima, and some Pectunculi, there are two ventricles, the rectum passing between
them. There is nothing remarkable in the distribution of the arteries. Sometimes, as
in Cardium echinatum, the first part of the aort(B appears very wide, having strong
parietes with numerous fleshy columns on their internal surface.

The veins then do not all go to form the branchial arteries ; whilst some of the
venous blood enters directly the auricles, another portion is first distributed to the
secreting organs. There also exists a reservoir, or sinus, or set of very large veins
receiving much of the venous blood, and which appears to empty itself both into the
veins of the hranchice, and into those of the secreting organs. The venous blood from
tlie body in some measure, likewise, enters the auricles. The branchial arteries receive
few veins, but the principal supply to them is from the sinus. Some resemblance to a
portal circulation is seen in this, though it has not place in the liver, in which the bile
is secreted from the arteries.

Blood taken from the auricles is almost colourless, separates on standing into a
liquid and solid part, and, microscopically examined, presents a curious phenomenon,
which appears to have been observed by Mayer ; viz. its globules, which are about the
one thousandth part of an inch in diameter, appear with projections upon them, showing
an evident motion. The heart is slow in its pulsations ; they are generally from twenty
to thirty in the minute.

Respiratory System.
I am disposed to regard the disposition and form of the hranchice and siphons as being
of great use in the classification of these animals ; for instance, Anomia, Pecten, Area,
Modiola, Unio, Cardium, Cyclas, Donax, and Mactra, have each a particular disposition
of the hranchiee, sac, of the mantle, valves, siphons, &c. giving rise to particular mo-
difications of the course of the aerating currents of water to the branchice. In all
the above genera, no complete division of the sac of the mantle exists. However, in
Solen, Hiatella, Pholas, &c. a diflTerent disposition takes place ; here the branchue are
prolonged into the inferior siphon, and as they are not separated from the base of the
foot within, nor from the mantle without, the water drawn in through the inferior ori-
fice must make its exit by the same, or by the anterior opening. But water is likewise
drawn in by the superior siphon, and so gets access to the interior interlaminar}' spaces
of the branchiae (oviducts of some) ; and by this superior siphon, the ova, faces, and
secretions are discharged'. Here the branchice are often very long, and the siphons

' I do not find that the rectum in the Mya Piclonim perforates the ventricle to make its exit and re-enter
again, as stated by Dr. Grant; Led. Anat. Comp. Lancet, vol. ii. (1833-4), p. 708.

» We see this also in the Titnicata. By one orifice water enters the respiratory sac, by the other it is drawn

92 MR. GARNER ON THE ANATOMY OF THE

very muscular. We sometimes find small supplementary hranchue, as in the Psam-
mobia, Pholas, &c. The external pair may be shortened in front, as in Mya, Venerupis,
&:c. In Pandora the only appearance of the external lamince consists of two very nar-
row strips at the base of the others ; this is the case also, according to de BlainviUe,
in the Osteodesma, allied to Pandora. Though it is not by the action of the orifices or
siphons, or by the relaxation of the closing muscles, and the opening of the valves,
that the water is drawn into the mantle, yet these actions accompany the influx ; and
though the water commonly escapes in a continuous stream from the action of the cilia,
a sudden ejection of it frequently takes place, accompanied by a closing of the valves
and a contraction of the siphons.

Excretory System.

The veins of the mantle, which are very numerous, appear to secrete the valves,
and often contain quantities of carbonate of lime, visible with the microscope in the
form of minute spicula. In the freshwater Muscle, anatomists have been puzzled to
account for the appearance at certain times of a greyish matter diffused over the whole
body, and entering into all the tissues. The accumulation of this matter in the veins
of the mantle has led to its having been considered as the male organs. We know
that the shell is more increased at some periods than at others, and this accumulation
may precede the deposition as a provision for its accomplishment, or it may be for the
purpose of being thrown otF by the excretory organs ; as it is about the veins which
surround them that the accumulation principally takes place. This grey matter is
principally carbonate of Ume.

The excretory organs throw aS mucus and colouring matter as well as carbonate of lime,
which latter is often found in them in the form of concretions ; also uric acid. In the
Pecten a minute orifice leads directly on each side into them. The oviducts likewise
enter them. Above, each excretory sac leads into a single transverse cavity under the
pericardium. In the Unio, &c. an orifice close to that of the oviduct leads into a large
cavity of the mantle under the pericardium, into which the excretory organ opens by an
internal orifice on each side. Bojanus was not aware of this internal opening, or he
would not have considered these organs to be lungs. The external orifice is seen to
open at the anterior angle formed by the foot and the hranchice. The oviduct is also
distinct from the sac in Modiola, Mytilus, Lithodomus, &c., whilst in Tellina, Cardium,
Mactra, Pholas, Mya, and most others, the ova are discharged into the excretory organs.
Generally the orifice of the excretory organs is near the posterior muscle, and the ovi-
duct more anterior. Tlie former is often so minute as to be found with difficulty. In
the Oyster the vessels do not seem to form a gland, but throw off from their extremities

into the external meshes of the hranchice. The water drawn in by each opening must make its exit by the
same. Those who say the contrary, appear to do so erroneously, unless the water passes through the stomach
and intestine.

LAMELLIBRANCHIATE CONCHIFERA. 93

distributed to the mantle the calcareous matter to the valves, which in a more perfect
animal is only got rid of, by being secreted by a glandular organ, and thrown out by an
excretory orifice. In higher MoUusca, for instance, we find the coloured secretion in
some furnished by the veins of the mantle, in others accumulated into a glandular bag.
Swammerdam believed the dark-coloured organs of the Lamellibranchiata to be con-
cerned in the formation of the shell, as did Poll, who terms them the testaceous viscera.
De BlainviUe compares them to kidneys ; and I think I have said much to confirm his
opinion.

An analogous condition may be observed in the Radiata. In the Stellerides the veins
of the viscera meet, and become conjoined with a brownish spongy substance, forming
two organs, which probably open without, through the dorsal plate or disk, or near to it.
From this disk there extends, by the side of the spongy substance into the circular
union of the hydroferous canals, a cylindrical calcareous part, which is articulated,
and appears to be analogous to the stem of the Pentacrims, but which has become
internal by the formation of the dorsal integument. The naked Acephala being desti-
tute of calcareous parts, have scarcely a rudiment of secreting organs ; but in the Gas-
teropoda a secreting organ always exists when there is a shell. This organ is evidently
formed in them by a tissue of veins. In the Patella it opens by the oviduct and rectum,
and is situated over the viscera : de BlainviUe considers it to be the organ of respiration
in these animals. In some Patelliform animals there are two orifices. The orifices in the
Chiton are between the branchial processes, not far from the oviducts. Where there is
no trace of a shell, secreting organs are not present. In the species of Doris, which
have commonly calcareous matter in the integument of the back, the sac described by
Cuvier as opening near the anus seems a rudiment. In Bullwa aperta, which has a
shell, two glands exist by the mouth, though overlooked by Cuvier. It is needless to
mention that an organ secreting mucus and calcareous matter is found in all spiral
Gasteropoda. It (the mucous sac of authors) sometimes opens near the anus by a duct,
as in the Phytivora ; or by a large opening at the back of the branchial cavity, as in
the Carnivora ; in which latter case the animal probably has the power of breathing air
by means of it when out of the water.

The mucous sacs of the Cephalopoda, opening by papilla; on each side the rectum, are
traversed by the great veins which secrete into them, from particular appendages on
their surface, much muco-calcareous matter. The bile ducts, likewise, pass through
the cavity, and secrete into it. In these animals, the blood from the visceral veins
seems directed into the hepatic, as was noticed by Cmaer ; and I consider their circu-
lation to be intermediate to that in which the ovarian, intestinal, &c. blood goes to the
liver, and that in which the hepatic, intestinal, and ovarian blood all passes through
the excretory organ. No molluscous animal appears to possess absorbents, hence the
necessity of the skeleton being external and out of the cu-culation.

94 MR. GARNER ON THE ANATOMY OF THE

Cilia.

The vibration which has been noticed by authors on the surface of the intestine of
molluscous animals, originates from the passage of that canal being through the secret-
ing sacs, into which water is drawn by the action of cilia upon their surfaces. From
noticing the appearance on the intestine of the Chiton, I was led to find the two orifices
described above, by which the water is drawn in.

The beautiful and wonderful phenomenon of the vibration of the minute cilia o^
the lower animals was noticed by many of the older naturaUsts, but from the defect
of their instruments, was often confounded with the circulation. Raspail has shown
that many of the animalcules of Miiller and Baer are merely the vibratile parts of
other animals. Home explains the rotation noticed in the embryo of the ovum of the
Lamellibranchiata to be caused by a species of Vibrio getting into its interior and feed-
ing upon it ; and the figures which he has given of this supposed animalcule are those
of the branchial processes of the Anodonta. The hydroferous vessels of the Radiata
are internally covered with cilia, and it is by these that the circulation in the Beroe is
plainly caused. I do not find them in the Crustacea nor in the Cirrhopoda, nor in the
aquatic larvce of insects. Dr. Sharpey was unable to see them in the Tunicata, but he
might have done so with the aid of a more powerful lens. They cover in great num-
bers the meshes of the branchice, but are unusually small in those organs. I do not
find them on the branchice of the Cephalopoda. They are present in the stomach of the
Asterias and Actinia, and the long white threads sometimes seen hanging from the Act.
diantha are covered with them.

The piercing of rocks, stones, wood, &c. by Lamellibranchiate animals cannot in every
case take place by the mechanical action of the valves. The valves of some genera, as
the Lithodomus amongst many others, are not at all adapted for such an action. Neither
can such perforation be caused by a solvent fluid secreted by the animal ; for what fluid
would dissolve so many substances, and yet not injure the animal's own shell? Tlie
fact appears to be, that the phenomenon is caused by the vibratile action of the parts
exciting constant currents of water against the substances, aided by its impetus when
drawn in down the elongated body of the animal, and in some cases, perhaps, by the
rasping of the valves. Often the shell, from its flattened form, or from its fitting
closely, cannot act at all. The Patella when sticking to a rock often foims a hole an
inch in depth, and this by the action of its ciliated branchice ; the hole cannot be made
by the shell, as it fits exactly in it, and is of such a figure that no rotation can take
place. The Hipponyx, another Gasteropod, forms cavities in the Patella and other
shells to which it adheres. The crypts of the Saxicava are not circular ; hence M. de
Bellevue and Osier in this instance believe them to be formed by the action of the
phosphoric acid secreted by the animal, and they suppose this animal to inhabit rocks
only which are composed of carbonate of lime ; which last supposition is not, to my own

LAMELLIBRANCHIATE CONCHIFERA. 96

knowledge, correct. Turton says the valves of the Teredo do not correspond with the
bore, though I tliink that in this case they do act as mechanical instruments. But the
Pholas conoides is often found in hard timber, though its valves do not seem in the least
adapted for any boring or filing.

Certain Annelides apparently possess this power of excavation. The rocks on our coast
are pierced by a minute worm, probably of the genus Diplotis of Montague ; it is strongly
ciliated, but its mouth does not appear adapted for making its way into such hard sub-
stances. By the currents excited by Vorticellce, &c. it is that the erosion noticed at the
beaks of fresh-water bivalves takes place ; the lamin(E at that part being soft, and
more distant from each other. We find the valves of the Oyster, Pecten, Lutraria, &c.
perforated by small circular apertures leading into internal cavities. Dr. Buckland
showed this to depend upon the action of a zoophyte, which Prof Grant has particularly
examined, and named Cliona celata. Dr. Buckland considers the holes to be formed by
little borers which the polypes possess ; these, however, do not exist, and I believe the
phenomenon to be caused by the action of the cilia of the animal.

Freminville, Nilsson, Beudant, Stark, and others, agitate the question as to whether
freshwater Mollusca can live in salt water, and vice versd. To ascertain whether respi-
ration could go on in the Lamellibranchiata, the habitat being so changed, I took a
portion of the hranchia of a Mactra, and placed it in fresh water for one minute ; the
cilia, strongly in action before the experiment, stopped in their vibration, and could not
be restored by immersion in sea water. Five grains of common salt were added to an
ounce of fresh water, and a portion of the hranchice placed in the solution, upon which the
vibration ceased. In a solution of ten grains of common salt to an ounce of fresh water,
the vibration was continued, as it was also in a solution of twenty grains to the ounce.
In a stronger solution it shortly stopped. After a short immersion in the strong fluid,
it was restored by the second solution ; but a Mactra, of which the hranchice were
exposed for fifteen minutes to the action of fresh water, did not recover itself though
returned to its native element. Sea water, or a solution of even two grains of common
salt in an ounce of fresh water, immediately stopped vibration in fresh-water Mollusca.
It would seem from this, that the capacity of bearing a change as to the freshness or
saltness of the water is very limited in these animals ; for if the cilia cease to vibrate,
respiration must stop, as well as the collection of the nutrient particles from the water.
Perhaps the inhabitants of estuaries are best adapted to bear a change in this respect ;
but what Nilsson and Freminville state respecting the Anodonta, &c. being found in
company with Tellina;, &c. appears very debateable ; the circumstance probably arose
at the mouth of a river. The Cardia, Mactres, Amphidesmce, &c. found in salt marshes,
die when the water becomes concentrated by evaporation, or when it loses its saltness
by being mixed wnth fresh. The Mytili found in fresh-water docks are probably fresh-
water species brought from foreign rivers attached to vessels, and which have probably
survived their voyage by having kept their valves constantly closed accurately.

VOL. II. PART II. o

96 MR. GARNER ON THE ANATOMY OF THE

Having shown the fatal effect which would he produced hy the concentration of the
sea water on the hranchia of its bivalve inhabitants, it is worth inquiry, how in those
animals which, on the retreat of the tide, are exposed to the desiccative action of the
sun and air, the evaporation of the water is prevented. Those animals which possess
naked ciUated branchia have the power of retracting them into sheaths, when they, like
many species of Doris, frequent the bare rocks ; or if this power of withdrawing them
does not exist, as in other species of Doris, the Tritonia, Eolida, &c., they take care to
cover themselves with the wet Algce, or to lurk in shady crevices. The Patella in hot
days sticks firmly to the rocks, so as to prevent the escape of the confined moisture.
The AscidicB frequent pools among the rocks which are not drained at low water. The
Actinice, Lobulariw, &c. adhere to the dripping under surface of the cliffs, or frequent
shady places. The Polypifera either reside in deep water, or find a habitat where the
sun does not reach them. Those Lamellibranchiata which, like the common Muscle,
are exposed on the bare rocks to the action of the sun and air, have the valves fitting
to each other most exactly, preventing all evaporation. When the valves are open at
any part, the animal either inhabits deep water, as many species of Pecten, or has the
power of burrowing in the mud or sand, when left dry by the ebb of the tide. The
Gasteropoda also hide themselves fi-om the sun, though their branchics are not much
exposed. Aristotle says they hide tliemselves during the dog-days. Along the sandy
beach we see numerous holes leading to the branchicB of different animals, which by
boring hide themselves, and protect their organs from the effect of evaporation, as well
as obtain a supply of water loaded with nutrient particles.

The phenomenon of animal phosphorescence seems almost peculiar to ciliated ani-
mals. In an Annelide, which presents the phenomenon very beautifully, covering in
profusion the nets of the fishermen when drawn up, I found that the luminosity
stopped when the action of the cilia was destroyed ; that it was greatest when they
were most active ; and that the tremulousness of the light appeared to correspond with
an unsteadiness of the vibration. It appears worth inquiry, whether the appearance
does not arise from the friction of the cilia upon the particles of water. The experi-
ments of Beccaria seem to prove that the hght is not owing to any chemical principle,
and that it exists in exactly such circumstances as the cilia would continue to vibrate

under.

Reproductive System.

The opinions of Leuwenhoek, Mery, Prevost, and Dumas, &c. on this point respect-
ing the different sexes of the Lamellibranchiata are well known ; but there appears every
reason to beUeve that there is no difference in the individuals as to sex, and that the
ova are discharged from the ovaries in a state fit to develop ; or, in other words, that
they are fecundated before they leave the ovaries by testes which are conjoined with
those organs. Some authors have mistaken the excretory organs for testes. The ovaries
differ much in their situation ; sometimes they form distinct parts, sometimes they are

LAMELLIBRANCHIATE CONCHIFERA. 97

found in the foot, sometimes they are ramified in the mantle, which last disposition
is present in Modiola, Anomia, Lithodomus, Hiatella, and the like. The oviducts open
variously in different species, as described above ; the ratio of the difference appearing
to be the situation of the ovaries. At an uncertain time before the discharge of the
ova from the ovaria, a milky fluid, often pinkish in colour, makes its appearance in the
latter, and is itself discharged from the oviducts. This appears to be the male fluid ;
when examined with a powerful lens it is seen to contain minute oval bodies, not more,
perhaps, than the four- thousandth part of an inch in length, swimming in the thinner
fluid, and having a very vivid motion. They do not appear to have caudal appendages,
though minute vibriones, as well as vibratile particles of the Iranchiee, may often
give rise to the appearance of them. The ova seem to enlarge from the influence of
this fluid, and the vitellus becomes coloured by it. The ova are found to present a
different shape in different genera; in the Vnio they are globular and transparent,
about the seventeenth part of an inch in diameter, consisting of a firm shell, in which
is contained a clear fluid, with the yolk floating therein. The ova are generally dis-
charged from the ducts immediately into the water ; but in Vnio and Anodonta they
are conveyed, enveloped in stringy mucus, from the excretory organs into the inter-
branchial spaces (oviducts of Home), where they are further developed, the shell
breaking, and the young bivalves being attached by a byssus. It is curious that they
are never found in the internal pair of branchies, along the edge of which they are
conveyed to the external ones. In summer the ova leave the oviducts, and at the
approach of the following spring, the young animals leave the branchia. A curious
rotation may at one time be observed of the embryo within the ovum, from the action of
the cilia, the rotation taking place seven or eight times in the minute. The young have
the power of opening and shutting their valves before leaving the parent shell. Rathke
considers them as parasites, under the name of Glochidium, in which opinion he is fol-
lowed by Jacobson, who considers their appearance to preclude the possibiUty of their
being the young of the animals on which they are found. The valves are triangular,
with the Ugament at the short straight side, the other two sides terminating in a point,
at which we see a process of membrane to each valve, dentated on its exterior surface.
Two pointed processes also appear projecting from the inner surface of the valves.
There is no foot, and the muscle seems undivided, and allows the valves to be com-
pletely opened. But on inspecting a very young Unio, we find that the valves are really
commenced by triangular nuclei. The membranes may be the branchite, and the other
processes appear to be the nuclei of the teeth of the valves. Home does not describe
the true oviducts ; Bojanus calls the bronchia, uteri, or oval receptacles ; Joerg calls the
external ones ovaria, and the internal ones testes. The Anodonta anatina and cygnea are
both viviparous ; though Drapernaud, on the authority of Poiret, denies that the former
is so. In the Cyclades we always find from ten to twenty of the young fry in the internal
branchue ; they are of diflTerent size, and are discharged one by one, when they attain

98 MR. GARNER ON THE ANATOMY OF THE

about the sixth of an inch in diameter. The oviducts in the Oydades open over these
internal branchia, which are only accessible to the water from behind. Three or four
of these young animals are inclosed in a membranous case, but the largest are found
separate, adhering by a byssus. Turton says, that in the month of June he has found
the young animals of the Kellia rubra containing about twelve perfectly formed young
ones. In no case does it appear that the ova are discharged from the mouth, as has
been supposed, nor by the true anus ; nor is there any duct in those which are viviparous
leading from the ovaria to the interbranchial spaces.

Diseases and Parasitical Animals.

As is well known, it is to a disease affecting these animals that we owe the beautiful
ornament of pearls. The subject of their formation has, however, been exhausted by
Pliny, Home, Vogt, and many others. Baer has described many of the parasitical
animals infesting the Conchifera, especially the fresh-water species. The Aspidogaster
conchicola is verj^ common in the pericardium and excretory organs of the fresh-water
Muscles. The Nummulella of Cams appears not to be a parasite, but to be formed by
the rolling on itself of a branchial process. I found the foot of an Anodonta enormously
distended with parasitic ova, which, when ruptured, were each found to contain several
young individuals of a species of Distoma. In the foot of another Anodonta 1 found a
parasite (PI. XX. fig. 12.) presenting the following characters. In the mature state
the body is more or less cylindrical in its shape, but varied much at the wiU of the
animal : at one extremity it has two very long appendages, which are spiniferous at
their terminations, and which in some individuals have a row of round bodies attached
to one side for part of their length ; these appendages are contracted with great rapidity,
and are then very short. There is an opening by a circular Up between these append-
ages. A contraction separates this part, on which they are situated, from the rest of the
body. There appears to be another opening at the opposite extremity of the animal.

PLATE XVIII.

Fig. 1. Animal of the Psammobia Jlorida in its shell.

2. The same exposed.

3. Animal of the Nucula nucleus in its shell.

4. The same, the left valve removed, and the mantle raised.

5. Animal of the Corbula striata in its shell.

6. Animal of the Pandora inaquivalvis, left valve and part of mantle removed.

7. Left valve of the same.

8. Stomach, intestine, heart, &c. of the Solen ensis.

9. Stomach, &c. of the Mactra stultorum.
10. Stomach, &c. of the Cardium echinatum.

LAMELLIBRANCHIATE CONCHIFERA. 99

Fig. 11. Shows the disposition of the heart, pericardium, excretory organs, &c. in the
Anodonta anatina.

12. Shows the gland of the byssxis, mantle, oviduct, &c. of the common salt-

water Muscle.

13. Shows the disposition of the branchice, &c. in the Cardium edule.

PLATE XIX.

Fig. 1. Animal of the Pecten opercularis, the left valve removed, and the mantle
turned up.

2. Stomach, intestine, liver, ovary, &c. of the Pecten maximus.

3. One of the ocelli or eyes found on the margin of the mantle of the same,

and optic nerve, magnified.

4. All the blood-vessels of the Pecten maximus, excepting a set of large veins,

situated upon the muscle, into which the veins, which are truncated in the
figure, enter, and which forms the branchial arteries.

5. Nervous system of the Venerupis pullastra.

PLATE XX.

Fig. 1. Ova of the Unio pictorum from the ovaries and branchiae {-^ inch focus).

2. Valve of a young Unio, showing that its nucleus is of the same shape as the

valves of the animals found in the branchia.

3. Fry of the Cyclas rivicola, taken from the branchice {-^ inch focus).

4. Ova of the Mytilus edulis (^v inch focus).

5. Ova of the Pecten opercularis (-rV inch focus).

6. Ova of the Anomia cepa (-rV inch focus).

7. Globules of the blood, from the auricles of the Pecten maximm (w inch

focus).

8. Nummulella ? branchial process ? (J- inch focus) .

9. Ova and contained young of a species of Distoma (the two magnified figures

4- inch focus).

10. Nereis phosphorescens — Syllis, Lam. (.J- inch focus).

11. The head of the same (-fiy inch focus).

12. Animal from the ovarium of an Anodonta as seen in the field of the Micro-

scope (J- inch focus).

13. Diplotis hyalina? Montag. (^V inch focus).

100

MR. GARNER ON THE ANATOMY OF THE

Explanation of the Letters and Figures.

Right lobe of the mantle.

Left lobe of the mantle.

Mouth.

Rectum.

Tentacles.

Lips.

BranchicE.

Foot.

Anterior muscle.

Posterior muscle.

Ovary.

Superior tube.

Inferior tube.

Liver.

Heart.

Ventricle.

Q,Q.

Auricles.

R,R.

Anterior ganglia.

S,S.

Posterior ganglia.

Pedal ganglion.

Stomach.

Crystalline body.

Intestine.

Pericardium.

Excretory organs.

Right valve.

Left valve.

Cartilage.

Ligament.

Teeth of the hinge.

Glandular sac of the mantle.

b,b

Tentacles.

c,c

. Ocelli.

. Byssus.

e. Gland of the byssus.

f. Pedal pore.

g, g. Retractile muscles of the foot.
h, h. Valves of the mantle,
i, i. Oviducts.

j,j. Orifices of the excretory organs.
k, k. Internal ditto.

I. Retractor muscle of the tubes.
m, m. Nerves of the tentacles, &c.
n. Supra-oesophageal nerve.
0,0. Connecting nerves of the anterior

and posterior ganglia.
p,p. Nerves of siphons, h-anchiis, &c.
r, r. Connecting nerves of the anterior

and pedal ganglia,
t, t. Orifices of the bile ducts.
u. (Esophagus.
V. Tricuspid membrane.

1 . Anterior aorta.

2. Posterior aorta.

3, 3. Veins of the mantle.
4, 4. Hepatic veins.
.5, 5. Branchial veins.

6. Veins connecting the auricles.
7, 7. Veins of the pericardium, &c.
8,8. Branchial arteries.
9, 9. Smaller veins of the mantle.

10, 10. Veins from the liver.

11, 11. Ovarian veins.

12, 12. Veins of the excretory organs.

13. 13. Ramusculesofthe branchial veins.

14. 14. Ramuscules of the branchial arte-

ries.

LAMELLIBRANCHIATE CONCHIFERA.

101

ANATOMICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE LAMELLIBRANCHIATA.

Lamellibranchiate Bivalve Animals.

T* o

tentacles very long, not distinct 6:0m the branchiae, branchiae all united ; an additional muscu-
lar system Anomia — Placuna-

foot OsTREA — Gryphsa.

'foot long, cylindrical ; ocelli at the edge of

the mantle Pecten — Pedum.

foot short, thick, with a disk at the extre-
mity, from the centre of which depends a

pcdicellated oval body; ocelU Spondvlus — Plicatula.

[ foot compressed ; no ocelli Lima.

branchia:' conjoined mcdianly Vulsella* — Malleus, Pema, &c.

foot sleudcr, byssifcrous; tentacles fringed Avicula*.

foot thick, rounded, with a callosity Arca — Cucullaea.

foot compressed, scciu-ifonu Pectdncclus.

foot oval below, its margin tentacular ; tentacles volute Nucula.

foot large, pointed anteriorly, bent at an angle Trigonia*.

tentacles short, se-
parate from the
branchia?

mantle witliout separate
orifices or tubes

foot..

branchiae disunited
metUanlv

mantle with
anal orifice..

a distinct

foot small, bys
siferous ,

mantle with a superior
and inferior orifice; not

'anterior muscle small; rijyssus divided to its base. Mytilus.
retractile muscles of the byssus with a common

foot numerous ; byssus< corneous centre Modiola.

large anus furnished with a long

l_ Ugulate valve Pinna*.

muscles equal, two pairs of retractile muscles only ;

t^ byssus rudimentary Lithodomus.

[foot large, not byssiferous Unio — Cardita, Ilyria, &c.

mantle widely open Cardium — Cyprina,

ffoot short and discal, byssiferous ; anterior muscle

I small Tridacna*.

1 mantle closed-^ foot small, cylindrical, bent at an angle; lips fo-

elongated into tubes... ^^^^^ ^^^ ■ ^^^^^ ■ - - Chama*

[^ foot or byssus [^ foot small, sharp; lips simple Isocardia* — Diceras.

mantle
with two
jiroduced
tubes, or
siphons ..

branchiae not pro-
duced into the
lower tube

mantle closed around the foot,
tubes disunited
foot lanceolate..

tubes
more
or less
united ;
mantle footva-
open [ rious...
'mantle only open infe-
riorly for the protru-
sion of the foot

branchiae pro-
duced into, or
attached to the
lowLT tube ;
tubes always
united

mantle
open ai

LoRi PES * — Lucina.
foot large, rather falciform ;
external branchia; sliortencd ;
mantle tentacular; labial ten-
tacles large Doxax — Capsa.

foot small ; external brancliiae
shortened ; edge of mantle

simple; tentacles small Psammobia — Soletellina, &c.

foot moderate ; external bran-
chia; as long as the internal ;
tentacles large; margin of the

mantle entire Tellina.

foot small ; branchiaj equal ;

mantle tentacular Amphidesma.

"tul)es small, partially divided ;

foot very long, obtuse Cyclas — Cyrena, &c.

tubes small, united to the ex-
tremity ; foot very long and

pointed Mactra.

tubes large, foot short and

prominent behind Venerdpis.

" foot lanceolate, prominent be-
hind; tubes small, united.... Cvtherea.
foot securiform ; tubes larger

and more or less distinct Vends — Astarte, &c.

' foot small ; branchia; of each

side united into one Pandora — Osteodesma.

foot larger ; braucliia; sepa-
rate CoRBULA — Sphenia, Thracia, &c.

foot not byssiferous ; tubes

large and coriaceous Mya — Anatina, Lutricola, &c.

foot byssiferous ; tubes mode-
rate HiATELLA — Byssomya, &c.

foot long, club-shaped; tubes short Solen — Sanguinolaria, &c.

'two distinct adductor muscles; anterior
one situated below a reflected portion of
the mantle, uniiing the beaks instead of

acartilage; tentacles large Pholas — Gastrochwna, ice.

body very elongated ; adductor muscles
foot vcrj' united; end of mantle with two calcare-
short, ous pieces ; tentacles small ; no cartilage
"ounded. (_ nor reflected portion of mantle Teredo.

branchiae

united

medianlv.

branchia?
disunited
medianly.
"tubes
small ;
lips long .

tubes
long ; lips

_ small

For the anatomy of those marked with an Asterisk the author is indebted to Curler, PoU, or BlainviJIe.

Z„„j . ~ Mj/.. /,K . /r-/. :■'. _l.f/./d'./, .

u>2.

r. <

Samer.dai.

yW? y^i^ r/ .r^frMtM/^^//6i^^^/^' t/^//e'ia .

'■/

.. JL,y.J^^. , ^. ^Zj^://il.y(,. /^^

» j

'.imtr. d^.

^tj/i^^ ^.^w^//i<Mima^ y-/^///i^ -.

Zeater

'^ i*

*V^i^ ? ^wnnW*'

— >

,(7^^
N^^-^^

"y/yi'

Samir.dtl.

Oik^.^la^k/. c^\ (,^..^mm/'h//um/i/€- -Lcv^M .

^<sa^. Xt^.

[ 103 ]

IX. Descriptions of some New and Rare Cephalopoda.
By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S., S^c, Hunterian Professor of Anatomy at the Royal

College of Surgeons in London.

Communicated February 23rd, 1836.

Amongst other contributions to natural history which have resulted from the la-
bours of our zealous Corresponding Member Mr. George Bennett, during his late voyage
to Australia, are several new or little known marine invertebrate animals, most of which
were taken by means of the towing-net in the open sea, or among the gulf- weed. The
value of these specimens, in a scientific point of view, is much increased, by the care with
which the circumstances attending the capture of each are registered ; and I now com-
mence the fulfilment of a promise to my friend, by bringing a portion of these speci-
mens before the notice of the Members of the Society, with such observations as seem
to be worthy their attention.

The subjects at present under consideration belong to the class Cephalopoda .- they are,

1st. A specimen of the Cranchia scabra. Leach.

2nd. Four specimens of a very small nondescript species oi Loligo.

3rd. The head and principal viscera of a Decapodous Dibranchiate Cephalopod,

from Port Jackson.
4th. Three specimens of a small nondescript species of Octopus.
5th. A very small specimen of the shell of Argonauta Mans, Solander, with its

inhabitant {Ocythoe Cranchii, Leach) and a large cluster of ova.

With respect to the first of these specimens, Mr. Bennett, in his Journal, remarks,
"On the 1st of March, fine weather, with light and moderate trade breezes from the
south-east, thermometer Fahr. 77° to 80°, latitude 12° 15' S., longitude 10° 15' W., at
8 p.m., captured, with the towing-net, several fine specimens of Hyalasa dentata, and
two species of the Medusa genus ; the latter are preserved in spirits (bottle No. 4, D.).
One was very prettily marked with dark red spots." The specimen thus distinguished
is the Cranchia scabra, now on the table' ; and from the uncommon form which this very
remarkable Cephalopod presents, one cannot feel surprised that it should have been re-
ferred by its captor to a Radiate family, with which the Cephalopods bear, in more
than one respect, an analogical relation.

The Cranchia scabra is the species on which the genus dedicated to the enterprising
naturahst by whom it was first taken, was founded : it belongs to that tribe of Dibran-

• PI. XXI. figg. 1—5.

VOL. II. PART II. P

104 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

chiate Cephalopods which have a pair of long peduncles superadded to the ordinary
ei-^ht arms, and to that family of Decapoda in which the rudimental shell is degraded
to the condition of a single horny style, lodged in the substance of the mantle in the
middle of its dorsal aspect.

The principal external character which entitles Cranchia to rank as a genus distinct
from Loligo and Onychoteuthis, is the continuation of the mantle with the dorsal parietes
of the head, and a consequent interruption of its free anterior margin at that part : from
iiepioteuthis, Sepiola and Rossia, it differs generically (according to the circumstances
which modern zoologists have agreed to regard as of generic importance,) not only in
the proportions and position of the pallial fins, but in the structure and connexions of
the funnel ; and in some points of its anatomy, as will be afterwards described. With
respect to the tu-st-named character I would however observe, that species in which the
pallial fins are short and terminal in position, and which present the same condition of
the internal rudimental shell, the same connections of the mantle, and armature of the
suckers, should not be broken up into genera in consequence of differences in the form
only of the fins, especially when unsupported by corresponding internal differences of
structure ; for when we compare together the different species of the uncinated Ca-
lamaries, which form the well-marked genus Onychoteuthis of Lichtenstein, we find that
scarcely two species agree in the precise contour of the fins ; and if we examine, with the
same view, the numerous members of the group Loligo, as it is now restricted, we shall
find several, as the Lol. piscatorum, Lapilaye ; Lol. Duvaucellii, D'Orbigny ; Lol. brevi-
pinna, Lesueur ; and especially the Lol. breris of De Blainville, which closely approximate
the Cranchia scabra in the rounded contour and dorsal position of the terminal fins ; so
that were it not for the difference in the connections of the anterior margin of the man-
tle, the latter Cephalopod, notwithstanding its singular form, could not be separated
"enerically from the Loligines on external characters alone.

This condition of the mantle, however, has scarcely been sufficiently attended to in
the subsequent location of species in the genus Cranchia. In M. Ferussac's description of
one of the most remarkable of these recent additions, e. g. the Cranchia Bonelliana', it is
to be regretted that no mention is made of the adhesion or otherwise of the mantle to the
posterior part of the head. The same doubts apply to the claims of the Cranchia car-
dioptera of Peron, and the Cranchia minima of Ferussac, to rank in the genus in which
they have been placed : in the figures given of them by Ferussac, the anterior margin
of the mantle appears to be free on the dorsal aspect, as in Loligo. In justice, however,
to the lamented zoologist who first described the Cranchia Bonelliana, and to whom the
scientific world is indebted for a most splendid monograph on Cephalopoda, now in pro-
gress of publication, it must be observed, that the limited nature of the observations
on the characters of Cranchia, and the imperfection of the specimen upon which Dr. Leach

' Annates des Sciences Xaturellcs, torn. lii. (1835) p. 339.

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 105

founded the genus, render it a matter of difficulty and doubt to refer subsequently dis-
covered species satisfactorily to it. The desire expressed by M. de Ferussac, that addi-
tional observations should be made on the typical species, I shall therefore endeavour
to fulfil to the best of my ability, from the specimen which Mr. Bennett has transmitted
to me'.

This specimen is smaller than the. one described by Dr. Leach, but presents the same
enlarged, expanded, flaccid bag-like form of the mantle, terminated at one extremity by
a disproportionately minute pair of fins, and at the other by a head and arms of almost
equally diminutive size ; so that when the tentacles are retracted, as was the case in
Mr. Bennett's specimen, very little of the ordinary /ucfes of a Cephalopod is presented
to the observer.

The dimensions of this specimen are as follows :

_, . Inches. Lines.
I'rom the posterior end of the body to the end of the tentacle out-
stretched 1 g

root of the tentacle . . 11

Length of the longest arm 3

shortest ditto Ix

fins 2

Breadth of the two united fins 3

Circumference of the thickest part of the body 3 o

Breadth of the head 3i

The body or mantle is wrinkled and flaccid, in consequence of the very small space
occupied by the viscera ; and these are situated at its anterior part, and not at the bottom
of the sac, as in Loligopsis. It is probable that at the reproductive season the enlarged
ovarium may fiU more or less of the pallial cavity ; but in the ordinary state of Cranchia
scabra the disproportion of the mantle to the contained parts is very remarkable, and
unique in the class Cephalopoda ; but a similar disproportion between the viscera and pal-
Hum is found in some of the Pteropoda.

The surface of the mantle in Cranchia scabra is uniformly beset with small round spots,

' The foUowing are the observations which M. Ferussac makes on the distinguishing characters of the genus
Cranchia :—■■ Pour fixer toutes les incertitudes a I'egard du genre Cranchie, et pour lui rapporter sans hesitation
l-esp^ce que nous faisons connaitre, U faudrait que ceUes qui ont et^ decrites par le Dr. Leach fussent retrouv^es
et mieux connues. Le caractf^re principal qui leur a ete assigne consiste dans la forme et position terminales
des nageoires. Sous ce rapport, ce genre se confond presque avec les Calmarets. mais ceux-ci en sont bien
distingufo par la forme de leurs bras tentaculaires. II n'est s^par^ des Calmars que par la forme de ces mSmes
nageoires, qui sont reunies a leur extremite et semblent d^passer celle du sac. Dans les espfeces que nous y
rapportons et que nous avons pu obsen'er, le port et I'ensemble des formes les distinguent bien plus encore des
Calmars; mais nous nepouvons faire la meme observation au sujet des espfeces signal^es par le Docteur Leach,
parcequ'il a n^gligg de nous donncrune description complete et detaillde, reproche qu'on peut faire quelquefoii
a cet habUe obsen-ateur sans porter atteiute a sa reputation bien acquise."— /iiU, p. 346.

lOG MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

the dark red colour of which had changed in the spirit to a dingy brown ; these spots
occur also, hut of more minute size, on the fins, and on the exterior of the arms and
tentacles. A narrow line extends down the middle of the back of the mantle, through
the whole length; this line, when viewed by transmitted light, is transparent, the pa-
rietes of the mantle being at that part extremely thin, and containing a colourless pel-
lucid style of gelatinous consistency, pointed at both extremities, but of almost uni-
form breadth through the wbole length, being very slightly contracted in the middle.
The diameter of this representative of the gladius is -jVth of an inch ; its length is equal
to that of the mantle.

The surface of the mantle, from which the trivial name of the present species is de-
rived, next claimed attention ; on viewing this part under the microscope, it was seen to
give off innumerable small flattened processes, varying from a thirtieth to a fiftieth of
an inch in breadth, and about a fiftieth of an inch in length, and terminating in two,
three, or four sharp-pointed processes ; these give to the outline of the mantle, under the
microscope, an irregularly denticulated appearance. The surface of the skin, though ge-
nerally smooth, presents several remarkable irregularities in other species of Cephalopods;
thus it is beset with branched ^a^iZZffi in the Sepia papillata, with more simple obtuse
eminences in Sepia mammillata, with tubercles in Sepia tuherculata, with sharp-pointed
tubercles in Octopus aculeatus, &c., to which the aculeated lamella of our subject make
a near approach ; it is highly probable that these different cutaneous processes serve to
indicate to the Cephalopods possessing them the nature of the surfaces with which they
may come in contact, and augment their sense of touch.

The terminal fins, which aj)pear to have been lacerated in Cranch's specimen, were
entire in ours ; they are of a regularly rounded form, approximated on the dorsal aspect,
and united at their bases, the united part extending about a hne beyond the end of the
mantle ; they are not supported by cartilages, as in LoUgo, but appear to be mere redu-
plications of the integument.

The head is principally composed of the large lateral prominent eyes ; the circum-
ference of the cornea is marked with a circle of closely approximated large dark spots.

The arms have the usual conical form ; the first or dorsal pair is the shortest, as in
most Decapods ; the second and fourth nearly equal, and rather longer than the first ;
the third pair is double the length of the first.

The first, second, and third pair of arms are united at their bases by an intervening
web of greater proportional extent than is usually met with in the Decapodous Cepha-
lopods, and which is entirely wanting in the Lolujines. In the Cranchia Bonelliana a
similar web extends between the corresponding arms for full two thirds of their extent.
Between the third and fourth pair of arms there is no connecting web, the interspace
being occupied by the thick round stems of the elongated peduncles. All the arms are
connected together by the external membranous lip, which gives off eight pointed pro-
cesses ; but these, instead of projecting freely, as in most of the Loligines, the Sepioteu-

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 107

this, and Sepia, are tied down or inserted at the internal surface of the base of each
arm ; the intermediate portions of the lip form an internal and smaller uniting web, of
which the portions between the third and fourth pair of arms are the widest. With
respect to the outer web, we may, 1 think, justly infer, that since in the Octopodoux
tribe of Cephalopoda it forms, in the total absence of the mantle-fins, the sole organ of
swimming, so here it is developed, though in an inferior degree, to compensate in some
measure for the feeble condition of the terminal fins ; and we may consequently conclude
that the locomotion of the Cranchice in the watery element is principally in the retro-
grade direction.

The brachial suckers are pedunculate, and arranged in a double alternate series along
the margin of each arm ; the interspace is wider than usual, and from the semitrans-
parency of the part in this small Cephalopod, the gangliated nerve which supphes the
part was beautifully distinct, as seen by transmitted light under the lens, running along
the centre of this part. The tentacles are relatively thicker than in any other Decapo-
dous Cephalopod, forming a remarkable contrast to the extremely slender and elongated
ones in the genus Loligopsis. The suckers, which are irregularly clustered at the slightly
expanded extremities, are much smaller than those of the arms, but are also peduncu-
lated ; the extremities of the tentacles are fringed on both sides with a thin entire narrow
membrane : the nerve which runs along the middle of these parts is a simple opake chord
where it is lodged in the stem, but becomes enlarged and knotty at the acetabuUferous
extremity.

The mandibles were protruded in our specimen to an extent which seemed to have
been produced by accidental compression. They were composed of a thin horny sub-
stance, of a brown colour, at the sharp-pointed extremities, and along the smooth tren-
chant margins, but elsewhere colourless. The jaws were surrounded by a thick, plicated,
but not papillose, internal Up, and by the outer thin membranous fold above mentioned.
The infundibtdum was of small size, and projected in the usual situation from the man-
tle ; it differed from the same part in the genus Loligo, in being obliquely truncate at the
extremity, in such a direction that the dorsal parietes were folded down at this part,
and overlapped the ventral, as shown in the magnified figure. On laying open the ventral
parietes of the mantle, we found that the base of the funnel was not articulated by
lateral moveable ball and socket joints to the internal surface of the ventro-lateral parts
of the mantle, but that its ventral parietes became expanded, thin, and transparent, and
were inserted into, and became continuous with, the corresponding parts of the mantle.
According to Rathke, the funnel is attached in a similar manner by the adhesion of the
ventro-lateral parts of its bases to the corresponding parts of the mantle in the genus
Loligopsis. In all the other genera of Decapodous Cephalopods the funnel is articulated
to the mantle at the exterior part of its base by two enarthrodial joints, the projection
being on the mantle, and the socket on the funnel ; both parts of the joint are com-
posed of cartilage, covered by a fine smooth synovial membrane ; but here we have a

108 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

singular exception to all other enarthrodial joints, for the synovial membrane does not
form a shut sac, but is continuous with the mucous membrane lining the interior of the
mantle. The convex cartilage is of an oval form in the Cuttle-fish ; in the Calamaries
(Loligo) it forms an elongated ridge ; in the genus Onychoteuthis the articular ridges
commence at the anterior margin of the mantle, and extend one third of the way down
the sac, being formed by two thin lateral cartilaginous lamina;, placed rather towards the
ventral aspect of the mantle ; an elevated groove in the corresponding side of the funnel
plays upon each of these ridges ; but in the genus Loligopsis the sides of the funnel adhere
to the corresponding cartilaginous lamiiKe ; these which have been supposed to be ano-
malous and peculiar to that genus differ from the lateral cartilages of other Decapodous
Cephalopods only in their greater length and tuberculated form. In the Cranchia these
cartilages are entirely wanting, as in the Octopodous Dibranchiata.

With respect to the anatomy of the Cranchia, I can only state that it possesses two
gills, which are provided with branchial ventricles, but that these are without fleshy
appendages ; and that it has two large inferior salivary glands. The decomposed state
of the digestive and generative viscera in the present specimen prevented any satisfac-
tory observations being made upon them.

From the preceding description it will be evident that the genus Cranchia differs from
Loligo in particulars of sufficient importance to justify a generic separation, and that in
the attachment of the funnel to the mantle, and in the absence of appendages to the
branchial ventricles, it is allied to the genus Loligopsis, which it also resembles in the
rounded form and terminal position of the fins. From this genus, however, it is distin-
guished by the adhesion of the mantle to the head, by the presence of the infundibular
valve, by the comparative strength and shortness of the tentacles, and by the webs
extended between the first, second, and third arms.

The four specimens of the small species of Loligo, which is the second on the list of
Mr. Bennett's Cephalopods, belong to a species hitherto undescribed, and which, from
the peculiar breadth of the head, I propose to call laticeps'. The diminutive size of these
specimens, the largest of which measures only \'r inch from the extremity of the mantle
to the end of the outstretched tentacle, suggested at first a denomination indicative of
that particular ; but when we reflect that in other genera, as Octopus, there have been
found species of still smaller dimensions than the one now described, it may ultimately
be discovered, even if adult, to be not the smallest of its genus. Mr. Bennett gives the
following note relative to the capture of these small Calamaries: — "April 5th, fine
weather ; wind east by north ; light and moderate breezes ; thermometer 68° to 72°., lat.
29° 17' north ; longitude 46° 57' west : at noon, among a mass of ' Sargasso weed,' took,
in my towing net, small Sepice of a fine purple colour with dark red spots."

' Pl.XXI. figg. 6— 11.

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 109

The specimens now present numerous spots of a deep purplish brown colour ; according
to the number and aggregation of which, the skin is darker or lighter. They occur in
greatest number on the back part of the head and trunk ; are wanting on the fins, and
on the under surface of the third and fourth pair of arms ; and are very sparingly dis-
tributed on the under part of the head and mantle, which are consequently of a light
colour : the most remarkable disposition of the dark pigment is that which the inner
surface of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pair of arms presents in the interspace of the suckers,
where it is disposed in broad, irregularly shaped, transverse stripes, corresponding to
each pair of suckers.

As the dimensions of the arms, tentacles, head, body and fins, are accurately repre-
sented in the figiu-es (PI. XXI. figg. 6 & 7.) subjoined, which is taken from the largest
of the four specimens, they need not here be detailed.

The head is slightly compressed, but broad ; supporting anteriorly, arms which are
relatively longer than in the Calamaries generally, the second and third pair being
nearly equal to the tnink in length. Laterally the head supports a pair of large and
well-developed eyes. The orifice in the integument leading to the capsule of the eye is
spherical, proportionally large, as in Loligo vulgaris, and in the axis of vision : the
sclerotica is perforated by a smaller aperture immediately behind the preceding, so that
the capsule of the lens is immediately exposed to the external surrounding medium ; the
lens is proportionally small, but attached to the ciliary body as in the Sepia: the pig-
mentum appeared to be disposed in thick detached portions ; it was hned anteriorly by
an opake white substance, which I conceive to be the true retina, although the prin-
cipal expansion of the optic filaments is posterior to the pigment. The hyaloid mem-
brane was, as usual in this class, a strong and very distinct transparent coat.

The body of the Lol. laticeps is subcylindrical and conical, gradually diminishing in
circumference till it terminates in a point at the posterior margin of the fins, which do
not extend conjoined together beyond this part, as in the Cranchia. The anterior margin
ot the mantle is free in the whole of its circumference, as in the rest of the genus Loligo.
The muscles which connect the head to it posteriorly have their origins extended along a
pair of approximate cartilaginous styles placed at the back of the neck : the anterior
part of the mantle is secured by the two strong pillars of the funnel.

On the inner surface of the mantle at its ventro-lateral aspects, are situated the two
elongated cartilaginous ridges, which are articulated, as in other Loligines, to cavities
of a corresponding form at the sides of the base of the funnel. The interior of the funnel
is provided with the usual valve, attached at the dorsal aspect of the canal. Two thin
membranes extend from the head to the back part of the funnel. The terminal orifice
of the funnel is oblique, but not to the same extent as in Cranchia scabra: in all the spe-
cimens I found four large sjjots of pigment arranged transversely below this orifice.
The fins are terminal and dorsal ; a space of about ! a line intervenes between their oii-
gni anteriorly, whence their bases converge and are united at the apex of the tnmk ;

110 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

their breadth and length are the same ; their superior contour is an obtuse angle. Tlieir
inferior margin is rounded in the Cranchia car diopter a of Peron, to which the species
under consideration has a superficial resemblance ; the terminal fins have a semicircular
contour, and their origins are widely separated anteriorly ; they also extend beyond the
termination of the trunk : the trunk is broader in proportion to the head, and does not
diminish gradually to a point, but is rounded off at the posterior extremity. The Cran-
chia minima of Ferussac may be at once distinguished from Loligo laticeps by the ex-
tension of the trunk beyond the small rounded fins, which gives a trilobate contour to
the termination of the body.

The gladius is proportionally as well developed in this small species as in the larger
Calamaries : it commences by a firm blunt anterior extremity, about one third from
which the sides begin to dilate until within the same distance from the posterior end,
towards which they converge to a point : the expanded part of the gladius is very con-
cave towards the viscera.

The mandibles have the usual form, the lower one overlapping the upper ; the dark-
coloured exposed part is of greater extent than in the Cranchia. They are surrounded
by a tumid inner circular lip, minutely plicated transversely ; the external membranous
lip presents a free and slightly indented internal margin ; its external margin is produced
into eight pointed processes, which, as in Loligo todarus and Lol. Piscatorum, are tied
down to the inner surface of the arms, and are without rudimental suckers.

Of the arms, the 3rd pair are the longest ; the 2nd, 4th, and 1st pair successively di-
minish in length, but in a very slight degree. The suckers are arranged at the margins
of the inner surface in a double alternate series, attached by moderately long and slender
peduncles, having a lateral insertion ; the diameter of the suckers is half that of the part
of the arm which supports them. In the tentacles the suckers are confined to the dilated
extremities, as in Loligo vulgaris : they are here arranged in three or four irregular series,
and present the following pecuharity : — the peduncles, which are at first filiform, dilate
at their commencement, before they are attached to the sucker, like the calyx of a
flower ; and the cavity of the sucker is continued in this dilated part (PI. XXI. figg. 8, 10.)
With respect to the anatomy of this minute species, we cannot be surprised that it is
in evei'y respect as complex as that of the largest of tlie genus of which it presents all
the external character : just as in the highest class of animals, the harvest-mouse exem-
plifies as perfectly the mammiferous type of organization as the elephant. The gills in
Loligo laticeps are attached through their entire length by a membrane to the sides of
the mantle ; the branchial hearts, to which the above connecting membranes have a re-
lation of coexistence, are provided with small fleshy appendages, as in other Calamaries,
and indeed as in all the Dibranchiata which have the funnel articulated with the
mantle.

nie divisions of the vena cava, and the extremities of the visceral veins, have thick-
ened spongy coats, with a tolerably smooth and equal external surface : the systemic

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. Ill

ventricle is lozenge-shaped, and elongated in the direction of the axis of the body, but
the two lateral angles which receive the branchial veins are not on the same plane, the
right being most anterior. The digestive organs presented no deviation worthy of
notice ; the anus was provided with the two small aliform valves or appendages.

The small species of Octopus' which next comes under consideration, is, like the
small Loligo above described, an inhabitant of the Sargasso or Gulf-weed. Two spe-
cimens of this Cephalopod were taken on the 5th of April, and the third on tiie following
day, in latitude 30° 31' north, longitude 44° 7' west. Mr. Bennett mentions them as
" small Sepice" of a purplish colour.

The Cephalopods of the genus Octopus are generally found near the coast, where they
seek their prey among the rocks, creeping on their eight legs with the body carried
above or behind the head ; they are less calculated for Uving in the open sea than the De-
capods, which are provided with an additional pair of fins. That singular oceanic phe-
nomenon, the Sargasso or Gulf-weed, serves however, in place of a shore, as a resting-
place to the small species now under consideration, and affords food and shelter to in-
numerable other curious Invertebrata : indeed an accurate fauna of this floating mass of
marine vegetables would be a most interesting addition to Zoology.

The largest of the three specimens of Octopus collected by Mr. Bennett measured
from the extremity of the sac to the end of the longest arm exactly an inch and a half,
the length of the sac or body being barely half an inch. The first pecuharity which may
be noticed is in the position and attachment of the eyes, which, instead of being con-
tained in a capsule as in the common Poulp, project uncovered from the sides of the
head in the form of large dark-coloured spherical bodies : in this structure we are re-
minded of the Nautilus, in which the organs of vision not only project from the sides of
the head, but are supported on peduncles : the prominence of the eye-balls in the
Argonauta, and still more in the Octopus hyalinus, is an approximation to the struc-
ture just described in the present species. Those alone, who have witnessed the per-
severing activity, power, and velocity of motion exercised by the Octopus when en-
gaged in its destructive practices amongst a shoal of fishes, and who have seen it with
its beak buried deep in the flesh of a victim held fast in the irresistible embrace of its
numerous arms, in an instant simultaneously dissolve the attachment of its thousand
suckers, and, disengaging itself from its prey, dart like an arrow from the net that has
been cautiously moved towards it for its capture, can form an adequate idea of the
acuteness of visual perception and powers of action with which this singular and un-
shapely Cephalopod is endowed.

In the present species the form of the body is ventricose, but slightly tapering to its ex-
tremity ; the mantle is connected by a broad continuation of the integument to the back

' PI. XXI. figg. 12, 13.

VOL. II. PART II. Q

112 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

of the head ; the greatest breadth of the body is 4 lines ; the breadth of the head, in-
cluding the eyes, is half an inch. Of the eight arms which radiate from the anterior
part of the head, the first or dorsal pair is the longest, as is the case in many species
of Octopus ; the second pair is nearly the same length as the first ; the third pair, which
is commonly the longest in the Decapods, is here scarcely half the length of the first ;
the fom-th pair is nearly two thirds the length of the first.

The musculo-membranous web which is usually extended between the bases of all
the arms in the Octopi, is in this species developed to the ordinary extent between the
four dorsal arms only : the webs between the second and third, and the third and fourth
arms are very short ; that between the fourth pair is wanting. From this peculiarity I
propose to name the species Octopus semipalmatus. The suckers are sessile, and are
arranged in a double close-set alternate series on the margins of the internal surface of
the arms, with a broader interspace than is usually observed (figg. 12, 13. PI. XXI.)

The eyes are of proportionally large size, and present a dark colour, in consequence
of the pigment shining through the sclerotic coat. The sclerotic is perforated by a cir-
cular aperture in the usual situation ; and as the dermal cornea, which covers the ante-
rior part of the sclerotica in the common Poulp, is absent in this species, the capsule of
the crystalline lens is exposed, as in the Nautilus, to the sea-water. The funnel has the
usual exterior form : it is without a valve ; but at the sides of its base there is a struc-
ture approaching to the articulation by which it is united to the mantle in the Decapo-
dous tribe of Cephalopods. Immediately above the insertion of each lateral pillar there
is a small transverse crescentic ridge which rests upon a similar ridge projecting from
the side of the mantle (see a, b, fig. 13. PI. XXI.) ; neither of these prominences however
is supported by cartilage, as in the Decapoda. In the Octopus catenulatus there is a
similar structure, but the projection on the mantle is shorter and more prominent ; in
the Argonauta the articulation of the sides of the funnel is still more complete, and is
constant in all the known species of that genus'.

With respect to the anatomy of this small Cephalopod it may be observed, that in
the presence of a crop, in the lateral insertion of the gullet into that receptacle, in the
muscular stomach, the spiral laminated bag, and the folded intestine, it accords with
the generic type of structure presented in the common Poulp {Octopus vulgaris, Cuv.).
The ink-bag is similarly buried m the anterior part of an undivided large liver : the biliary
ducts are without glandular appendages : the folUcles appended to the branchial divisions
of the vena cava, are elongated, and hang from the exterior of the vessels ; the branchial
hearts are without fleshy appendages ; the branchias are connected by membranous
bands to the sides of the mantle ; the branchial lamina present a zig-zag folding, as in

' The preceding examples of the infundibular joints in the genus Octopus diminish the value of that cha-
racter as distinguishing Octjthoi- from Octopus. See Dr. Leach's account of Ocylho'e Cranchii, — Phil.
Trans. 1817, p. 295.

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 113

the Argonaut ; there are fifteen pairs in each gill. The peritoneum, or external mem-
brane of the viscera, was remarkably mottled with large purple-red spots : I have ob-
served the same disposition of a brown pigment on the peritoneum in the Argonaut(B\

The pigment which gave the purplish tint to the skin when the animal was alive,
appeared to have been driven from the surface; for on removing the cuticle, which was
remarkably thick and elastic in this small Cephalopod, only some small brown spots
were perceptible in the vesicular rcte mucosum : these were aggregated chiefly on the
dorsal aspect of the body and head.

As the generative organs were scarcely developed in either of the specimens, it is
probable that they may not have arrived at maturity, and the species consequently may
be assumed to attain a greater size than that of the largest individual in the collection,
which measures only 1 J- inch from the bottom of the sac to the extremity of the longest
arm. The prominence of the e3^es, the structure of the funnel, the proportions of the
arms, and the partial development of the interbrachial web, will however afford the
means of distinguishing this species when it is again met with.

The very interesting specimen of the Paper Nautilus, or Argonaut, which forms part
of Mr. Bennett's collection of Cephalopoda, is thus noted in his journal : —

"March 7th. Fine weather ; Hght and moderate south-east trade breezes ; therm,
from 81 to 84; lat. 4° 43' south, long. 17° 37' west. I did not capture a single spe-
cimen with the net during the day ; but at 8 p. m. I procured some small specimens of
Exocatus, and also an excellent specimen of an Argonauta : on placing it in sea-water it
expanded its tentacula, but did not attach itself to the glass, or move about. Early on
the following morning I found the animal dead in the glass of sea-water in which I had
placed it on the previous night, and on moving the shell to take it out, the soft parts fell
out. After the animal was out of the shell, a cluster of ova was seen attached to the in-
voluted part of the shell ; somewhat resembling, but in the recent state more beautifully
shown than in, the engraving of apparently a similar specimen in the Appendix to
' Tuckey's Narrative of the Congo Expedition.' On placing the shell in spirits, the
cluster of ova floated out like a diminutive plant of a pure white colour, presenting a very
elegant appearance. After being preserved a day in spirits, much of this beautiful ap-
pearance was lost. The body of the animal was of a dark reddish colour, which colour
was also given to the upper part of the shell, either naturally or imparted to it by the
animal ; the remainder of the animal was of a dirty white with minute purpUsh dots ;
and the arms were also speckled underneath of a similar colour : the suckers were white.
These cephalopodous animals are not (and I consider correctly) regarded as the true
inhabitants of the shell, but merely parasitical inhabitants ; and the animal not having

' A development of pigment on the serous membrane of the abdomen is observable in many fishes, and in
some reptiles, as Anguis fragilis, Ophisarus ventralis, and some species of Lacerta, Cuv., and in Agama atra,
where the peritonei! pigment is almost black.

114 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

the power of either producing or reproducing the shell, must be sufficient to decide that
the one usually found in it, is not the original inhabitant of the shell."

With respect to the remark with which my friend concludes his observations on the
present specimens, I need scarcely observe that there is no doubt that the determination
of the power possessed by the Ocythoe of reproducing, or otherwise, the Argonaut shell,
would be an experimentmn crucis, and settle the long-agitated question. I do not find,
however, among the notes left by Mr. Bennett in my charge, any other observations re-
specting the Argonaut than those above transcribed ; and the experiments liitherto re-
corded touching the reproduction of the shell by the Cephalopod inhabiting it, haVe been
deemed by the experimenters as proving that the shell is the veritable production of the
Cephalopod.

The shell of the specimen under consideration belongs to the species Argonauta Mans
of Solander, and the animal is the Ocythoe Cranchii of Dr. Leach, so called on the sup-
position of its being a parasitic inhabitant. It is worthy of remark, that in the present,
as in every other instance of which I have cognizance, where the Argonauta hians has
been taken with its inhabitant, the latter has invariably presented characters as speci-
fically distinct from those of the Cephalopods inhabiting the Argonauta Argo and Argo-
nauta tuberculata as are those of the latter from each other : and the same circumstance
holds good with respect to a nondescript species of Argonaut', taken by Capt. P. P. King
in the South Pacific ocean ; in which both the shell and its inhabitant difler specifically
from the three recent species hitherto described. I am aware that it has been urged by
the advocates of the parasitic nature of the Ocythoe, that the Argonaut shells taken
possession of by different species of Ocythoe in different parts of the ocean would be most
likely to be also of distinct species : but the constancy of the correspondence between the
Cephalopod and the shell, both as to specific peculiarities and size, affords strong pre-
sumptive evidence of their relation to each other being something more than mere acci-
dental adaptation^.

' This species I have called, from the colour of the animal and its shell, Argonauta rvfa.

^ Since the preceding observations were written, the following facts have been added to the natural history
of the Argonaut. M. D'Orbigny states that he has observed specimens of the Ocythoe in Argonaut shells, of
which the margin of the aperture was entire, and in a membranous or soft state ; whence he concludes that the
shell had recently received an addition at that part, and that this addition was due to the Cephalopod inhabiting
it. It is difficult to assent to the explanation of this fact offered by M. De Blainville*, viz. that the true con-
structor had been very recently expelled by the Ocythoe, for in that case the very delicate margins of the shell
would surely have been injured by the Cephalopod whilst violently expelling the rightful owner, and usurping
possession of the fragile shell.

Two experimenters (Madame Power and M. Rang), at different periods, and in different places, have broken
and removed portions of the Argonaut shell while inhabited by the living Cephalopod, and have observed that
the latter repaired the breaches by a secreted substance, not indeed similar to the originally formed shell, but
which one of the experimenters, M. Rang, compares in this respect with the shelly matter secreted by the

* Annates d' Anatomic et de Physiologic, Mai, 183 7.

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 115

The most interesting circumstance to be noted in Mr. Bennett's Argonaut, is its di-
minutive size, in connection with the large mass of ova which it has formed, excluded

Limaces to repair accidental breaches in their shell, and which also differs from the originally formed shell.
When, however, fractures occur near the margin of the shell, they are repaired by a substance identical with the
rest of the shell, as has been shown by Mr. Charlesworth *; but whether these rcjjarations are due to the Ce-
phalopod, or to some yet unknown MoHusk, can of course only be determined when the question is decided
respecting the real constructor of the Argonaut.

The true use and disposition of the palmated arms of the Ocylhoi- have been determined and described by
M. Sander Hang. The base of each of these arms passes out of the shell at the angle between the summit and
auricular process of the free margin, and the membrane expands upon the outside of the shell, and meets its
fellow at the flattened keel. These expansions are transparent in the living Argonaut, and are compared by
M. Rang to the thin lobes of the mantle which the living Cowry spreads over its shell. Tlius, when the Argo-
naut creeps at the bottom of the sea, it carries the shell above it, supporting it by means of the palmated arms,
and moves along, its head being downwards, by means of the other three pairs of arms. M. Rang, who has
long devoted himself to the study of Malacologie, and who is allowed by M. De Blainvllle to be ' parfaitement
au courant de I'etat de la question,' derives from the preceding observations a conviction that the Ocgthoi is the
true constructor of the Argonaut. M. De Blainville, however, sees in the palmated arms only the analogous
organs of the claspers at the extremity of the tail of the parasitic Paguri.

I have frequently, however, seen Paguri, and especially young ones, in shells very disproportionate to their
own size ; but I have never observed an analogous disproportion between the Argonaut shell and its occupant.
In a series of six small Argonauts, Cephalopods and shells, captured at the same time in the South Pacific
Ocean, all indinduals of the same species (Arg. rv/a, O.), but all differing by slight gradations in size, and of
which five are young, and without ova, and totally fill the shell, there is an exact accordance between the size
of the sheU and the size of the inhabitant ; a corresponding gradation of size is maintained in both. In a series
of several small and very young specimens of the Argonauta Argo, which I examined whilst they were tempo-
rarily deposited by Madame Power in the hands of Mr. Charlesworth, and which, from the shght difference
of size, must have exhibited stages of growth differing at most by a few days only, there was the same exact cor-
respondency between the size of the Cephalopod and that of its shell. Now to explain this accordance between
the Cejihalopod and shell on the parasitic theory, we must have recourse to the supposition that the Argonauts
change their shell at very brief intervals : indeed the chief business of their lives would be in that case to hunt
out, seize, and dispossess the (assumed, but yet unseen) true constructor of the shell, in order to present so con-
stant a harmony in the relative proportion of the Cephalopod and shell which my observations on two series of
two different species of Argonaut have shown to exist.

On the same occasion that I compared together the interesting series of the young specimens of Argonauta
Argo, I examined the small vermicular bodies supposed by Madame Power to be the newly-excluded young of
the A. Argo ; these were, however, young specimens of the parasite of the Argonaut described by Cuvier under
the name of Hectocotylus, which in the disposition of its numerous suckers, offers a remarkable resemblance to
the arm of an acetubuliferous Cephalopod.

I cannot help further observing that the apparent strength of the main argument for the parasitic nature of
the Ocytho'e, is its real weakness, since it arises from a view of analogy contracted within the artificial limits of
the systematist. The argument runs thus : Because the Ocythoi has no muscular attachment to its shell, and
because it is said to leave it and return to it at will, and to have no fixed relative position Q) to the shell, and
because there is no other testaceous Mollusk in the same predicament, therefore the occupant of the Argonaut
shell is a parasite. But surely we are justified in extending our views of analogy in such a question bevond the
limits of an artificial group, and we have not to look very far into the animal series before we find, in the Sir-

* Magazine of Natural History (New Series), 1837, p. o2G.

116 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

from its oviducts, and attached to the shell. When first captured, the ova were pressed
down into the back part of the shell ; but upon the removal of the superincumbent
weight of the animal, it would appear that their own elasticity, combined perhaps with
the absorption of fluid, and the coagulation of the albumen by the alcohol, had tended
to occasion their protrusion forwards.

The longest diameter of the shell is nine lines ; the transverse diameter six lines : the
length of the animal, from the fundus of the sac to the end of the longest arm (the se-
cond) , one inch four hues ; the length of the sac, from its fundus to the free margin at the
base of the funnel, five lines. The funnel extends beyond the base or uniting membrane
of the ventral pair of arms ; it is, as in the other genera of Octocera, unprovided with
an internal valve ; but is articulated at its base by two lateral joints to the mantle.
The account of this structure in the Philosophical Transactions does not convey an
adequate or correct idea of what the present specimen of Ocythoe Cranchii presents ;
there appears indeed to be a typographical error in Dr. Leach's description. I find on
each side of the base of the funnel, immediately above the insertion of the lateral mus-
cular pillars, a small firm fleshy tubercle, above which there is a small depression ; on the
inside of the mantle immediately opposite, there is a corresponding tubercle and cavity,
but their positions are reversed, the tubercle being above the cavity ; thus the promi-
nences in the funnel and mantle are reciprocally received into tlie opposite depres-
sions, and the funnel and mantle are locked together by a double ball and socket joint,
in the degree of apposition necessary for the complete fulfilment of the vigorous alter-
nating muscular actions on which the respiratory function depends (a, b, fig. 14. PI. XXI.)

The arms in Mr. Bennett's Argonauta Mans were not rigidly contracted, as happens
generally with those specimens which are immersed alive in spirits ; but were flaccid and
flexible, and well adapted for determining their exact proportions and form. The length
of the first pair was nine lines ; the number of suckers on each of these was thirty-six ;
they extend, as in Argonauta Argo, along the circumference of the terminal membrane,
but not to the same distance. I could not trace them with the microscope further than
about one third of the way down from the anterior margin of the membrane ; while in
Arg. tuberculata they may be traced along more than half the circumference of the velum ;

pulce, e. g., instances of soft-bodied invertebrates secreting as trae a shell as the calcareous Argonaut, yet having
as little of a muscular attachment or uniform position to the shell, and as much freedom of quitting their shell
and returning to it, as the Argonaut.

With respect to another argument*, in favour of the parasitism of the Cephalopod of the Argonaut, which,
from an imperfect knowledge of the circumstances attending the development of the ova of the Mollusca, was
supposed to be afforded by a tUfference in the size of the ova of the Ocythoe, and of that which Mr. Gray regards
as the nucleus of the Argonaut shell; I refer to it only because it has been adopted by M. De Bkiinville in
his resume of the Argonaut question as valid in favour of the parasitism of the Ocythoe : it has, however, since
been abandoned by its promulgator, being founded on erroneous premises. (See the Magazine of Natural
History, 1837, New Series, p. 247.)

* See Proceedings of the Zoological Society for September, 1834.

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 117

and in Arg. Arcjo they are visible to the naked eye, and extend round the whole of the
circumference of the same part. From this disposition of the suckers it would appear as
if the characteristic structure of the first pair of arms arose from their extremities being
bent back upon themselves and united to the stem by means of a thin membrane. These
membranes are most developed in the Mediterranean species, the Arcjonauta Argo, and
have been described by naturalists and poets from Aristotle and Callimachus down to
Cuvier and Byron, as serving the office of sails ; the animal being supposed to have the
power of rigidly extending the soft fleshy arms which support the membranes, and of
maintaining the latter tensely outstretched to meet the breeze. It is scarcely necessary
to observe, that the structure of the parts in question is incompatible with this hypo-
thesis of the use of the vela in navigating the frail boat of the Argonaut'.

In the present species the terminal membranes of the first pair of arms are relatively
smaller than in Arg. Argo or in Arg. tuberculata : in the latter they are broader than
they are long : in the Argonauta Mans they present contrary proportions. In the present
specimen in which the vela are beautifully entire, they measure from the commencement
of the reflected portion of the arm, (or what would be considered as the end of the arm)
to the lower margin of the web, four lines, their breadth is three lines. The length of
the second pair of arms is ten lines, the number of suckers, fifty-six ; the length of the
third pair eight lines, number of suckers fifty-two ; the length of the fourth pair seven
lines, the number of suckers twenty- eight.

Dr. Leach observes, in his description of Ocythoe Cranchii, that " all the internal or-
gans are essentially the same as in the Polypus." [Octopus of Cuvier, loc. cit., p. 294.)
We found, however, that the Argonauta Mans, like the Argonauta Argo, receded from
the naked Octopods, Octopus and Eledone, and approached the Decapods in the struc-
ture of the branchial hearts, which are provided with a fleshy appendage ; and in the
form of the appendages to the vena cava which are shorter and thicker ; and in the re-
lative position of the lozenge-shaped ink-bag, which is not buried in the substance of
the liver, but lies in its anterior concavity. The inferior salivary glands are also rela-
tively smaller.

The following difterences, as compared with the Octopus, occur in other internal or-
gans which adhere to the t}pe of structure which characterizes the Octopodous tribe of
Dibrancliiata. The crop increases in width as it approaches the stomach. The lami-
nated pancreatic bag is of a triangular form, and not spirally disposed ; the two simple
biliary ducts enter at its apex. The two oviducts are devoid of the circular laminated
glands which surround them about the middle of their course in the Octopus ; they are
also disposed in four or five convolutions as they pass belund the roots of the brancMte,
and they terminate at a greater relative distance from the base of the funnel.

' Since the above -was written, it has been ascertained by direct obseiration, that these vela, or rather vela-
menttt, have not only a relation of coexistence, but one of direct physiological import, to the development of the
shell in the Argonauts, seri-ing as the organs both of secreting and of retaining this part. See the obsen-ations
of M. Rang, Comptes Rendus del' Acad, des Sciences, Avril 24, 1837.

118 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

The affinit}' of the Argonauta to the Decapodous Cephalopods is further indicated hj-
the infei'ior development of the mediastinal septum which divides longitudinally the
branchial chamber. This septum in Eledone is complete and muscular throughout, ex-
cepting a very small proportion of its inferior part. In the Octopus, in which this
septum is well described and figured hyCuvier, as the " bride ante'ricure qui lie la bourse
a la masse visce'rale\" a greater proportion of the lower part is membranous than in
Eledone. In the Argonauta the muscular part of the septum is reduced to two narrow
and delicate strips, which arise from the posterior part of the cranial cartilage, descend
obliquely forwards, intercept the termination of the rectum and ink-passage, to which
they serve as a sphincter, and then expand in the vertical direction, to he inserted along
the middle hne of the internal surface of the anterior part of the mantle : a membrane
is continued from their upper part to within a short distance of the margin of the mantle ;
and another from their lower part extends downwards, and terminates opposite the base
of the gills ; the branchial chambers intercommunicate both above and below this sep-
tum. In Sepiola the muscles corresponding to the bride anfe'rieure of the Octopus are
developed in the same degree as in the Argonauta ; but the membranous part of the
septum above them is wanting, while that which is continued from their inferior mar-
gins is more complete. In the Calamaries both these muscles and the septum of the
branchial chamber are wanting.

With respect to the nervous system of the Argonauta, I find in a large specimen of
the Argo, that the brain, when viewed from the superior or dorsal aspect, presents, as in
Octopus, an anterior, white, flattened, tranversely oblong band, and a posterior raised
convex semilunar mass, which terminates by a semicircular border posteriorly, the ex-
tremities of which are directly continued, to form or join the posterior nervous collar
of the (esophagus. The great lateral nerves of the mantle come off from the posterior
suboesophageal mass, precisely as in Octopus ; and instead of extending down in a pa-
rallel direction as low as the roots of the gills, as represented in the splendid figure by
Delle Chiaie ', they diverge, penetrate the short muscles, analogous to the brides late'-
rales in the Poulp, and terminate in the stellated ganglions opposite the upper extre-
mities of the gills, and immediately below the base of the funnel : by some unaccountable
error, these nerves, in Delle Chiaie's figure, which some of our compilers have copied,
are made to come off from the optic ganglions. The lateral muscles above mentioned
are the analogues of the great shell-muscles of the Nautilus Pompilius ; they are more
strongly developed in Loligo and Sepia than in Octopus, but have the same origin in
each, the same attachment to the capsule containing the rudimental shell, and are al-
ways perforated by the great lateral nerves of the mantle : they are perforated by the
corresponding divided and ungangliated nerves in the Nautilus, in which these mus-
cles acquire the maximum of development. In the Argonauta, which has no muscular
attachment to its shell, and has no iiaternal testaceous rudiment, the corresponding

' Poli, Testacea Utriusque Sicilite, vol. iii. pars l""", posthuraa, 1826.

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 119

muscles have the smallest development, and the mantle-nerves which perforate them
are, prior to the formation of the ganglion, relatively the shortest that are met with in
the Dibranchiate order.

I carefully examined the ova of Mr. Bennett's small specimen, but obtained no re-
sults bearing upon the interesting question before alluded to, the development of the
embryo not having proceeded to the degree necessary for the appearance of the shell,
supposing it to be formed in ovo. The observations recorded in the 'Philosophical
Transactions,' by Mr. Bauer (1817), and in the ' Zoological Journal,' by Mr. Broderip,
(vol. iv. p. 57.) are, for the same reason, inconclusive as to this point.

The ova of the Argonauta Mans were nearly of the same size as those of the Arg.
Argo at a similar stage of development, viz. -^Vth inch in length, and -'-th in diameter ;
but they are of a more regular oval form, not tapering to the end opposite the attach-
ment of the peduncle. Examined with transmitted hght, they are composed of an ex-
terior, smooth, colourless, transparent, tough, elastic, cortical tunic; next of a more
delicate membrane (the chorion), containing a straw-coloured transparent albuminous
fluid : in this fluid there was an irregular mass of semi-opake granules, in which was im-
bedded an opake dark vitelline body, surrounded by a membrane and pellucid fluid.
The form and proportion of the opake vitelline body and its transparent investing mem-
brane varied in size and shape in different ova : I have carefially figured one of the most
remarkable in this respect (fig. 1 5) , in which for a moment I entertained the exhilarating
idea, that the nucleus of the real shell was contained within it : on tearing open the ex-
ternal tunic, however, the contained substance turned out to be nothing more than the
yolk, separated by an intervening stratum of clear fluid from the transparent membrana
vitelU, and the whole substance of the opake mass separated into the flakes, granules,
and globules of oil, of which the vitellus is usually composed : there was not a trace of
any consistent parts of an embryo, nor the slightest particle of calcareous matter.

The mutilated Decapodous Cephalopod, obtained at Port Jackson, New South Wales,
and transmitted to me by Mr. Bennett, consisted only of the head and principal viscera,
and was consequently too imperfect to allow of its being satisfactorily determined, even
as to its genus. But as the suckers were arranged in a double alternate row on each of
the short arms, it was evidently not a Sepia of Cuvier, while the denticulated margins
of the horny rims of the suckers show that it may have belonged either to the genus
Sepioteuthis, F6t., or Loligo, Cuv. As in some species, both of Sepioteuthis and Loligo,
the outer hp gave off eight short processes, on the inner surface of which, near their ex-
tremity, were three or four small suckers, attached by peduncles, and having precisely
the same structure as those of the eight large exterior arms. In this repetition of the
ordinary series of cephahc prehensile processes, we may perceive an evident analogy to
the internal series of processes (labial tentacles) which exist in the Nautilus. In some
species of Calamary, indeed, as in the Loligo Pealii, Le Sueur, the acetabuUferous labial

VOL. II. P.^RTII. R

120 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

processes are more developed than in the present specimen from Port Jackson. In Lo-
ligo corollifera, Tiles, these labial processes have been compared by Bojanus to the in-
ternal shorter series of tubercles of a Medusa. But this structure illustrates only in a
very remote degree the relation of analogy subsisting between the Cephalopods and
Radiaries.

The structure of the tongue, pharynx, and glandular appendages, presented nothing
remarkable. The msophacjus was slender, and continued of uniform breadth, as in the
Decapods generally, to the stomach, which presented the usual gizzard-like structure.
In the Octopods, as in the Nautilus, the oesophagus dilates into a crop'.

The rectum in this Cephalopod was furnished with two lateral processes (fig. 16.
pi. XXL), of a flattened triangular form, and evidently adapted to constitute a valvular
apparatus for the protection of the anal aperture. They are attached at opposite sides
of this transversely extended orifice by their acute angles, from which a ridge is ex-
tended to the middle of the opposite base, so that when the valves are folded down upon
the vent (as in the figure above the number of reference,) the ridges fit into the aperture,
and accurately close it. In the Cuttle-fish {Sepia officinalis, Linn.) the corresponding
processes are of a rhomboidal form, with a thicker ridge on the side next the anal aper-
ture, which they are thus adapted to defend against any foreign substances which may
obtain entry into the pallial cavity. In Onychoteuthis and in Loligopsis the anal append-
ages are long and slender : in the latter genus Rathke^ compares them to antenna ; and
since in these Cephalopods they cannot act the part of mechanical guards, it may be in-
ferred that they perform the function of instruments of sensation, and convey the sti-
mulus to contract, to the muscular sphincter which closes the outlet of the alimentary
canal. It is interesting to notice the relation of coexistence which these appendages
bear to the lateral fins ; for they are only present in those Cephalopods which have
the power of propelUng themselves forward, and in which their use is therefore obvious,
as the orifices of the branchial cavity, in which the intestine terminates, are directed
forwards. In the Octopods the anus is not provided with these appendages.

Of the remaining viscera of the Decapod in question I have only to notice the repro-
ductive organs : these were of the female sex, and exhibited the ova both in the ovary,
where they were inclosed in reticulate calyces, as in most Cephalopods, and in their
passage through the oviduct, where the ova show the true character of their external
surface, which is perfectly smooth and poUshed'.

' It is evident from this difference of structure in the two groups of DihrancUata, that Aristotle took his ex-
cellent description of the digestive organs of the Malakia either from a Sepia or Teuthis : he says, " Mcra ck to
itTOfxa (■)(ou(nv olaofdyov fiuKpov Kal arevuv, ky^uiievov Ik Toiirov irp6\oj3ov fieyav Kai ■7rept(j)eprj opvSiiir)." — Hist, de
Anim., lib. iv. c. 19.

« Mimoires de I'Acad. Imp. de Petersburgh, torn. ii. (1833), p. 169. ' Ueber Perothis,' &c.

' I am not aware of any modern account of the mode in which the ova of the Cephalopoda are impregnated,
taken from actual observation. Aristotle, whose History of Animals is still the richest in details of the habits

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 121

The female organs of generation in the Cephalopodous class present five principal
modifications of structure. The ovarium is single in all, but sometimes, as in the
Cuttle-fish, it is divided by a septum.

1. In the Nautilus there is one oviduct, which traverses an elongated gland at its ex-
tremity : there is also a superadded nidamental gland, which has no connection with the
oviduct, but is attached, as in the Pectinibranckiate Gastropods, to the parietes of the
branchial chamber.

2. In /Sepia, Sepiola, Rossia, Sepioteuthis, and some species of Loligo, there is also
one oviduct with a glandular termination ; but the nidamental glands are two separate
bodies, detached from the mantle, and having no communication with the oviduct.

3. In Onychoteuthis, Loligo sagittata and some other Calamaries there are two distinct
oviducts, each terminated by a glandular organ, and also two separate nidamental glands.

4. In the Octopi and Eledoncs there are two oviducts, each of which traverses a glan-
dular organ, situated about the middle of its course : there are no detached nidamental
glands.

5. In the Argonaut the two oviducts are convoluted, and have glandular coats
throughout their extent,but without partial enlargements : there are no separate nida-
mental glands.

and (Economy of the Cephalopods, gives two descriptions of the act of impregnation. In the fifth book of the
Historia Animalium it is stated that the Polypus (Octopus or Poulp), the Sepia (Cuttle-fish), and the Teuthis
(Calamary), all copulate in the same manner ; the male and female having their heads turned towards one an-
<ither, and their cephalic arms being so coadapted as to adhere by the mutual apposition of the suckers. In
this act the Poulps are described as seeking the bottom, while the Cuttles and Calamaries are said to swim
freely about in the water, the individual of one sex moving forwards, the other backwards. Aristotle also observes,
that the ova are expelled by the funnel, which the Greeks call (pvirriTljpa ; and some, he adds, assert that the
coitus takes place through this part. From the position of the terminal orifice of the oviduct at the base of the
funnel, and the inclination of the penis towards the same part, the latter supposition derives some probability,
especially with respect to the Sepia and Sepioteuthis, in which the male organ is well developed ; but in these,
as in all other Cephalopods, true intromission is physically impossible. From the dense nature of the external
covering which the ova derive in their course along the efferent passages, it is very improbable that they can be
impregnated othersvise than internally, and before the nidamental covering is laid upon the thin smooth chorion
which invests the ovum externally, prior to its escape from the oviduct : the descriptions of Aristotle may there-
fore relate to some such imperfect connexion as takes place in the Salamanders, &c. It is worthy of remark,
indeed, that the differences in the situation in which the coitus is said to take place in Aristotle's description
corresponds with the modifications of the locomotive powers in tlie three genera treated of. It is only, for ex-
ample, in tlie Sepia and Loligo that posterior fins exist, enabling the individuals to swim forwards. The
second account of the impregnation of the Malakian ova occurs in the 12th Chapter of the 8th Book of the
Historia Animalium, where the generation of fishes is treated of. " When the.y (fishes) bring forth, the male,
following the female, sprinkles the ova with his semen. The same thing happens to the Malakia, for in the
genus Sepia, wherever the female deposits the ova the male follows and impregnates them : this possibly hap-
pens in like manner to other Malakia, but hitherto it has been observed in the Sepia Slone." The ova of the
Sepia, however, are precisely those wliich, of all Cephalopods, from the density and thickness of their coats, are
the least likely to receive the impregnating influence after having been excluded.

122 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

The Decapod here described presented the second type of the generative organs. The
ovarium was of an elongated form, and of great extent ; it was filled with reticulate ovi-
sacs, containing ova in all stages of development, and must have occupied nearly the
whole of the posterior half of the abdominal cavity. The single oviduct came off from
the middle of the left side of the ovary, and descended obUquely to the bottom of the
ovary, where it was dilated by a cluster of smooth and polished ova ; it was then bent
suddenly upon itself, and near the anterior extremity of the ovary entered the terminal
gland, which was expanded at its commencement, and after suddenly contracting, gra-
dually tapered to its free extremity. The ova presented an oval form, and were three
lines in length. The first or membranous portion of the oviduct had thin, semitrans-
parent, and very dilatable coats. The two detached nidamental glands were of a longer
and narrower form than in the Sepiae, but thicker, and of greater relative size, than in
the Loligines. They presented the usual transversely laminated structure and anterior
longitudinal fissure, in which the glutinous secretion is moulded into the thread-Uke form,
adapted to connect the ova together as they escape from the true oviduct, with which
these glands have often been confounded. But besides the above parts, which are evi-
dently subservient to the generative function, I found two small, round, flat, fleshy bo-
dies attached to the anterior extremity of each of the two nidamental glands. They
had no cavity, and were destitute of any duct or outlet, and had no other connection
with the nidamental glands than by the cellular tissue. Their texture was compact,
with a few minute cellular cavities about the centre : they were of an orange colour.
In the Cuttle-fish there is a corresponding body, similarly situated, but single and
trilobate, consisting of two lateral slightly compressed conical portions, united by a
middle oval lobe (see fig. 19. pi. XXL). The dorsal surface of the lateral lobes is flat-
tened ; the opposite side excavated to receive the superincumbent extremities of the
ovarian glands : to these glands the trilobed body is attached by a tough connecting
membrane. On making a section of a lobe of the body in question (as in fig. 20.), its
texture appears to be dense, and somewhat granular, with minute cells at the centre, which
contain a caseous substance. In Sepiolu the corresponding body is single, as in the
Sepia, and is similarly attached to the anterior exti'emities of the nidamental glands.
In the Loligines, and in the Cephalopod taken by Captain Ross on the shore of Boothia,
and which, being the type of a new genus, I have described under the name of Rossia\
there are two fleshy bodies, as in Mr. Geo. Bennett's Cephalopod. Each body in Rossia
(see fig. 18. hh pl.XXI.) is attached by cellular tissue to the anterior part of the corre-
sponding nidamental gland {g g), and is excavated by a deep groove, situated close to
the aperture of the gland. From this structure, and the position of the glands, we
might infer that they assisted in moulding the nidamental secretion, or in applying it to
the ova.

If we take into consideration the texture of these enigmatical and hitherto undescribed

' Zoological Appendix to Capt. Sir John Ross's Voyage.

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 123

bodies', their bright colours, and their relative position to the generative apparatus, we
may perceive an evident analogy between them, and the corpora succenturiata, or supra-
renal bodies of the vertebrate animals.

The preceding dissections, combined with those which I have made from time to time
on other Cephalopods, belonging to the genera Sepiola, Rossia, Loligo, Onychoteuthis,
Sepia, Octopus, Eledone, Argonauta, and Nautilus, have, in connection with physiolo-
gical views, suggested ideas of the natural affinities and formation of the different groups
of Cephalopods, which differ in some respects from those expressed in the previous clas-
sifications of these highly organized invertebrate animals ; and I am induced to offer
them to the consideration of zoologists, as they appear to me to be more in accordance
with the best principles now recognised in the subdivision of other molluscous classes.

The systems of classification of the Cephalopods existing in the best works of the pre-
sent day differ from each other in some material points. In one, e. g., no characters
of ordinal importance are recognised ; but the class is immediately subdivided into se-
veral minor groups, of the value of tribes or families : in other classifications, where a
primary division of the class into two or three orders is adopted, the characters are de-
rived sometimes from modifications of the locomotive organs, but more frequently from
different conditions of the shell : and one can scarcely suppress a feeling of surprise
that the modifications of the tegumentary system, the low relations of which are so
generally recognized in the subdivision of other classes of Mollusca, should be adopted
for the classification of the Cephalopods by so many systematic writers of authority on
Malacology.

Lamarck {Philosophie Zoologique, 1809,) divides the Cephalopods into three orders;
first, into those which have a multilocular shell ; second, those which have a unilocular
shell ; and third, those which are without either.

It is obvious also that the modifications of the dermal system mainly govern the dis-
tributions of the Cephalopoda in both editions of the Regne Animal of Cuvier. In the
edition of 1817 the Naked Cephalopods or Seiches constitute the first family, to which
the Nautili, Belemnites, Hippurites, Ammonites, Camerines, and even the Argonauts, are
severally regarded as equivalent groups. In the edition of 1 829 considerations of the
affinities indicated by internal organization prevail so far as to lead to the suppression
of the group of Argonauts, and its union with the Seiches. The other modifications
consist of the additions of families, including the later discovered chambered shells pre-
senting new modifications of structure, such as the Actinocamas of Miller, and the Ca-
marines, or microscopic chambered shells.

In 1821 Mr. Gray"" proposed a classification of the Cephalopods in which a primary
division into three orders was distinctly recognised, and names applied to them indi-

' Cuvier makes no mention of them, and they appear by subsequent anatomists to have been confounded with
the nidamental glands.

« London Medical Repository, 1821.

124 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

cative of modifications of the shell, which he terms ' Protector'. The Seiches, or Naked
Cephalopods of Cuvier, are subdivided into two orders, of which the first, under the name
of Anosteojphora, corresponds with the Poulpes of Cuvier, and with the Octopoda of Dr.
Leach's arrangement of 1817, presently to be noticed ; while the second order, Sepieg-
phora, is equivalent to the Decapoda of Leach, or to the remaining Seiches of Cuvier's
system. All the Cephalopods with chambered shells are collected together into a third
order, under the name of Nautilophora.

The reformed classification of the Cephalopoda contained in the Malacologie of M. De
Blainville (1825) ', though much more truly expressive of the natural affinities of its ob-
jects than that proposed by Mr. Gray, still reposes on the insecure basis of tegumentary
modifications. The whole of the Seiches of Cuvier are here raised to the rank of an
Order, under the name of Cryptodibranchiata ; and the author, guided by the knowledge
of their internal organization, rightly uses the characters derivable from the modifica-
tions of their internal shell, as indicative merely of the subdivisions of this order. M.
de Blainville made also another important step in advance, by separating the Cephalo-
pods with microscopic chambered shells, under the name of Cellulacea, from those with
siphonated shells, which he terms Polythalamacea. Subsequent researches have since
proved that the Cellulacea of M. De Blainville ought to be removed altogether from the
class Cephalopoda. The classification of the Cephalopods adopted by M. Ferussac in
the great work still in progress of pubUcation is essentially the same as regards its pri-
mary divisions as that of M. de Blainville, but the nomenclature of M. D'Orbigny is
preferred. All the Cephalopods, e.g., without chambered shells, form the first order, under
the name of Acetabuliferes ; all those having siphonated chambered shells form a second
order, termed Siphoniferes ; and the non-siphonated microscopic chambered shells consti-
tute a third order, under the name of Foraminiferes.

Now in consequence of the subordinate character on which all the preceding classifica-
tions are founded, there is a violation of natural aflSnities in the formation of the primary
groups. The genus Spirulc, e. g., as well as the Belemnites, and other congeneric ex-
tinct Cephalopods v.^th internal chambered shells, are united, solely on account of the
polythalamous structure of their shell, with Cephalopods of an inferior grade of organ-
ization, as the Nautilites, while they are separated from those which possess the dibran-
chiate or higher type of structure, — a type of structure which the laws of coexistence all
but demonstrate to have been exempUfied in the Cephalopods with internal chambered
shells, first quoted, viz. Spirula and Belemnites.

Tlie natural affinities of the Cephalopods seem to have been still less regarded in that
distribution of the species in which the Dibranchiate Decapoda are joined with all those
Cephalopods possessing chambered shells in one primary division of the class, which
M. de Haan° terms Adharentia ; and in which the Dibranchiate Octopoda are raised to

' In 1815 this author proposed a binary division of the Cephalopods, which he preferred to term Cryptodi-
branches, into Cryptodibranches nus and Cryptodibranches testacies. — Journal de Physique, t. Ixxxiii. p. 244.
« Monographia Ammoniteonim, &c., 8vo, 1825.

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 125

the rank of an equivalent section, under the name Libera. The primary division of
Cephalopoda, proposed by M. Deshayes', into the two orders Octopodes and Decapodes, is
essentially the same as that of M. De Haan, as the latter group combines the naked
or dibranchiate species with the Nautilacea of De Blainville.

Thus it will be seen that most of the preceding schemes are based on the modifications
of the shell or its analogue, and some of them, as that proposed by M. F^russac, have
been published since the modifications of structure in those Cephalopods which inhabit an
external chambered shell have been pointed out. It is this circumstance which has
chiefly induced me to state here my views of the distribution of the Cephalopods, founded
in part on the dissection of the Nautilus Pompilius, and on a comparison of its organ-
ization with that of the Cephalopods with internal shells, so far as indications of their
structure can be obtained from the hitherto imperfect descriptions of the recent Spirula,
and from the remains of the Belemnites. But before I proceed to detail these views I
shall briefly adduce the few examples of the classification of the Cephalopods, in which
an attempt is made to distribute these highly organized Mollusks into groups founded
on considerations of structure of higher importance than tegumentary or testaceous
characters.

The first classification of this nature is due, as might have been expected, to a highly
accomplished classical NaturaUst, well versed in the zoological writings of Aristotle.
This Naturalist, Schneider, to whom we owe the best translation of the ' Historia Ani-
malium,' is the first of the moderns who attempted to revive the philosophical views
which guided the Father of Natural History in his distribution of the Lfalakia or Cephalo-
pods. For this group of Cephalopods Schneider proposed the name of Octopodia, compre-
hending therein the species in which two superadded elongated slender arms are present,
but which were distinguished by Aristotle from the ordinary eight arms, under the name
of ' Proboscides.' Schneider' divides the class into two groups, which are characterized
as follows : —

1 . Pedes octoni breves, promuscides bince, venter pinnatus, ossiculum dorsi. Ex. Sepia,
Loligo, Teuthis, &c.

2. Pedes octoni longi basi palmati, absque promuscidibus, pinnis et osse dorsali. Ex. Po-
lypus, Moschites, Nautilus (or Argonauta) ; and indicates a third, founded on Rumphius's
description of the Nautilus Pompilius, with the following character : Pedibus lobatis, seu
digitalis absque acetubulis.

The classification proposed by Dr. Leach^ which in one respect is inferior to Schnei-
der's, is also essentially based on the modifications of the organs of locomotion. In this
scheme Dr. Leach leaves entirely out of consideration the chambered shells, and appa-
rently restricts the class Cephalopoda to the naked species. These he divides into two

' Encyclop^die Method. 1830.

' Sammlung Vermischter Abhandlungen der Zoologie, &c., 8vo. 1784.

' Zoological Miscellany, vol. iii. 1817.

126 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

orders, according to the number of cephalic appendages, the presence or absence of pal-
lial fins, and the connexions of the mantle to the neck.

The same principles are adopted in the present classification of the Cephalopods in our
National Museum ; a third order being added to the Octopoda and Decapoda of Leach,
corresponding with the Polythalamacea of M. De BlainviUe, and characterised, according
to the structure of the Nautilus PompiUus, by many short arms destitute of suckers.
Weigman, also, in his Handbuch der Zoologie, (1832,) makes each of the two divi-
sions of Leach's Cephalopods equivalent to the Polythalamacea of De BlainviUe, which
he terms Nautilacea.

But the general organization of the Octopodous and Decapodous Cephalopods, and espe-
cially their respiratory and circulating systems, correspond so closely, and both at the same
time deviate so widely from the condition of the corresponding systems in the genus Nau-
tilus, that the inequality of the value of the three primary divisions of the Cephalopods
adopted in the synopsis of the British Museum must be obvious : characters, moreover,
taken from modifications of the locomotive and prehensile organs alone, or associated
with such minor particulars of organic structure as are apphed by Dr. Leach in his
subdivision of the Naked Cephalopods, can only be viewed as indicative of secondary
subdivisions of the class.

A mature consideration of the relations subsisting between the modifications of the
Cephalopodic type of structure presented by the Pearly Nautilus, and the sipkonated
chambered shell, has led me to perceive that the presence oi a siphonated chambered shell
of itself is not a character of ordinal importance : the organic conditions which may
justly be regarded as indicating ordinal distinctions relate rather to the amount of deve-
lopment of the chambered shell, and to its relative position, either as protecting, or
protected by, the soft parts of its fabricator. Wliere the chambered shell is Umited to
its hydrostatical functions, and is buried, hke an air-bladder, in the interior of the Ce-
phalopod, and is no longer subservient to its defence, we may infer that an ink-bag will
be superadded to compensate for the absence of a large defensive case ; and, at the same
time, that the relief from the incumbrance of a shell so developed will be accompanied
by an increase of locomotive powers, demanding those modifications of the respiratory
and circulating functions which are undoubtedly of ordinal importance.

Now as the Nautilus PompiUus presents an inferior or subdivided type of the respi-
ratory organs, and as the function of respiration in this species has not the advantage
of those superadded hearts for accelerating the course of the venous blood through the
gills wliich the naked and more active Cephalopods' possess, and as these most inter-
esting physiological modifications are related to the size and external position of the
shell, I feel myself justified in grouping with the family represented by this existing Si-
phoniferous species, the extinct Orthoceratites, Ammonites, and all other Siphonifera of
which the soft parts were, in like manner, contained in and protected by a chambered
shell. To the group thus characterised I have applied the term Tetrabranchiata, derived

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 127

from the number of the gills in the Nautilits'. The Cephalopods with internal cham-
bered shells, heretofore classed with the Siphoniferous Cephalopods which constitute the
preceding order, I would join with all the other Naked Cephalopods, to form a second
order, under the term Dibranchiata^, having reference to the number of gills, viz. two.
This number is constant in all the ' Seiches' of Cuvier, and is associated with the pre-
sence of two branchial hearts, besides the single systemic heart, and with an ink-bag:
there can be little doubt that the same type of structure is exemplified in the Spirula,
from what has been determined respecting its external characters^

The subdivision of the Tetrabranchiata must necessarily be determined by the modi-
fications of the shell and calcareous parts of the beak, since, excepting in one genus,
no other parts of the animals now remain for the study of the naturalist. With reference
to the higher or Dibranchiate order, as extended by the admission of the Spirula
and Belemnites, we may with propriety adopt the character afforded by the number
of cephaUc arms as indicative of a primary subdivision, and include the Dibranchiates
having internal chambered shells, with the Calamaries and Cuttle-fishes in a tribe called
Decapoda, or those which have two long peduncles superadded to the eight ordinary
arms. The character afforded by the internal chambered shell seems hardly of suffi-
cient value to separate the Cephalopods having that part, as a third tribe distinct from
the ordinary Decapods ; for the difference is at least as great between the minute
horny style of the Sepiola and the sepium of the Cuttle-fish, as between this latter
and the internal calcareous apparatus of the Belemnite. Moreover, Lamarck's figure
and the descriptions of the Spirula demonstrate so close a resemblance between its lo-
comotive organs and those of the Cuttles and Calamaries, as to afford additional rea-
sons for not placing them further apart than as families in the same tribe.

The tribe Decapoda of the Dibranchiate order of Cephalopods may be subdivided into
four families. Of these the Spirulidce, represented by the Spirula australis, Lam., must
be regarded as next in the order of affinity to the Tetrabranchiate group. The Belem-

' Memoir on the Pearli/ Naulilus, 1832, p. 5G.

- The introduction of these new words for the primary divisions of the Cephalopods into a science already
overloaded with Greek compounds, requires perhaps some apology or explanation.

The groups which the terms Dihranchiata and Tetrabranchiata respectively indicate are not equivalent to the
orders or primary divisions in any previous classification of the Cephalopods, and I could not, therefore, have
adopted the ordinal names of my predecessors without the hazard of ambiguity or error.

The order Dihranchiata, e. g. differs from the Cryptodibranchiata of M. De Blainville, and from the Acetalu-
lifera of M. D'Orbigny, in the addition of the families Spirulidie and Belemnitida ; and my Tetrabranchiata dif-
fers from the Polythalamacea and the Siphoni/era of the same authors, in the absence of those genera in which
the chambered and siphonated shells are internal. Under these circumstances, therefore, where a presumed
deeper insight into the organization and affinities of a class of animals leads to an actual modification of its
subdivisions, new terms for such modified groups seem preferable to the risk of confusion which would arise
from applying the same name to two different collections of objects.

' The discovery by Dr. Buckland, of the remains of the ink-bag in the extinct Belemnites, justifies the con-
clusion from the laws of coexistence, that these Cephalopods also possessed two gills and two branchial hearts.
VOL. II. — PART II. S

128 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF

nitidas, including the genera Belemnites, Actinocaviax, Pseudobelus, &c., offer the trans-
ition from the Spirulidw to the Cephalopods in which the internal shell is still calca-
reous, but in which the traces of the camerated structure become very obscure. Such
is the condition of the shell in the Sepiada, or third family, represented by the common
Cuttle-fish (Sepia officinalis, Linn.). Besides the character derivable from the modifi-
cations of the shell, the species hitherto observed of this family present lateral fins, ex-
tending the whole length of the mantle ; and the marginal horny lining of the suckers
is entire, or only minutely denticulated ; but this latter is a character rather of generic
than of family importance.

The fourth family of Decapodous Dibranchiata, I propose to term Teuthida;, from the
name revdoc, applied by Aristotle to the Calamaries or typical genus of the family. The
principal character of this family reposes on the horny condition of the shell, the rudi-
ment of which exists as a single lamina, more or less developed, and encysted in the
substance of the dorsal aspect of the mantle : the form of the body in this family is
mostly elongated and cylindrical, and the pallial fins are generally broad, shorter than
the body, and terminal. The genera included in this family may be arranged in two
groups, according to the structure of the funnel. In section A, or those in which the
funnel is articulated at its base to two internal ventro-lateral cartilaginous prominences
of the mantle, may be ranked the genera Sepioteuthis, Bl. ; Loligo, Cuv. ; Onychoteuthis,
Lichtenstein ; Rossia, Owen ; Sepiola, Leach. In all these genera, moreover, the funnel
is provided with an internal valve. In section B, or those in which the funnel is ad-
herent at the ventro-lateral parts of its base to the mantle, may be ranked the genera
Cranchia, Leach, and Loligopsis, Lam. The latter genus, besides the common absence
or loss of its superadded tentacles, manifests an affinity with the Octopodous Dibran-
chiates, in the absence of the valve of the funnel ; and in both genera the transition to
the same group is indicated by the absence of the fleshy appendages to the branchial
hearts.

The uninterrupted continuation of the mantle with the posterior part of the head or
neck, and the confluence of the palUal fins at their posterior extremities, which Dr. Leach
uses as family characters, are indicative of generic distinctions only : the proportional
length of the arms is even of still less importance.

The tribe Octopoda, besides the absence of the long peduncles, is characterised by
the absence of the pallial fins, and infundibular valve. I subdivide this tribe into the
families Testacea and Nuda. Of these the first is represented by the genus Argonauta,
and its affinity to the Decapodous group is manifested by the presence of appendages to
the branchial hearts, and by the ball and socket articulations of the funnel. The first
or dorsal pair of arms support membranous expansions for secreting, repairing, and re-
taining the shell.

The naked Octopods have all or part of the arms connected at their bases by a broad
web ; the first pair being elongated, and gradually diminishing to a point. The funnel

SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA.

129

is generally attached to the sides of the mantle ; the branchial hearts are without fleshy
appendages ; the biliary ducts without folUcular appendages ; the shell is represented
by two short, brittle, horny or gelatinous styles, encysted in the dorso-lateral parts of
the mantle. This family includes the genera Octopus, Leach, and Eledona, Leach. The
following is a tabular view of my classification of the Cephalopods : —

Classis,

<
Q
O

X
Oi
N
O

Ordines.

DiBSANCHIATA .

Tribus.

OCTOPODA

Familiie.
f Nuda

Genera.
f Eledona.
) \ Octopus.

"{Testacea I ^'^""^'l*^:

^ Decapoda >

. Teteabranchiata ' .

\ Bellerophon, &c.

/a / Loligopsis.
\ Cranchia.
f Sepiola.
Rossia.

Onychoteuthia.
Loligo.
L Sepioteuthia.

Sepiad(E Sepia.

Belemnitidte . . . . Belemnites, &c.
. SpirulidtB Spirula.

Fig. 1.
2.
3.

PLATE XXL

Cranchia scabra, dorsal aspect ; natural size.

Cranchia scabra, ventral aspect ; natural size.

Cranchia scabra, head, with the mantle, a, a, laid open to show the attachment
of the funnel b, by means of the muscular membranous processes or
' brides', c, c. Magnified,

Head and mouth of Cranchia scabra, showing the webs, a, connecting the six
dorsal arms ; the outer lip, b, the inner lip, c, inclosing the gaping man-
dibles. Magnified.

A small portion of the skin of Cranchia scabra, showing the denticulate pro-
cesses, highly magnified.

6. Loligo laticeps, dorsal view ; natural size.

7. Loligo laticeps, ventral view ; natural size.

9. A sucker of one of the short arms, magnified.

' The subdivision and grouping of the very numerous members of this order must repose entirely on a study
of the modifications of the shell and other enduring parts ; and I have here introduced provisionally the two
principal divisions as proposed by M. D'Orbigny, merely for the purpose of citing the principal genera in ex-
emplification of the Tetrabranchiate Order.

130 MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS, ETC.

Fig. 8 & 10. A sucker of one of the peduncles, magnified.

11. Head oi Loligo laticeps; a, outer lip, b, inner lip ; magnified.

12. Octopus semipalmatus, dorsal view ; natural size.

13. Octopus semipalmatus, ventral view, with the mantle laid open, magnified ;

a, the crescentic ridge on the side of the base of the funnel, articulating
with b, the corresponding cavity in the mantle : the other parts correspond
with those in the common Poulp {Octopus vulgaris).

14. Argonauta Mans, Sol., withdrawn from the shell; (three times the natural

size of the specimen figured) . The mantle is laid open to show the vertical
septum, and a and 6, the dislocated joint of the funnel of the right side.

15. An ovum of the same specimen, magnified.

16. The anal valves of a Decapodous Cephalopod {an Sepioteutkidis species?) from

Port Jackson. The upper figure shows them closed ; the lower figure, open.
Natural size'.

17. The organ of hearing of the Cuttle-fish {Sepia officinalis) : both vestibular

cavKies are laid open, showing the obtuse elastic processes which are in
contact with the capsule of the otolithe or calcareous body ; the capsule is
laid open on one side. Natural size.

18. Female organs of generation oi Rossia palpebrosa, Owen. Natural size.

a. Ovum in its reticulate ovisac or calyx.

b. Ovisac, in the act of discharging its ovum.

c. Discharged ovisacs.

d. Oviduct.

e. Terminal gland of the oviduct.
/./. Ova passing through the oviduct.

g. g. Accessory ovarian or nidamental glands.
h. h. Corpora succenturiata.

19. Corpus succenturiatum of the Cuttle-fish {Sepia officinalis).

20. The same ; one lobe bisected, to show its structure.

' As this sheet was going through the press, I received from Mr. George Bennett three entire specimens of
the Cephalopod from Port Jackson, of which the viscera are described in the preceding pages, proving it to be a
species of SepioteutMs.

^Aa,n^.r^i^/.^^.i'o/.Z^:ef./i /.W.

y^'fii<

It'

vjjy- ^.^

V» 1* .// A

.:7 J

R 0«m ,1,1

Ztn^r. jc.

[ 131 ]

X. Me'moire sur les Gerboises et les Gerbilles. Par M. Fred. Cuvier, Prof, de la
Physiologic Comparee, Membre de I'lnstitut, gfc. ^c. Communicated by Richard Owen,
Esq., F.R.S. &!c.

Read December 13th, 1836.

Des Gerboises.

DeS circonstances particuli^res, ayant depuis quelque terns appele mon attention sur
I'ordre des rongeurs, je n'ai pas tarde h reconnaitre de nouveau tout ce qui manque k
cette branche si importante et si etendue de la zoologie, pourque les el^mens qui la
constituent aujourdhui puissent Stre coordonnes avec regularite ; pourque dans la classi-
fication des nombreuses esp^ces de cet ordre, on puisse appliquer ces regies de la m^thode
naturelle, hors des quelles il n'y a que confusion et obscurite dans I'^tude philosophique
de ces animaux.

Si I'on voulait rechercher la raison d'un etat de choses si peu favorable k la connaissance
de ces maminiflres, tant multiplies par la nature, et qui occupent une place si elevde dans
ses vues, on ne la trouverait assurement pas dans les difficultes que ces animaux oppo-
sent h. leurs observations ; car il n'y en a gu^re qui ait moins de moyens qu'eux d'echap-
per h des recherches assidues. On la reconnaitrait plus surement dans I'influence
qu'exercent encore sur les meilleurs esprits les systfemes artificiels de classification, et
dans I'ignorance ou beaucoup d'entr'eux sont restes des principes de la m^thode natu-
relle ; qu'ils paraissent meme regarder comme un vain objet d'dtude.

Nous ne comprenons pas cette persistance dans une voie qui n'a point d'issue, h une
epoque ou la philosophic de son cote, et I'histoire naturelle de I'autre, out jet^ sur les
methodes une lumiere si vive. Si I'induction est la source la plus feconde de toutes les
sciences d'observation, quelle verite pourrait-on tirer d'un rapprochement de faits par-
ticuliers, sans analogies natureUes entr'eux, et tel qu'il existe dans ces syst^mes ima-
gines, lorsque la science ne faisait encore que de commencer ? Evidemraent aucune !
Aussi toutes les fois qu'en histoire naturelle des v^rites d'un ordre ^ev^ ont ^te concues,
c'est lorsqu'on a eu recours k des rapprochemens fond^s sur de v^ritables analogies.
Quand Linnaeus formait des families naturelles dans les plantes ce n'^tait pas k cause de
son systSme, mais malgr^ son syst6me. Buffon, Storr, Bodaert, Vicq-d'Azir, auraient
appliqu^ toutes leurs forces h. extraire le moindre rayon de lumiere des genres ou ils
placaient les Gerboises, qu'ils n'en seraient pas venus k bout.

Vicq-d'Azir, par exemple, avait associ^ k I'Alactaga et k la Gerboise, le li^vre sauteur
du Cap, le Kanguroo g^ant et le Potoroo, trois animaux qui sont devenus les types de
trois genres, et les deux derniers ont du ^tre transportes dans un autre ordre que celui

132 M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

Oil il les placait, il ne reste done plus de ce genre que les Alactagas et les Gerboises, et
c'est en eft'et des rongeurs qui reunissent les caracteres generiques de ces derni^res
esp^ces qu'il a fini par etre forme, et qu'il nous est offert dans le meilleur travail qu'on
ait publie sur les animaux qui s'y rapportent, celui de M. Lichtenstein, intitule, Ueber die
Springmaiise' , &c.

Lorsqu'en 1829, je publiai mon ouvrage sur les dents des mammif^res je n'eu k ma
disposition qu'un Alactaga de Barbarie de la grandeur du rat, et je donnai ses dents
comme tj^pe de celles du genre Gerboise, prenant ce genre tel qu'il se trouvait etabli.
Des lors cependant, il etait difficile de se defendre de quelques doutes sur la legitimite de
sa formation. On etait peu habitue k voir re'unis sous la m^me denomination generique
des animaux h cinq et k trois doigts aux pieds de derri^re, comme le sont les Alactagas
de Pallas, et la Gerboise proprement dite ; et ce qui ajoutait aux doutes, c'est que Pallas
nous apprenait, que sa petite variete d' Alactaga avait une dent de plus que les autres.

Je suis loin d'avoir pu faire une etude des nombreuses esp^ces de Gerboises, que
M. Lichtenstein de'crit et qu'il partage en trois sections d'apres le nombre des doigts
des pieds de derriere. Toutes n'ont k ces pieds que trois doigts k I'etat normal, et qui,
dans la marche ou le saut, portent sur le sol ; mais il en est qui n'ont que ces trois doigts
seulement ; ce sont ceux de sa premiere section ; d'autres, ceux de sa seconde section,
ont du cote externe du tarse un doigt rudimentaire de plus, qui ne s'etend point jusques
sur le sol, et ceux de la troisieme ont deux de ces doigts en rudiments, un de chaque
cote du tarse, qui ne prennent de part k aucun des mouvemens de ranimal.

Les dents que j'ai donne pour type de celles des Gerboises, et qui m'avaient ete four-
nies, comme je viens de le dire, par une petite esp^ce originaire de Barbarie k deux
doigts rudimentaires, c'est-^-dire par un Alactaga, sont tout-a-fait semblables a celles
du grand Alactaga de Pallas, ainsi que j'ai pu le verifier, et les analogies permettent de
penser qu'elles se retrouveraient avec les memes formes dans toutes les autres esp^ces
de la troisieme division de M. Lichtenstein. II y a plus, c'est que les tetes osseuses de
ces deux especes presentent tout-a-fait la meme structure.

Je ne connais point la Gerboise tetradactyle de M. Lichtenstein; mais j'ai pu me
procurer les tetes osseuses de deux especes k trois doigts ; I'une vient de son Dipus hir-
tipes (PI. XXIV. figg. 1 — 5.), et I'autre d'une Gerboise de Syrie indeterminee ; or elles
difl'^rent autant par leur structure et par la forme de leurs dents, des t^tes d'Alactaga
(PI. XXIV. figg. 6 — 9.), que les tetes de rongeurs d'une meme famille puissent difFerer
I'une de I'autre. Ce serait done manquer k toutes les lois de I'analogie, k toutes celles
de la methode naturelle, que de ne pas separer generiquement des animaux qui se distin-
guent par des modifications si profondes de leurs organes principaux, et I'induction nous
autorise aussi k eonsiderer toutes les autres Gerboises k trois doigts, comme semblables,

' J'ai eu le malheur et le tort de ne connaitre que trhs tardifement ce travail, U m'aurait aide du moins k
rendre plus complet ce que j'ai donne d'historique sur la Gerboise dont j'ai public la fi^re dans la 63^ livraison
de mes mammiferes.

M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES. 133

pour les caract^res g^neriques, aux deux especes qui nous sont connues, et k les reunir
avec elles dans le meme genre, auquel nous conserverons le nom de Gerboise {Dipus),
comme nous conserverons celui d'Alactaga (Alactarja) aux espSces k cinq doigts.

II nous reste actuellement h. faire connaitre en detail les faits sur lesquels nos deter-
minations reposent.

On sait que les trois doigts principaux des Alactagas, ainsi que les trois seuls doigts des
Gerboises, ne sont articules qu'^ un seul os m^tatarsien, et que les deux doigts anomaux
des premiers ont chacun leur os du metatarse, d'ou resulte que cet avant-derni^re partie
du pied est composee de trois os chez les Alactagas et d'un seul chez les Gerboises.
Les incisives sup^rieures et inferieures des Alactagas sont simples ; les superieures des
Gerboises sont partag^es dans leur longueur par un sillon. Les dents molaires des pre-
miers ont des formes compliquees qui rappellent peu les formes simples de celles des se-
condes. Elles sont au nombre de quatre k la machoire superieure, et de trois k I'infe-
rieure ; mais la premiere de la machoire d'en haut est une petite dent rudimentaire, qui
disparait probablement dans les vieux individus ; les autres, aux deux machoires, se font
remarquer par les contours, les ondulations profondes ou superficielles et sans regularite',
de la lame d'emaille qui les enveloppe, et qui changent d'aspect suivant le degre d'usure
des dents. Cette complication et cette irregularite, rendent si difficile une description
claire de ces macheli^res que je ne I'entreprendrai pas ; la figure de ces dents en fera
comprendre les formes et les caracteres beaucoup mieux que ne le pourrait faire mes
paroles.

II n'en est pas de mSme des macheli^res des Gerboises, au nombre de trois de chaque
cote de I'une et de I'autre machoire. A la machoire superieure elles prdsentent toutes
un pli d'email rentrant k leur face interne, et un k leur face externe ; mais ces phs ne
se terminent pas directement vis-k-vis I'un de I'autre, ils se depassent, et ceux de la face
externe penetrent derri^re ceux de la face interne. La premiere de ces dents est un
peu plus grande que la seconde, qui Test elle m^me un peu plus que la troisieme.
Quelques differences se font remarquer entre les dents de la machoire infe'rieure ; la
premiere des macheli^res n'est pas plus grande que la seconde, et celle-ci au lieu d'un
pli en presente deux k son cote externe, et la derni^re n'en presente qu'un seul qui est
de ce meme c6t6 ; elle n'en a point du cote oppose. Nous ajouterons que pour une
t^te de Gerboise, d'un quart plus grande qu'une t^te d'Alactaga, les dents de la premiere
sont d'un quart plus petites que celles de la seconde. Toutes ces dents macheli^res sont
k racines distinctes de la couronne.

La structure g^n^rale de la t^te des Gerboises et des Alactagas est ^videmment la
mdme, et se caracterise par la grandeur du crane, la bri^vet^ du museau, et surtout la
grande largeur du trou sous-orbitaire, ou plutot de I'ouverture ante-orbitaire ; mais les
tetes de ces deux genres different les unes des autres par des points importants. Ce
qui frappe au premier regard lorsqu'on les compare I'une k I'autre, c'est la grande largeur
posterieure de celles des Gerboises, causee par le d^veloppement enorme de la caisse, et

134 M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

de toutes les parties osseuses de I'oreille : cette caisse en efFet depasse de beaucoup
I'occipital et s'etend lateralement jusqu'au niveau de I'arcade zygomatique, ce qui u'est
pas k beaucoup pr^s chez les Alactagas, ou toutes les parties de I'oreille sont r^duites h
des dimensions assez petites. Une autre difference, est la grande largeur de I'arc max-
illaire qui circonscrit exterieurement le trou sous-orbitaire et celle de la portion du jugal
qui borde cet arc, et qui servent I'un et I'autre d'attache aux muscles du nez et des
l^vres. Chez les Alactagas toutes ces parties sont en quelque sorte lindaires, et n'offrent
que d'etroites surfaces aux muscles qui y prennent leur point d'appui.

Mais ce n'est pas seulement la partie posterieure du crane qui, chez les Gerboises, sur-
passe ceUe des Alactagas ; toute la capacite cerebrale a chez les premiers une etendue
sensiblement plus grande que chez les seconds ; ce qui rend toute la partie anterieure de
la tete des uns plus lai-ge que celle des autres.

Enfin nous noterons encore I'effet de la proportion des machelieres sur le developpe-
ment des machoires inferieures qui sont comparativement beaucoup plus courtes chez
les Alactagas que chez les Gerboises.

Nous terminerons ces notes sur les Gerboises et les Alactagas par la description d'une
esp^ce d'Alactaga de Barbaric, pent ^tre deja indiquee mais non encore admise ; car
toutes celles de M. Lichtenstein sont Asiatiques.

Shaw, parle sous le nom de Jerboa' d'une petite esp^ce de rongeur, fauve en dessus,
blanche en dessous, a museau obtus, atres longue queue terminee par une meche de polls
noirs, vivant dans des terriers et sautant plutot qu'elle ne marche, dont les tr^s longues
jambes de derri^re auraient eu quafre longs doigts et deux tres courts, et dont les pieds
de devant n'en auraient eu que trois. A ces traits, tons les naturalistes ont reconnu
ceux des Gerboises ; mais comme il y avait evidemment erreur dans le nombre que
Shaw donnait des doigts, toutes les Gerboises en ayant cinq aux pieds de devant et trois ou
cinq a ceux de derri^re (trois longs et deux tr^s courts) on put faire plusieurs suppositions
pour expUquer cette erreur. Je pensai qu'elle tenait sur-tout h une faute de typographic ;
que le nombre des doigts des pieds de derriere avait ete indiqu6 comme ^tant celui des
doigts des pieds de devant, et je regardai ce Jerboa comme une veritable Gerboise. D'au-
tres ont pense qu'il y avait erreur dans le nombre des doigts des deux pieds, qu'il n'y avait
d'exact que les deux doigts rudimentaires des pieds de derriere, et que par 1^ ce rongeur
ne pouvait etre qu'un Alactaga ; et aujourdhui qu'il est certain qu'une espfece d'Alactaga
existe en Barbaric, cette conjecture me parait la mieux fondee. On peut done regarder
Shaw, comme etant le premier auteur qui ait parle de cette esp^ce. II ajoute h la de-
scription qu'il en donne et que nous venons de rapporter, qu'elle se trouve le plus ordi-
nairement dans les sables du Sahara, qu'elle aime les roseaux, et que partout oil on les
trouvait, on dtait sur de la rencontrer. Cette derni^re circonstance nous a determine a
designer cette esp^ce par le nom d'Alactaga des roseaux {Alactaga arundinis).

Sa longueur de I'origine de la queue a I'extremite du museau est de cinq pouces. La
' Voy. en Barbarie, trad. Fran9aise, torn. i. pag. 321 et 322.

M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES. 135

queue en a cinq et deux ou trois lignes. Les oreilles ont un pouce. Les tarses, du
talon au bout des doigts, vingt-deux lignes. Tout le dessus du corps est d'un beau gris
fauve, jaunatre sur les cotes et sur la queue, laquelle est termin^e par une m^che di-
chotome, brun-noir d'abord et blanche k I'extremit^. Les cotes des joues, les parties
inferieures du corps, la face interne des membres, et les cotes des fesses sont blancs.
De grandes moustaches brunes garnissent les cot^s du museau. Les incisives sont
blanches et unies. Les oreilles sont presque nues.

Des Gerbilles.

A c6te des Gerboises, viennent assez g^neralement se ranger dans les Catalogues
Methodiques, des rongeurs de petite taille, a longues jambes de derri^re, termine'es
comme les anterieures par cinq doigts plus ou moins developpes. Ces rongeurs se
trouvent design^s coUectivement par les noms de JerboYdes', de Gerbilles', de Me-
RiONEs', et plusieurs d'entr'eux ont ete consid^r^s comme de veritables Gerboises.

Les Jerboides forment la premiere division des rats de Pennant, ils viennent imme-
diatement apr^s les Gerboises, et parmi les quatre esp^ces que cette division contient,
nous trouvons le Mus tamaricinus de Pallas*, le Mus labradorius de Pennant', et le
Dipus Canadensis de Davies^ qui depuis ont ^t^ classes par plusieurs auteurs au nombre
des Gerbilles.

En formant ce genre Gerbille, M. Desmarest y admit le Dipus Canadensis dont nous
venous de parler, et il lui adjoignit le Dipus gerbillus d'Olivier', le Mus longipes ou
meridianus de Pallas', et le Dipus pyramidum de M. Geofiroy^.

lUiger n'indiqua comme Meriones que le Mus tamaricinus et le Mus meridianus.

Dhs les premiers momens ce genre fut egalement admis, et les esp^ces que d^s lors

' Pennant, Hist, of Quad., T.ii. p. 172.

» Desmarest, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., Table Methodique des Mammif., T. xxiv. p. 22. Paris, 1804.

' Illiger, Prodromus, p. 82. Berlin, 1811. La contestation qui s'est ^lev^e pour refuser Jk M. Desmarest la
premiere id^e du genre Gerbille n'est point fondle. C'est en 1 804 qu'il a propose le genre, et qu'il I'a nomme ;
et ce n'est qu'en 1811 qu'Illiger I'a etabli, en le nommant Meriones. Cette double formation d'un genre
qu'avait diSjk pressenti Pennant n'a rien qui doive surprendre k une ^poque oil il n'existait aucun rapport scien-
tifique entre la France et I'AUemagne. Illiger ignorait done ce qu'avait fait M. Desmarest ; mais ce naturaliste,
enlev^ si jeune Jl la science, a rendu assez de serv-ices ^ la zoologie pour que la perte d'un nom g^n^rique
n'affaiblisse en rien la reconnaissance que lui portent les naturalistes. '' Glires, p. 322, pi. xix.

* Hist, of Quad., T. ii. p. 173, No. 370. « Trans, of Linn. Soc, T. iv. p. 155, pi. \m. fig. 5 et 6.
' Bulletin de la Soc. Phil., No. 40, Voy., T. iii. p. 157, pi. xxviii. fig. a, b, c.

* Glires, p. 314, pi. xviii. B. " Catal. des Mamm. du Mus^e, p. 202.
VOL. II. PART 11- T

136 M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

on a cru devoir y rapporter ont ^te designees tantot sous le nom generique de Meriones,
tantot sous celui de Gerbille.

Lorsqu'on cherche k se rendre compte des motifs qui ont conduit k separer des Ger-
boises, auxquels ils avaient ^te reunis, les rongeurs que nous venons d'indiquer, pour
en former un genre k part, on n'en trouve d'autres que ces differences de physionomie,
qui sont toujours pour le naturaliste experiment^ des indices fiddles de differences plus
caracteristiques, que I'organisation mieux connue devoilera quelques jours.

En effet, Pennant ne fait pas connaitre les caract^res communs aux rats de sa pre-
miere division, autrement que par ce nom de Jerboide, que indique des rapports entre
ces animaux et les Gerboises ; et M.'Desmarest ne donne h son genre Gerbille, comme
lUiger k ses Meriones, que des caract^res pris de la forme du museau, des modifications
des doigts, de la queue, des oreilles, &c. C'est k dire, que des caract^res qui, pour ces
animaux, ne sont rien moins que generiques, zoologiquement parlant.

Plutard M. Desmarest ajouta aux caract^res qui avaient et^ donnes aux Gerbilles, le
nombre des os du metatarse, egal chez ces animaux k celui des doigts' ; par 1^ il di-
stinguait profondement les Gerbilles des Gerboises ; mais il ne les distinguait pas essen-
tiellement des rats, et elles redevenaient, ou plutot restaient de veritables Gerboides.

Ce ne fut que lorsque la forme des dents macheli^res commenca a prendre le rang
eleve qu'elle occupe aujourd'hui parmi les caracteres zoologiques, que M. Desmarest la
donna pour nouveau caracteres k ses Gerbilles'' ; il I'observa, dit-il, sur la Gerbille
Egyptienne ; mais il n'eut point I'occasion de I'observer sur les autres especes qu'il
admettait dans ce genre, et comme il n'en donna pas la figure, ou fut dans I'impossibilite
de se la represent er fid^lement, et d'en avoir consequemment une conception bien claire.

Depuis la premiere formation de son genre Gerbille, M. Desmarest a r^uni aux
especes dont il le forma d'abord, le Mus tamaricinus de Pallas, et le Dipus indicus de M.
Hardwicke, du quel plutard nous avons fait connaitre les dents^ qui sont en effet celles
des Gerbilles ; mais alors il ne distingua plus sp^cifiquement les Dipus gerbillus et
Pyramidum, les confondant dans I'esp^ce qu'il nomma jEgyptium. II avait aussi admis
comme Gerbille le rongeur que M. Rafinesque nomme Soricinus ; mais ensuite il le
retrancha de ce genre pour le ranger parmi les rongeurs Americains, indiques par ce
dernier auteur comme des Gerbilles sous les noms de Leonurus, de Megalops, de Hud-
sonius, de Macrourus et de Brachyurus* , lesquels ne sont vraisemblablement pas des
Gerbilles. Les especes introduites secondairement dans ce genre par differens auteurs,
avec plus ou moins de fondement, sont le Meriones opimus, decrit sommairement par
M. Lichtenstein^ ; le Meriones apicalis et Musculus, observes au museum de Berlin, et
brievement decrits par M. KuhP; le Meriones lybicus, dont le nom se trouve accompagne

' Nouv. Dictionnaire d'Hist. Nat. Edit, de 1817. ^ Mammalogie, p. 319.

' Des Dents, &c., p. 172. * American Monthly Magzine, 1818, p. 446.

» Voyage de Meyendorf, Supp. trad. Fr., p. 394. ^ Beitrage zur Zoolog. p. 70.

M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES. 137

d'une phrase caract^ristique dans la liste de doubles du cabinet de Berlin, par M.
Lichtenstein' ; une Gerbille de S^n^gal, et una esp^ce du Cap dont je fis connaitre les
dents" ; le Meriones gerbillus, que M. Riippell a d€crit et figure, et qu'il ne distingue pas
du Dipus gerbillus d'Olivier^ ; le Meriones robustus, d^crit et figur^ par le mdme auteur* ;
le Gerbillus Afra de M. Gray', qui en donne suffisamment les caract^res principaux ; et
enfin le Meriones Schlegelii de M. Smutz", que ce naturaliste nous fait connaitre par
une description detaillee, et d'assez bonnes figures.

Bientot apr^s son etablissement incertaiu sur les bases qui lui avaient d'abord et^
donn^es, le genre Gerbilles recut des fondemens plus solides. La description et la
representation des molaires de plusieurs esp^ces en lui assurant un caract^re qui
achevait de le circonscrire dans les limites positives, et de mettre k peu pr^s hors de
doute la l^itimit^ de sa formation, fit reconnaitre en meme tems que quelques autres
esp^ces y avaient ^t^ prematurement reunies, et de ce nombre fut la Gerbille du Canada,
que je considdrai comma le type d'un genre nouveau, auquel je crus devoir exclusive-
ment appliquer le nom de Meriones; mais ce travail n'a pu etre encore general, et
toutes les espfeces qu'on classe encore aujourd'hui parmi les Gerbilles n'y sont pas recues
4 beaucoup pr^s h des titres ^gaux.

II serait m^me fort a desirer que les recherches das naturalistes se portassent sur
les differens syst^mes d'organes da ces rongeurs, pour confirmer par des nouveaux rap-
ports les consequences auxquelles les premieres observations ont conduit, et pour
rendre plus completes et plus exactes, les id^es que nous devons nous faire de ces
animaux.

On n'a point, que nous sachions, da representation fidlle d'aucune Gerbille. Parmi les
figures qui en ont ete donnees, il n'en est point qui ait 6t6 dessinee d'apr^s la nature
vivanta ; toutes sont das copies de peaux, plus ou moins habilement preparees, et elles
ne font connaitre qu'approximativement la physionomie propre a ce groupe de rongeurs.
Les figures les plus anciennement connues sont celles du Mus meridianus, et du Mus
tamaricinus ; mais quoique passables, alias n'ont point ete faites d'apr^s des individus
vivans. La figure du Dipus gerbillus d'Olivier est une das plus artificielles qui aiant
jamais 6te donnea h I'histoire naturelle ; celle du Dipus Indicus, meilleure que la pre'-
c^dente, n'est pas non plus exempte de graves reproches. Enfin, les figures des
Meriones robustus et Gerbillus de M. Riippell, quoique preferable aux autres, ne repre-
sentent cependant qua das animaux facticas, et ce d^faut est plus sensible encore dans le
Meriones Schlegelii de M. Smutz.

Cast pour remplir la lacune que ces figures ont laissees apr^s elles que nous donnons
calla de la Gerbille de Burton ; alia a 6te faite d'apr^s plusieurs individus vivans rapportes
da la haute Egypte par ce voyageur et acquis par la menagerie.

' Verzcichniss der Dobletten, &c., p. 5. " Des Dents, &c., p. 172.

' Voyage au Nord de rAfrique, Atlas, pi. xxx. * Idem, p. 75, pi. xxix.

" Splcil. Zool., p. 10. ' Enum. Mamm. Capensis, p. 41, pl.i. etii. figs. 1 — 5.

138 M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

Quant aux organes en particulier, on ne connait encore des Gerbilles par des figures
que la t^te du Gerbille de Schlegel, et du Mus vieridianus, les dents des Gerbilles du
Cap, des P}Taniides, du Senegal et des Indes, et le canal intestinal des Mus meridianus
et tamaricinus. On en a de plus decrit les membres, et on a dit quelque cbose des sens
et des mceurs.

Pour ne point laisser notre travail preliminaire incomplet, nous rappelerons les carac-
teres qui sont donnes, par ce qui est connu de ces difFerens organes.

Les traits caracteristiques de la tete osseuse, consistent principalement dans la forme
oblongue des trous palatins et sous-orbitaux, dans la forme d'^caille de la partie su-
perieure de I'os lacrimal, dans la minceure de I'arcade zygomatique qui n'envoie qu'une
branche ci la machoire superieure, large, elevee, flechie en dedans, et se terminant sur
les cotes de la tete en une lame mince qui limite le trou sous-orbitaire. La caisse
forme un bulbe beaucoup plus grand que chez les rats, &c. (Smutz).

Les dents ne presentent pas moins que la t^te des caract^res particuliers. Les in-
cisives superieures sont partagees dans leur longueur par un sillon, et leur racine a son
insertion immediatement en avant des premieres molaires. Les incisives inferieures,
sans sillon, prennent racine h pen pr^s h. moiti^ de la branche montante de la machoire.
Les molaires, au nombre de trois de chaque cote des deux machoires, et qui ont des
racines distinctes de la couronne vont en augmentant de grandeur de la premiere k la
derniere. Dans les individus adultes, celle-ci est simple, celle qui la precede est com-
posee de deux coUines transverses, et I'interieure de trois. Ces traits sont ceux des
molaires des deux machoires, seulement, la premiere colUne de la molaire anterieure h
la machoire d'en bas, au lieu d'etre alongee transversalement, n'a plus que la forme
d'un simple tubercle. Dans les jeunes individus, la derniere molaire superieure a la
forme d'un trifle, et les colhnes de toutes les autres sont partagees dans leur milieu par
une echancrure peu profonde qui ne tarde pas a se trouver effacee. A la machoire
inferieure, c'est la premiere colline tuberculeuse de la premiere dent, qui unie k la
seconde, presente la figure d'un trefle et quelquefois cette premiere colline est echancree
en avant (F. C). Le canal intestinal, chez le Mus meridianus a environ 16 pouces du
pylore k I'extremite du rectum, 10 pour les petits intestins, et six pour les gros ;
I'estomac a trois pouces en suivant sa courbure du cardia au pylore ; sa courbure de
droite, ou le cul de sac, surpasse celle de gauche, et Tcesophague s'ins^re presque k sa
partie moyenne. Le csecum de la grosseur du petit doigt, est replie en demi cercle, il
se termine par une pointe obtuse et d'une structure tres simple. Le poumon gauche
est simple, le droit a quatre divisions : enfin, les polls de ce Mus meridianus, etaient de
deux sortes, laineux et soyeux. (Pallas.) Les clavicules sont rudimentaires : le
perone se confond avec le tibia dans toute leur moitie inferieure. (Pallas.) Le carpe
se compose d'autant d'os qu'il y a de doigts, et il en est de meme du tarse, c'est k dire,
qu'il y en a cinq aux membres anterieurs comme aux posterieurs. (Desmarest.) Les
yeux sont grands, les oreilles ovales, avec un repli transversal au devant du canal auditif,

M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES. 139

les narines sont recouvertes par un repli ^pais et mobile, le carpe et le metacarpe sont
nuds et pr^sentent cinq callosit^s ou tubercules. (Pallas.)

Quant aux moeurs, nous savons que les Gerbilles sortent principalement la nuit des
terriers qu'elles se creusent qui leur servent de retraite, et oii elles recueillent les epis
d'orge et de bl^ dont elles font provision, et ne depouillent des grains qu'ils contiennent,
que quand toute autre nourriture leur est interdite ; car elles se nourrissent aussi de
racines. (Hardwicke.)

Les rongeurs parvenus k notre connaissance, qui jusqu'a ce jour ont seuls present^s
les caract^res essentiels du genre Gerbille, sont : la Gerbille des Pyramides, celle de
rinde, une du Cap, et une de Senegal ; enfin, le Gerbillus Afra et le Meriones Schlegelii.

Des quatorze rongeurs donnes comme des Gerbilles, il n'y en a done encore que six
qui appartiendraient certainement k ce genre ; les huit autres ne pourraient y etre rap-
port^e qu'^ des titres plus ou moins douteux.

En effet, ce que Pallas nous apprend de son Mus meridianus, et de son Mus tamarici-
nus ; c'est que le premier a ses incisives superieures creuse'es dans leur longueur d'un
sillon profond, et que les molaires sont au nombre de trois de chaque cote de I'une et
de I'autre machoire ; nous voyons en outre, par la figure qu'il en donne' que la tete
osseuse de cette esp^ce est tout-k-fait semblable h celles des v^ritables Gerbilles : or, ces
rongeurs ont aussi des incisives superieures sillonne'es, et six molaires k chaque ma-
choire : il est done tr^s probable que le Mus meridianus est une Gerbille. Les proba-
bilit^s ne sont pas k beaucoup pr^s les m^mes pour le Mus tamaricinus. Tout ce que
Pallas en dit, c'est que ses incisives superieures sont sillonn^es, et nous voyons que
son canal intestinal presente les mimes formes, a la meme structure que celui du Mus
meridianus. Quant aux faits qui concernent les Meriones Lybicus, M.opimus, M.upicalis, et
M.musculus, ils sont encore moindre que ceux qui nous sont conuus sur le Mus meridianus.
M. Lichtenstein se borne el indiquer quelques traits de la figure des deux premieres, et
M. Kuhl ne parle que des caract^res spe'cifiques des deux autres, en outre, tons deux
n'etablissent les rapports de ces animaux avec les Gerbilles que par le nora de Meriones
qu'ils leur donnent. II en est a peu pr^s de mime du Meriones robustus et du Meriones
gerbillus de M. Riippell, qui se contente d'en donner la figure et de faire connaitre leurs
couleurs et leurs difFerentes proportions.

Malgre tout ce qui manque encore, et tout ce qui serait necessaire pour etablir
avec certitude les rapports ge'neriques de ces rongeurs, nous les admettrons, quoiqu'avec
plus ou moins de doute, et k une exception pr^s, comme des Gerbilles : tons, si ce n'est
le Musculus, sont d'Asie ou d'Afrique, et I'ancien monde seul jusqu';\ pre'sent a donn^
des esp^ces k ce genre. C'est par ce motif que nous en retranchons cette derniere
esp^ce qui est du Bresil. Les esp^ces de rongeurs Ame'ricaines qu'on a voulu rattacher
aux Gerbilles, ont du toutes en etre retire'es, et les analogies nous font pre'sumer qu'il
doit en Itre de mime pour le Musculus.

' Glires, pi. xxvii. fig. xxv. 8.

140 M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

Ces retranchemens ne paraissent pas toutefois empecher ce genre de devenir un des
plus riches de I'ordre des rongeurs ; car le nord comme le midi de I'Asie nourissent des
Gerbilles, et on en rencontre dans les parties septentrionales, occidentales, et meridio-
nales de I'Afrique ; mais il n'est pas aise d'etablir les rapports de ces animaux entr'eux,
et de determiner exactement les esp^ces entre lesquelles ils se partagent.

Comme dans tous les genres tr^s naturels de rongeurs, les couleurs des Gerbilles
ne presentent point de caracteres tranches, elles ne different gu^re que par de simples
nuances du brun au fauve, et ne paraissent pas susceptibles de donner k elles seules de
bons caracteres specifiques : il devient done indispensable pour diviser les Gerbilles en
esp^ces de recourir aussi comme M. Lichtenstein I'a fait pour les Gerboises, k la taille,
aux proportions des membres, h celles des diverses parties de la tete, en un mot, aux
modifications specifiques des principaux syst^mes d'organes. Si nous examinons sous
ce point de vue, les differentes notions acquises h la science sur les Gerbilles, en nous
aidant des faits qui nous sont particuli^rement connus, nous distinguerons d'abord avec
beaucoup d'autres auteurs, mais contre I'opinion de MM. Desmarest et Riippell, le
Dipus gerbillus du Dipus pyramidum, le premier ayant la taille d'une souris, et le pelage
d'un jauue fauve, tandis que le second a la taille d'un l^rot et un pelage brun leg^re-
ment roussatre. D'ailleurs nous croyons retrouver le Dipus gerbillus, dans une depouille
de Gerbille, oii la t^te osseuse se trouve, et cette depouille ne differe en rien d'une peau
preparee, envoyee au Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, sous le nom de Meriones quadrima-
culatus (Ehrenb.) par M. Lichtenstein. Le Dipus pyramidum, dont on trouve deux
indjvidus dans les collections du museum, a tant de rapports par les couleurs et la taille,
avec le Meriones robustus de M. Riippell, que s'il n'etait pas necessaire de les comparer
par plus de points pour ^tablir avec une enti^re certitude leur identity spdcifique, nous
ne balancerions pas k les r^unir dans la meme esp^ce ; nous devons done regretter que
M. Riippell ne nous ait pas mis k meme d'etablir cette comparaison en ne se bornant
pas a publier une figure et une description specifique de le Meriones robustus, figure,
que d'ailleurs, nous ne croyons pas tr^s fidelement enluminee.

Nous avons moins d'incertitude sur le Meriones gerbillus de ce savant voyageur ; il
represente assez exactement I'esp^ce de Gerbille que nous avions designee comme du
Senegal, en faisant connaitre les dents ; et notre opinion se confirme par la possession
que nous avons acquise des depouilles et de la t^te osseuse d'une Gerbille qui, comme
celle de M. Riippell, vient aussi de Nubie, et ne differe par aucun point de celle du
Senegal.

La Gerbille du Cap, dont nous avons fait repr^senter les dents, le Gerbillus Afra de
M. Gray, et le Meriones Schlegelii de M. Smutz appartiennent vraisemblablement k la
meme esp^ce. Les trois individus qui ont ete design^s de ces trois mani^res venaient
de I'extr^mite meridionale de I'Afrique, ils differaient assez peu par leurs proportions
et leurs couleurs, et ils se ressemblent par les formes de la tete.

Quant k la Gerbille de I'lnde, elle ne parait point avoir recu plusieurs denominations

M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES. 141

specifiques ; et si le Mus meridianus a paru se r^unir k d'autres esp^ces, c'est sur des
fondemens si lagers que nous ne croyons pas devoir nous y arr^ter.

11 resulte de cet examen que les Gerbilles dont les caract^res ne laissent que peu
d'incertitude, ou n'en laissent pas du tout, se groupent en six esp^ces.

1°. La Gerbille d'Olivier, qui ne difF^re point du Meriones quadrimaculatus d'Ehren-
berg. 2". La Gerboise des pyramides, k laquelle se rattache peut-^tre le Meriones
robustus de M. Ruppell. 3". La Gerbille que je nommerai 'pygargue,' et qui est le meme
que le Meriones gerbillus de ce dernier. 4°. La Gerbille Africaine, que je ne distingue
pas de celle de Schlegel. 5". La Gerbille de I'lnde ; et, 6°. Enfin, la Gerbille du midi ou
Zird. Nous ajouterons k ces six esp^ces anciennes, la description des trois especes
nouvelles, la Gerbille k queue courte du Cap, la Gerbille otarie de I'lnde, et la Gerbille de
Burton du Sennard ; et, enfin, nous donnerons I'indication de deux autres remarquables
par leur grandeur ; mais dans une note seulement et avec une figure. Nous laisserons
comme douteuse toutes celles qui n'ont point et^ suffisamment caracterisees, pour
qu'aucune incertitude ne subsiste sur le genre auquel elles doivent appartenir, et sur
leurs differences avec celles qui sont bien connues.

Actuellement, et pour terminer ce travail sur les Gerbilles, nous aliens faire con-
naitre les observations que nous avons recueillies sur les especes que nous venons de
nommer, k I'exception toutefois du Mus meridianus qui ne nous est connu que par ce
qu'en a dit Pallas.

1°. La Gerbille Egyptienne. G. Egyptius, Desmarest. Dipus Gerbillus, Olivier.
Meriones quadrimaculatus, Ehrenberg. (PI. XXV. figg. 1 — 5.)

Cette esp^ce est en effet, comme le dit Olivier, k peu pr^s de la taille de la souris,
la longueur de son corps, du bout du museau k I'origine de la queue est de trois pouces
trois k quatre lignes, et sa queue est de trois k quatre lignes plus longue. Sa couleur
aux parties superieures est d'un beau fauve clair, elle est d'un blanc tres pur aux par-
ties inf^rieures ; les cot^s des joues, les membres, une tache au dessus de I'ceil et une
au cote de I'oreille sont egalement blancs. Les polls fauves sont tous gris ^leur origine;
mais ces deux couleurs finissent par s'effacer et par faire place a la couleur blanche ;
toutefois le gris disparait plutot que le fauve, comme on le voit sur les polls de cotes
du corps. Les polls tr^s courts de la queue sont fauves k sa partie superieure et blancs
k I'inferieure ; ceux de I'extremite en dessus, s'alongent et prennent une teinte noiratre.
De grandes moustaches blanches garnissent les cotds du museau, et quelques soies
s'el^vent au dessus de I'oeil. Ce pelage est enti^rement soyeux. La t^te osseuse et les
dents ont tous les caract^res propres k celles des especes de ce genre, comme on le voit
par les figures que nous en donnons, seulement, elles sont moins grandes que celles des
autres especes. La Gerbille Egyptienne etant jusqu'^ ce jour avec la Gerbille otarie
une des plus petites du genre.

2°. La Gerbille des Pyramides. G. pyramidum. Dipus pyramidum, Geoffroy.
Meriones robustus ? Ruppell. (Pl. XXV. figg. 6—9.)

L'individu type de cette esp^ce et rapporte d'Egypte par M. Geoffroy se trouve

,^^ ()L«J^A»^-

142 M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

encore dans les galeries du museum, et un second individu recueilli plus recemment en
Egypte, s'y trouve egalement.

En etablissant les caract^res de cette esp^ce d'apr^s ces deux individus, on trouve
que la longueur du corps du bout du museau a I'origine de la queue, est de cinq pouces,
que la queue a cinq ou six lignes de plus, que le pelage des parties superieures est brun,
et celui des parties inferieures blanc, que la teinte brune des flancs est plus pale que
celle du dos ; que la queue couverte de poils tr^s courts est brune en dessus et blanche
en dessous, et qu'elle se termine par des poils plus longs que les autres et noiratres,
mals h, sa partie superieure seulement ; enfin que les poils bruns sont gris k leur base,
ce qui n'est pas pour les blancs. Tons ces poils sont exclusivement soyeux. M. Geof-
froy n'avait donne que quatre doigts aux pieds de devant k I'individu qu'il decrivait,
parcequ'il ne tenait point compte du pouce en rudiment ; mais ce doigt existe chez
cette espece comme chez les autres Gerbilles.

Aux traites que nous venons de presenter, nous ne pouvons meconnaitre I'intimite
des rapports du Gerbille des pyraraides avec le Meriones rohustus. C'estlamemetaille,
ce sont les memes proportions et les m^mes couleurs, a quelques exceptions pres, que
nous serious tente de n'attribuer qu'^ I'enluminure du dernier. En eiFet, la queue de
celui-ci est brune en dessous comme en dessus, et les tons jaunatres de ses teintes
brunes semblent repousses par les analogies. Ces teintes, de plus ne sont pas conformes
a ce que dit M. Riippell de la couleur des parties superieures du corps de son Meriones
rohustus. Voici au reste ce qu'il nous apprend k ce sujet. "Meriones corporis colore
supra ex griseo et ochraceo fuscescente, notaei obscuriori, laterum candidiori. Gastraeum
crura et brachia parte interna sicut podia sordide albescunt. Auricula oblonga, acuminata;
Cauda crassa, apice subjloccosa, fusca. Pili subhirsuti."

Get animal avait six pouces six lignes du bout du museau ^ I'origine de la queue, la-
quelle avait cinq pouces six lignes.

3". La Gerbille PYGARGUE. G.pygargus. Meriones gerbillus,^aTp]pe\\. (PI. XXV.
figg. 10—14.)

Je suis malgre moi oblige de changer le nom que cette espfece a recue de M. Riippell
qui, le premier I'a compl^tement decrite ; mais le nom de Gerbille etant celui du genre,
ne peut plus etre celui d'une espece de ce genre. D'un autre cote', cette Gerbille repre-
sentait pour M. Riippell, celle d'Olivier, et celle de M. Geoffroy, ce qui certainement
est inexact ; mais la figure de son Meriones gerbillus est assez fidelement celle d'une
Gerbille du Senegal dont nous avons fait connaitre les dents, et dont nous avons la
depouille sous les yeux, et nous retrouvons aussi ce Meriones dans une Gerbille qui,
comme celle de M. Riippell, vient de la haute Egypte, et dont nous posse'dons aussi la
depouille.

II y a entre cette espece et la Gerbille Egyptieune de grands rapports par les couleurs ;
mais elles dift'^rent par la taille, et aussi par quelques unes des proportions de la tete.
La Gerbille pygargue a cinq pouces quatre h cinq lignes, du bout du museau k I'origine
de la queue, et celle-ci a huit a neuf lignes de plus, tout son pelage est de nature soyeuse.

M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES. 143

Les parties superieures de son corps, y compris la t^te et le museau, sent d'un beau

fauve clair qui palit un peu sur les flancs. Toutes les parties inf^rieures et les c6tes

des joues jusqu'au dessous des yeux, sont d'un blanc pur, et une tache blanche se

remarque au dessus de chaque ceil et derri^re chaque oreille. La queue couverte de poils

tr^s courts, est fauve en dessus et blanche en dessous ; mais elle se termine par des

poils longs qui sont rest^s blancs dans cette derni^re partie, et qui dans I'autre sont

devenus bruns. Les poils fauves ont leur moitie inferieure grise, h I'exception de ceux

des flancs qui sont blancs h leur origine ; les poils blancs sont enti^rement de cette

couleur, et ceux qui sont aux parties posterieures des cuisses debordant de chaque cot^

de la queue font paraitre le bord des fesses blanc, d'oii j'ai cru pouvoir tirer le nom de

cette esp^ce.

On verra comme pour les esp^ces precedentes, que celle-ci n'est pas moins une

Gerbille par les proportions des diverses parties de sa t6te osseuse que par la forme de

ses dents.

4°. La Geubille de l'Inde. G. Indicus. Dipus Indicus, Hardwicke. (PI. XXV.

figg. 15—19.).

J'ai peu de choses nouvelles h dire sur cette esp^ce. A en juger par un assez grand
nombre d'individus deposes dans les galeries de museum ; cette grande Gerbille, dont
tous les poils sont soyeux passerait d'un brun assez fonce h un brun plus clair teinte de
fauve, et par le dessin que nous donnons de sa tete osseuse, on acquiert la preuve que
sous cet important rapport elle ne diff^re point generiquement des autres Gerbilles.'

5". La Gerbille Africaine. G.Afra, Gray^. Meriones Schlegelii,Smutz. (Pl.XXVl.
figg. 5-9.).

C'est de cette esp^ce dont je crois avoir parle en decrivant les dents comme ay ant
ete rapport^e du Cap de Bonne Esperance par Lalande, qui en avait depose plusieurs
individus au museum d'histoire naturelle ; mais c'est M. Gray qui me semble avoir
donne le premier une description reconnaissable, quoique trop sommaire, et c'est cette
meme esp^ce que M. Smutz, qui ne la connaissait qu'imparfaitement par quelques mots
de risis, me parait avoir decrit avec un soin et des details parfaits sous le nom de
Schlegelii.

Cette Gerbille, dont je poss6de plusieurs individus, a cinq pouces six lignes du
bout du museau k I'origine de la queue, celle-ci a cinq pouces sept k huit lignes. Le

' A en juger par deux t6tes qui se ressemblent absolument, provenant, suivant toute apparence, de deux
espfeces rapporte^s par M. Ehrenberg, I'une de Syrie, I'autre d'Egypte, et aux quelles ce savant voyageur
aurait donn^ le nom de Mus ruficaudatus & la premifere, et celui d'fjypudeus obesiis a la seconde, U existerait
encore deux grandes Gerbilles, qui. par leur taille, surpasseraient celle de l'Inde, mais que je ne puis faire con-
naitre autrement que par la figure que je donne de I'une de ces tStes avec ses dents, ne poss^dant rien autre
chose de ces animaux. Voyez Gerbille ind^termiuee. (PI. XXVI. figg. 1 — 4.)

- C'est avec raison que M. Smutz se demande ce qu'est cette Gerbille de M. Gray ; car outre la description
peu circonstanciee que celui-ci faitde cette espfece, il donne comme synonyme le Mussericeus de M. Temminck,
qui n'etait point encore connu, et qui n'est peut-fitre point une Gerbille.

VOL. II. — PART II. U

144 M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

pelage enti^rement soyeux est en dessus d'un brun fonc^ qm prend une teinte fauve
sur les flancs. Les parties inferieures, les tarses, la face interne des cuisses, le carp et la
face interne du bras, les cotes de la tete et le dessus des yeux sont blancs. Les poils des
parties brunes sont gris h. leur moitie cachee, et leur autre moitie est annelee de fauve
et de noir, ceux des parties fauves ne diif^rent des premiers qu'en ce que les anneaux noirs
disparaissent. Ceux des parties blanches ne sont que d'une seule couleur. Tons ces poils
sont longs, doux et exclusivement soyeux. La queue revetue de poils courts et serr^s
est brune en dessus et blanchatre en dessous. De grandes moustaches noires garnissent
les cotes du museau, et de plus petites se montrent au dessus des yeux. Les oreilles
semblent proportionnellement plus ^tendues qu'elles ne le sont chez d'autres esp^ces.

Quoique M. Smutz ait donne de bonnes figures de la t^te osseuse de son Meriones
Schlegelii, je ne me crois pas dispense d'en donner une moi-meme, ne fut ce que pour
faciliter la comparaison des espfeces entr'elles ; c'estm^me par ce seul motif qui j'ai cru
devoir rapporter les caract^res specifiques de ce Gerbille Africain, quoique M. Smutz
les ait decrit avec tous les developpemens necessaires.

6°. La Gerbille a courte queue. G. Irevicaudatus. (PI. XXVL figg. 10 — 13.).

Cette esp^ce, dont les d^pouilles ont ete envoyees du Cap en 1834 par M. Verreaux,
et qui sont aujourd'hui en ma possession, difFere sur-tout de I'esp^ce precedente par une
taille beaucoup moindre et une queue proportionnellement plus courte ; mais elle en
difFere aussi par les couleurs. Cette Gerbille a trois pouces six lignes du bout du
museau k I'origine de la queue, et celle-ci n'a que deux pouces et demi. Sa couleur en
dessus est d'un fauve melange irreguli^rement de gris par la disposition particuUere
des couleurs sur les poils ; chaque poil est gris d'ardoise dans les trois quarts de sa
longueur, et d'un beau fauve k sa pointe. Lorsque les poils se recouvrent regulierement
les uns, les autres, le fauve domine, et le gris ne parait qu'ou ces poils s'ecartent ; mais
comme le fauve est peu etendu, le plus leger ^cartement des poils met le gris a nud, et
il en resulte ce melange par taches de fauve et de gris qui constitue la couleur habitu-
elle de cette esp^ce sur la t^te, le cou, le dos, et une partie des flancs. Toutes les par-
ties inferieures et les cotes de la tete sont blancs, et une bande fauve marque la separa-
tion sans toutefois etre tranchee, des parties superieures aux infe'rieures, et ce qui
caracterise encore cette esp^ce comparativement a la precedente, c'est que les poils
fauves des flancs sont uniformement colores, et n'ont point de gris k leur origine. La
queue est d'une teinte blonde en dessus et blanchatre en dessous. Tout le pelage de
cette espece est soyeux.

On verra que cette Gerbille ne diff^re pas moins par sa t^te osseuse de I'espfece pre-
cedente que par ses couleurs'.

7°. La Gerbille otarie. G. otarius. (PI. XXVL figg. 14 — 18.).

Jusqu'k present les parties m^ridionales de I'Asie ne nous avaient encore donne

' J'ai recu comme originaire de la presqu'ile de I'lnde, vine Gerbille qui ne me parait diiFerer en aucun point
de celle-ci.

M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES. 145

qu'une seule esp^ce de Gerbille. Nous en avons recu une seconde de la presqu'ile de
I'Inde : elle y a et^ recueillie par M. Verreaux, k qui nous la devons. Elie se caracterise
par la petitesse de sa taille, par la brievete de sa queue, et sur tout par celle de ses
oreilles, d'oii nous avons tire le nom d'Otarie par lequel nous la de'signons. La lon-
gueur de son corps, du bout du museau h celle de la queue, est de trois pouces, et la
queue a dix-huit lignes ; les oreilles ont h peine deux lignes en hauteur et en la'rgeur.
Sa couleur, semblable h. celles de toutes les GerbiUes, est fauve m^ange de gris en dessus
et blanche en dessous, ainsi que sur les c6te's de joues et sur les membres, la queue qui
n'est couverte que de polls fort courts est enti^rement fauve. Les polls fauves sont
gris dans la plus grande partie de leur longueur, le fauve se montre ensuite, et la
pointe d'un grand nombre est noire. Les polls blancs le sont enti^rement. Les'uns et
les autres sont soyeux ; il n'y en a point de laineux.

La t6te osseuse de cette esp^ce se fait remarquer pour la grande largeur de la partie
posterieure du crane, comparee k I'e'troitesse de la partie ante'rieure des frontaux.
8°. La Gerbille de Burton. G. Burtoni. (Plates XXIL & XXIIL).
Cette espdce nous parait enti^rement nouvelle, et comma nous la possedons vivante,
nous en publions une figure (PI. XXIL) exacte, afin qu'on puisse se faire une ide'e fiddle
de la physionomie ge'ne'rale des esp^ces de ce genre ; nous pouvons e'galement en faire
connaitre la t^te, les dents et le canal intestinal.

Elle a ^te acquise par notre menagerie de M. Burton, qui Pa decouverte dans le
Dahrfur, et nous croyons devoir donner h cette belle Gerbille le nom de ce savant voya-
geur par reconnaissance des soins qu'il a mis ^ enricher la Mazologie deplusieurs esp^ces
tout-^-fait nouvelles et fort curieuses.

Cette Gerbille a quatre pouces de Pextremit^ du museau h Porigine de la queue,
celle-ci en a trois environ ; la hauteur de Poreille est de six lignes ; la distance du bout
du museau h. Pangle anterieur de Poeil est de huit lignes ; la longueur de Pavant bras est
e'galement de huit Ugnes, et il en est de m^me de la longueur du tarse. Toutes les par-
ties supe'rieures du corps, le somraet de la t^e, le dessus des cuisses, sont bruns le
dessus du museau, les cot^s du cou et les flancs sont fauves jaunltres. Le dessus' de
Pceil, les c6tes du museau jusqu'au dessous de I'ceil, la machoire inferieure la gorge le
cou, la poitrine, le ventre, la face interne des cuisses et les quatre membres sont d'un
blanc pur ; la queue ^paisse et couleur de chair, est rev^tue uniformement de polls rares
et courts, brunatres en dessus, blanchatres en dessous. II n'y a partout que des polls
soyeux. Chaque poll des parties brunes est gris k sa moitie inferieure, et partage en
larges anneaux noirs et fauves h. son autre moitie. Aux parties fauves, les polls ne sont
partag^s qu'entre le blanc qui occupe leur moitid cachee et le fauve qui couvre leur
partie visible. Les polls blancs sont enti^rement de cette couleur. Les oreilles en
ti^rement nues sont couleur de chair. De tr^s longues moustaches, quelques unes
blanches, la plupart noires garnissent les cotds du museau, et on en volt quelques
unes au dessus de Poeil. La t^te osseuse et les dents, comme on pent le voir par les

14() M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

tigures que nous en donnons, ont tous las caract^res du genre. (PI. XXIII. figg. I — 5.).
Les dents appartenaient h un jeune individu, et leur usure n'avait point encore ete portee
fori loin.

Le canal intestinal (PI. XXIII. fig. 6.) d'egal diaraetre dans toute sa longueur a environ
dix-huit pouces du pylore k I'extremite du rectum ; quatorze pour les petits intestins et
quatre pour les gros. L'estomac a quinze lignes de longueur et quatre et demi dans sa
plus graude largeur. Son cul de sac, ou sa grande courbure differe peu en etendue de
la petite, ce qui fait que I'oesophague s'ins^re k peu de chose pr^s k sa partie moyenne.
Le caecum, qui va en diminuant graduellement de son origine k son extremite, se termine
d'une mani^re obtuse ; il a dix-huit lignes de longueur et trois et demi a quatre k sa
naissance.

Chaque pied a cinq doigts, les trois moyens sont a-peu-prSs de la meme longueur
aux deux pieds et les deux externes sont les plus courts ; le pouce des pieds de devant
n'est meme qu'en rudiment, et son ongle est plat. Des polls courts et raides garnissent
les doigts de chaque cote.

L'oreille ovale est garnie d'un epais bourrelet k I'entree du canal auditif, et une lame
saillante se montre au dessus. Les narines consistent en deux ouvertures ovales qu'un
tres petit mufle environne. La verge epaisse et obtuse se dirige en arri^re, et les tes-
ticules acquierrent un volume monstrueux.

Cette Gerbille, par sa physionomie generale, rappelle singuli^rement celle des loirs,
elle en a le corps ramasse, la tele arrondie et fine quoique un peu plus lourde, les grands
yeux, et presque les grandes oreilles ; mais sa queue n'est point couverte de polls longs
et epais, et sans etre aussi nue que celle des rats et ecailleuse comme la leur, elle s'en
rapproche par les polls tr^s courts qui la rev^tent uniformement ; ses allures sont aussi
plutot celles des loirs que celles des rats ; tous ses mouvemens sont vifs et prompts ;
jamais elle ne marche qu'a quatre pattes ; ce que Pallas rapporte deja de son Mus meri-
dianus ; mais d^s qu'elle s'arrete elle se tient debout sur ses longs tarses, sans pour ceia
s'aider de sa queue comme les Gerboises, et en retirant contre soi les pattes de devant.
Ces pattes ne lui sont point necessaires pour manger, elle saisit les alimens avec ses dents,
rongeant ceux qui sont trop volumineux pour sa bouche, et faisant passer de suite sous
ses molaires, les petites graines et tous ceux enfin qu'elle pent moudre immediatement.
J'ai tout lieu de penser que ses membres anterieurs, outre leur usage dans la marche, ne
lui servant qu'ji fouir. Sa vie est toute crepusculaire ; de jour elle se tient soigneuse-
ment cachee, c'est lorsque la nuit arrive qu'elle satisfait k ses besoins, qu'elle cherche
sa nourriture ; et comme les loirs et les rats, elle pent se nourrir k-peu-pr^s indifierem-
ment de substances animales et de substances vegetales. Plusieurs individus de cette
espece, vivant dans la meme cage, s'etaient mange mutuellement une partie de la queue.
J'ai lieu de penser que ces animaux vivent plutot par paires que par troupes. Tant
que les individus reunis par M. Burton ont ete plus de deux, ils ont vecu en grande
mesintelligence, et se sont constamment battus ; la paix a regne des qu'ils ont ete

M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES. 147

reduits h un male et k une femelle, et lorsqu'on partageait en deux le coton dans lequel ils
passaient la journee, ils travaillaient de suite k le rcunir pour n'en faire qu'un seul nid.

Ces animaux montraient de la curiosite' et beaucoup de crainte ; mais ils ne s'aperce-
vaient pas des mouvemens qui se faisaient mdme k une faible distance d'eux ; ceux au
contraire qui avaient lieu pr^s de leur cage, leur causaient un grand trouble et beaucoup
d'agitation ; mais tl I'instant meme ils s'approchaient du point oil le mouvement s'etait
manifeste', en cessant meme pour cela de manger, s'ils s'occupaient k satisfaire ce besoin,
et a la repetition du plus leger mouvement, ils fuyaient de nouveau.

Au total, ce sont, comme ^-peu-pr^s tous les rongeurs, des animaux d'une intelligence
excessivement bornee.

L'ensemble des f'aits que nous venons de rapporter et qui renferme, nous le croyons du
moins, les principaux de tous ceux qui sont connus, nous montre d'abord, que sur qua-
torze esp^ces, treize appartiennent aux contre'es chaudes, soit de I'Asie, soit de I'Afrique,
une seule vient du nord de I'Asie ; aussi est elle la seule qui ait deux sortes de poils,
des laineux et des soyeux ; toutes les autres ne sont revetues que de poils soyeux. Nous
voyons en suite que les differences dans la taille et dans les proportions de diverses par-
ties sont, comme celles des couleurs renfermees dans des limites assez etroites ; en
troisi^me lieu, il devient Evident, par les figures que nous donnons des t^tes, qu'^ I'ex-
ception du developpement de la caisse qui peut-etre extr^mement Vendue, comme dans
la Gerbille k courte queue, ou beaucoup plus restreinte, comme dans la Gerbille pygargue,
la forme ge'n^rale des tetes, et les rapports de leur diffe'rentes parties sont absolument
les memes ; et enfin les figures des dents nous demontrent que les seuls changemens
importants qu'elles eprouvent, consistent dans la disparition graduelle des sillons qui
partagent dans leur milieu chacune des collines dont elles se composent.

Terminons par quelques mots sur les rapports naturels de ces animaux.

Les tarses un pen plus longs chez ces animaux que chez les rats, I'instinct qui les porte
k se tenir debout sur leurs jambes de derri^re, les terriers qu'ils se creusent, leur vie
nocturne, mais sur-tout ce que quelques auteurs, trompe's par de fausses apparences,
on dit de leurs allures, et des rapports qu'ils ont cru apercevoir entr'eux et les Gerboises,
ont jusqu'^ present determine beaucoup de naturalistes ' k regarder les Gerbilles et les
Gerboises comme appartenant k une m^me famille. Or pour peu qu'on etudie avec
quelque attention ces animaux, on reconnait bientot que les rapports des Gerbilles avec
les Gerboises est bien moindre que ceux qu'elles ont avec les rats et les loirs. Inde-
pendamment de ce que nous venons de dire de la mani^re d'etre des Gerbilles, de leurs
allures, de leur mode de progression qui n'ont rien de commun avec ce qui s'observe
chez les Gerboises, nous ferons remarquer que les formes et les rapports des diffe'rentes
parties de la tete osseuse, ressemblent autant k ce qu'en ce genre on trouve chez les
rats, qu'ils ressemblent peu k ce qu'on trouve chez les Gerboises. Chez celles-ci en
effet, autant les os du nez et les frontaux sont raccourcis, autant ils sont alonge's chez
' lUiger, Prod. p. 81. Fischer, Synops. Mammif. p. 333. Latreille, FamiUe Nat. p. 56. &c.

148 M. F. CUVIER SUR LES GERBOISES ET LES GERBILLES.

les Gerbilles. Chez les premieres le trou sous-orbitaire, ou plutot I'ouverture ante-
orbitaire, d'une grandeur peu commune et d'une forme circulaire k cause du grand
ecartement de Tare que forme le maxillaire est lineaire chez les secondes ; chez ces
dernieres ce deploiement du maxillaire, en arc extr^mement elargi ofFre une tr^s grande
surface h. Tattache des muscles des l^vres et du nez, tandis que son extreme etroitesse
chez les Gerboises ne permet k ces muscles qu'un faible developpement, du moins en
epaisseur ; et toutes ces particularites propres aux Gerbilles, se retrouvent a peu d'ex-
ception pr^s chez les loirs, et surtout chez les rats. Si on ajoute k ces considerations,
que la structure des membres, et le canal intestinal des Gerbilles, different peu ou
point de ce qui s'observe chez les rats ; que les yeux, et le developpement de toutes les
parties des oreilles des premieres rappellent ce que nous voyons chez les loirs, on ne
balancera pas k retablir les rapports naturels des Gerbilles, en les rapprochant de ces
derniers animaux et des rats, comme au reste I'avait dej^ fait en partie mon fr^re dans
la derni^re edition du Regne Animal. — Tom. i. p. 203.

PLATE XXII.
Gerbillus Burtoni. Grand, nat.

PLATE XXIII.

Fig. I . Le crane de la Gerbille de Burton vue de profil.

2. Id. vue en dessus.

3. Id. vue en dessous.

4. Les dents de la machoire superieure.

5. Les dents de la machoire inferieure.

6. Le canal ahmentaire.

PLATE XXIV.

Fig. 1 — 5. Le crane et les dents de la Gerboise k pieds herisses.
6et7. Le crane de I'Alactaga, J plus grand que nature.
8et9. Les dents du m^me animal, cinq fois plus grand que nature.

PLATE XXV.

Fig. I — 5. Le crane et les dents de la Gerbille Egyptienne.
6 — 9. Id. de la Gerbille des Pyramides.
10 — 14. Id. de la Gerbille pygargue.
15—19. Id. de la Gerbille de I'lnde.

PLATE XXVI.

Fig. 1 — 4. Le crane et les dents d'une Gerbille indetermine'e.
5 — 9. Id. de la Gerbille Africaine.
10 — 13. Id. de la Gerbille k courte queue.
14—18. Id. de la Gerbille otarie.

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[ 149 ]

XI. Description of a new Genus of Mammiferous Animals from Australia, belonging
probably to the Order Marsupialia. By George R. Waterhouse, Esq., Curator to
the Zoological Society. Communicated by the Secretary.

Read December 13, 1836.

Having, at different times, brought before the notice of the Society two specimens
of a small quadraped, apparently undescribed, I will now endeavour to point out its
generic and specific characters ; but before I proceed, it will be as well, perhaps, to
state what is known of the history of the two specimens in question.

The first was procured by Lieutenant Dale, of Liverpool, whilst on an exploring party
in the interior of the country at the Swan River settlement, and was discovered about
ninety miles to the south-east of the mouth of that river.

"Two of these animals," says Lieutenant Dale, " were seen within a few miles of
each other ; they were first observed on the ground, and on being pursued, both di-
rected their flight to some hollow trees which were near. We succeeded in capturing
one of them ; the other was unfortunately burnt to death in our endeavour to dislodge
it by fumigating the hollow tree in which it had taken refuge. The country in which
they were found, abounded in decayed trees and ant-hills." The second individual, I
am informed, was found in Van Diemen's Land' ; and others similar to it have been
seen in the act of burrowing or digging at the roots of trees in search after insects.
The favourite haunts are stated to be in those situations in which the Port Jackson
willow abounds.

To the genus of which the present animal constitutes the type, I propose the title of
Myrmecobius'.

Genus Myrmecobius.

Dentes incisores ^, canini r^, pseudo-molares |=|, molares |^ = 52.

O 1 — 1 o O O— O

Pedes antici 5-dactyli ; digitis tribus intermediis longioribus ; postici 4-dactyh ; digitis
duobus intermediis interiore longioribus ; externo brevissimo ; unguibus longis,
subacutis, subfalcalaribus ; scelides antepedibus longiores. Caput elongatimi, rhi-
nario producto. Auriculce mediocres, ad apicem angustiores et subacutae. Corpus
gracile. Cauda mediocris. Digiti Uberi.

' I cannot help suspecting there is some mistake in this statement, which, it must be observed, I have not
received directly from the person who first procured the specimen ; indeed it has probably passed through many
hands. Accompanying this specimen there was a skin of another animal (the Perameles Lagotis of Reid) a
specimen of wliich is in Lord Derby's Museum. This his Lordsliip received from Swan River.

* Mvp/ii){, an ant ; Biot, life, food, &c.

150 MR. WATERHOUSE ON A NEW

The upper jaw is furnished with eight minute, pointed, and slightly compressed in-
cisors, the anterior pair of which have their apices only apparent, being on a level with
the gum ; the three next pairs project slightly from the gum : after these follow two
canines, which are of a compressed and pointed form, and have their posterior outline
somewhat recurved. The false molares are also compressed ; their form approaches to
that of a triangle, having the apex recurved. The first two on each side have an
obscure notch anteriorly and posteriorly ; in the next pair these notches are more di-
stinct, but the central lobe is less than in the foregoing false molars.

The first pair of true molars are small and compressed, they have two minute tuber-
cles anteriorly, and two posteriorly ; these two pairs of tubercles are separated by a
considerable chasm, on the inner edge of which, and in the centre, another small
tubercle is perceived. The second pair of molars are of a larger size than the last-
mentioned ; their crown presents nearly a semicircular figure, and consists of several
obscure blunt tubercles, arranged in three principal masses ; one placed anteriorly,
another posteriorly, and the third internally. The third pair of molars are shorter and
broader than the second ; their crown consists of three large blunt tubercles arranged
in a triangle, and disposed in the same manner as the three masses of tubercles of the
preceding pair of molars. The fourth pair of molars are of the same general character
as the third. The fifth and last pair are very small ; their crown is of a triangular form,
and consists of three obscure blunt tubercles, two of which are placed in a line parallel
to the occipital portion of the skull.

In the lower jaw the incisors are about the same size and form as those of the upper,
if we except the front pair, which are large and compressed ; they project forwards, and
are somewhat recurved at the apex. The canines and false molars of the lower jaw are
also of the same size and form as those of the upper ; the last pair of false molars,
however, are similar to the preceding pairs. The first pair of molars are minute and
compressed, and the portion above the gum consists of three sharply-pointed tubercles
arranged in a hne. The second pair exceed the first in size, and exhibit three tubercles
as before. The three following pairs of molars are of the same character, but they have
each four sharply-pointed tubercles, arranged in a line, and some blunt tubercles situ-
ated at their base on the external side. The last pair of molars resemble the preceding,
excepting that they are of a smaller size, and possess only three sharp tubercles.'

In the lower jaw the posterior false molars have somewhat of an inward inclination,
but in the true molars this inclination is more evident ; indeed it appears as if the ex-
ternal sides of the lower teeth were opposed to the crowns of the upper ; but upon
examination we find that the inner side only of each tooth is properly developed, and
constitutes the sharply-pointed tubercles above described : the outer side of these
teeth consists only of blunt tubercles, which are scarcely elevated above the gum.
This form of tooth evidently arises from the inward inclination of the edge of the
lower jaw.

Owing to the narrow and elongated form of the snout, the incisors are placed late-

GENUS OF MARSUPIAL ANIMALS. 151

rally and remote from each other. The space on each side between the last pair of
incisors of the upper jaw and the canines is very considerable, and when the jaws are
closed is occupied by the lower canines. The false molars of both jaws are also remote
from each other and from the canines ; in fact, the only teeth which are in positive
contact are the two last molars of the upper jaw, and the three posterior molars of the
lower.

The molar teeth are so little produced that their apices are scarcely visible until the
gum is removed ; they are very weak, and the part protruded through the gum consists
of small tubercles'.

Species. Myrmecobius fasciatus.

Myrm. colore ochraceo-fulvo, pilis albis sparshnintermixtis ; dorso dimidio posteriore fasciis
transversalibus nigris atque albis alternatim ornato ; guld, pectore, abdomine, artu-
busque interne subjlavescentihus ; artubus externe fulvis ; tibiis antice albescentibus ;
Cauda fere corporis longitudinem aquante, indutd pilis nigris, albis, atque fulvis com-
mixtis.

The reddish hue of the fore part of the body is gradually blended into the black,
which is the prevailing colour of the posterior half, and which is adorned with nine
white fascim. The first, which is indistinct, commences about midway between the
head and the root of the tail, and is interrupted on the back by the ground colour of
the body, and so likewise is the second /ascta. The third and fourth /asa'« extend un-
interruptedly from side to side of the body ; the four following are interrupted on the
back by the dark colouring of the interstices, which divides them in an oblique manner,
so that they appear to dovetail with each other. The ninth /ascia is uninterrupted.

The fur consists of two kinds of hair ; the under hair is scanty, and of a whitish-
grey colour : the upper hair is rather coarse, short and adpressed on the anterior
parts : long on the posterior and under parts of the body ; the longer hairs on the
back are for the most part of a flattened and pointed form ; those on the anterior part
of the back are generally black at the base, and of a fulvous colour at the apex. The
hair on the head is very short, and of a brownish hue above, being composed of a
mixture of black, fulvous, and a few white hairs ; there are a few black hairs springing
from the sides of the muzzle and from under each eye. The hair on the tail is long
and rather bushy ; most of the hairs on the under part are fulvous at the base and
white at the tip ; on the upper side of the tail they are generally black at the base and
white at the apex.

In the second specimen which I had an opportunity of examining the colouring is
not so bright, and the markings are less distinct, and difier in their disposition. Tlie

' Having found in the animal said to have been brought from Van Diemen's Land four more molars (two
in each jaw) than in that brought by Lieutenant Dale, I thought it advisable to take the former as my guide
in describing the dentition.

VOL. II. PART II. X

152 MR. WATERHOUSE ON A NEW

two (oremost faseicB extend, over the back, from side to side of the body, and are rather
indistinct, especially on the back ; behind these fascia there is a single pale line on one
side of the body, which extends to the middle of the back, where it is met by two
similar lines, or fascia, which have their origin on the opposite side: behind these,
again, there are three distinct uninterrupted /osci^p, the last of which is about half an
inch from the root of the tail.

All these fascia are of a deep cream-colour ; and it must be observed that anterior
to the foremost of them, there are some very obscure indications of fascia, consisting
only of a few white hairs arranged in lines on the side of the body.

The latter half of the back in this animal, as in the last, is black, but it is more
thickly interspersed with white and reddish hairs ; the] anterior portion of the back is
interspersed with black and white hairs (or, rather, the hairs are spotted with those
colours), but its general hue is fulvous. The legs are of a buff colour. The chin, throat
and under parts of the body are of a dirty yellow-white tint, approaching to a pale buff
colour, on the posterior part.

In. Lin.

Length from nose to the root of the tail (measuring along the curve

of the back) 10

Length of tail (measured to the end of the hair) 7

Length of hind foot, to the end of the claws 2 2

Length of the longest claw (which is that next the inner one) ... 4^

Length of fore foot to the end of the claws 14

Length of the ear 9i

Width of ditto at the base 7

Length from the nose to the anterior portion of the ear 110

Length from the nose to the eye

With respect to the affinities of the genus Myrmecobius, I have much satisfaction in
finding that my original conjecture' (as to its being allied to the genus Phascogale) is
in a great measure borne out by the structure of the skull, which I have since had an
opportunity of examining, and have compared with drawings of that of the latter
genus.

Viewing the skull of Myrmecobius and that of Phascogale from above, we perceive a
considerable degree of resemblance : the skull of Myrmecobius, however, differs in
several points from that of Phascogale. But let us in the first place compare the skull
of this latter animal with the crania of other species of the Dasyurida, — a group in
which I include the genera Thylacinus, Dasyurus, and Phascogale.

If, we place side by side the skulls of the various species of these three genera (com-

' See Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Part IV., 1836., p. 69.

GENUS OP MARSUPIAL ANIMALS. 153

mencing with the skull of Thylacinus, and ending with that of Phascogale) , we can trace
in the teeth a gradual blending of the carnivorous structure into the insectivorous ; and
as the skulls are modified accordingly, I shall confine my observations to the latter, my
object being to show that the skull of Myrmecobius differs from that of Phascogale,
chiefly in those points of structure, to which a gradual approach may be traced through
species allied to the latter genus.

In Thylacinus we perceive a great width and strength in the zygomatic arch, a con-
siderable contraction of the cranial cavity (especially at its posterior part) , a great de-
velopment of the interparietal ridge and an abrupt termination of the skull immediately
behind the zygomatic arch. In Dasyurus Ursinus the same general characters also
obtain, but the parietals extend somewhat further back. In Das. Maugei we have still a
considerable contraction of the skull in the centre of the temporal fossa, but there is a
much greater lateral development of the parietal bones, indicating a more voluminous
cavity for the reception of the brain ; they also extend further beyond the zygomatic arch,
and dilate at their junction with the occipital bone ; the interparietal ridge is also com-
paratively feeble. In the genus Phascogale this ridge is quite lost, the skull is less
contracted in the middle, the parietal bones are more developed, and the cranial
cavity is still more voluminous ; the upper surface of the skull is therefore more evenly
convex. In the genus Myrmecobius the interparietal ridge is also wanting ; the frontal
bones are very broad, and together form almost a square, and the cranial cavity exceeds
that of Phascogale ; the posterior ridge of the orbital margin forms an acute process,
which is not seen in the last-mentioned genus, but which occurs both in Dasyurus Ur-
sinus and Thylacinus cynocephalus, although in these species the temporal bones are
remarkably contracted. The hinder angle of the lower jaw in all these animals is pro-
duced into an elongated process.

Although in the structure of the skull the animal here described evinces an affinity
to Phascogale, it differs from that genus in the want of a thumb to the hind feet, and in
the strength and larger size of the claws of the fore feet, which are shaped somewhat
like those in the genus Herpestes, and are evidently suited to burrowing. The fore-
legs are also stouter in proportion, and the feet are stronger. In their narrow and
pointed shape, the ears resemble those of Perameles nasutus, and differ from those of
Phascogale ; they also differ in being tolerably well clothed with hairs both externally
and internally.

I imagine that in the present animal I can perceive a slight approach to the Edentate
Marsupialia, or the Monotremes of Cuvier, and think that, analogically, it may be com-
pared to the genus Tupaia among the true Insectivora, bearing a somewhat similar con-
nection with Echidna and Ornithorhynchus , to that which exists between the last-men-
tioned genus and the genera Erinaceus and Mygale. That there is a greater dissimi-
larity in structure between the genus Myrmecobius and the Monotremes, than between
Tupaia and Mygale, must be allowed ; we are, however, in a measure prepared for this,

154 MR. WATERHOUSE ON A NEW GENUS, ETC.

by the comparatively sudden transitions from one form to another which we find in the
Marsupialia, which group, we must also bear in mind, stands low in the grade of or-
ganization among Mammalia.

Plate XXVII.

Myrmecobius fasciatus.

Plate XXVIII.

Fig. 1. Cranium oi Myrmecobius fasciatus seen from above.

2. Cranium seen laterally.

3. Palate and teeth of upper jaw.

a. Posterior molar of upper jaw magnified.

b, c, d, and e. The four preceding molars magnified.

4. Teeth of the upper jaw magnified.

5. Teeth of the lower jaw magnified.

a. Last molar but two seen from above.

6. Half the lower jaw seen from above, with the teeth as seen in first specimen.

7. Side view of the same.

8. Under side of left fore foot.

a. Side view of claw of fourth toe.

9. Under side of right hind foot.

a. Claw of the inner toe.

I I

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cffs

iZ ^ST-'^J^^'^-j^ "l:^J c:*r7c:sc^

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t^avu/i.

[ 155 ]

XII. Descriptions of several new Species of Insects belonging to the Family of the Sacred
Beetles. By J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. &;c., Secretary to the Entomological So-
ciety. Communicated by the Secretary.

Read January 24, 1837.

1 HE family of the Sacred Beetles has attracted the attention of the admirers of Na-
ture from the earUest ages, not only on account of the circimistance of the insects of
which it is composed having formed portion of the many objects " qualia demens
uEgyptus coluit," but also from the extraordinary habits of the insects themselves, which
w^ere indeed the cause of their being selected by the Egyptians as objects of worship.
But this group of insects has, in more recent times, been regarded by naturalists with
interest, from its having led to the publication of the most philosophical work which
has for a great length of time appeared upon the relations and natural distribution of
the Animal Kingdom, the ' Horse Entomologicae ;' in the preface to which work the
author expressly states that it was with the view of ascertaining the real situation in
nature of the Scarabeeus sacer, that he undertook the task of endeavouring to arrange
animals upon a plan which appeared more in harmony with their real relations, than
that developed in any previous system.

How far this has been effected time and a more perfect acquaintance with the objects
of the animated world will prove. It will be sufficient here to state, that the genus
Scarabeeus of Linnaeus was strictly analysed and divided into two parallel columns, each
containing five families, and that two genera composing the restricted family Scara-
bceidcc were also analysed, namely, Scarabeeus and Phanceus, the former being divided
into five types of form, and the latter (as far as was then known) into four, an evident
hiatus existing between two of the types of form, which it was supposed by the author
would eventually be filled up by insects possessing certain characters, which he therein
indicated.

The two groups thus analysed have been subsequently held up by the supporters of
the doctrines of the Horee Entomologicee as evidences of the correctness of such doc-
trines, and as illustrations of the practical application of the theory to the lowest
groups, namely, genera and subgenera. Confining ourselves to the restricted family
Scarabtcido! of MacLeay, it will be seen that this author gives no indication of the five,
or other number of genera, of which he considers that the family consists ; and it is only
by looking through the various observations upon the family in different parts of his
work, that we find, in addition to the two genera mentioned above (Scarabeeus and Pha-

15G MR. WESTWOOD ON SOME NEW

ntBus), the genera 07iitis, Onthophagus, Copris, Canthon and Ateuchus casually noticed ;
there being no analysis of the family Scarabeeidee itself.

The genus Scarabteus itself, as restricted in the Hora Entomologies, has for its es-
sential characters, the tibice of all the legs furnished with a single spur ; the head subtri-
gonate or. rhomboidal, never cornuted ; the clypeus radiated, bidentate or emarginate ;
the thorax elliptical, margined, often impressed on each side with a puncture, which is
occasionally indistinct ; broader than the abdomen ; the anterior tarsi often obsolete, &c.
The genus thus characterised is divided into the five following subgenera or types of
form: 1. Heliocantharus ; 2. Mnematium; 3. Pachysoma; 4. [Wanting]; 5. Gymno-
pleurus.

Since the publication of the Hora Entomologica the family has received but little ad-
dition. It will be essential, however, with a view to the discovery of the relations of
the insects about to be described, that the student should be put in possession of what
has been done by subsequent writers. The description by Mr. Kirby of a remarkable
insect from Soudan, " forming a distinct and new type in the genus Scarabaus" of
MacLeay, under the name of Scarabceus femoralis, in the ' Zoological Journal,' must be
regarded of the first importance, as interfering with the distribution of the types of
form composing that genus given in the Hor<s Entomologicfe ; whilst the same author,
whose knowledge of the Scarabai is fully admitted by Mr. MacLeay, observes that " in
Copris, MacLeay, I seem in my own cabinet to possess ten or twelve distinct types ;
and in Phansus, the fifth type, which Mr. MacLeay regards as containing insects
resembUng all the other types, appears to me rather divided into two ; one formed
bv Phan. carnifex, vindex, igneus, &c., and the other by Phan. splendidulus , floriger,
Kirbii, &c."'

Latreille has done little towards the recent elaboration of this group of insects. The
following short synopsis will show his distribution as given in the Second Edition of
the Regne Animal.

COPROPHAGI.

Sect. 1. Corresponding with the family Scarabceidcs, MacL.

A. Corresponding precisely with the genus Scarabceus, MacL., containing
the genera Ateuchus," Weher, with Heliocantharus and Pachysoma as
sections, but entirely omitting Mnematium.

' Introduction to Entomolog)-, vol. iv. p. 400.

- The generic name Ateuchus, as proposed by Weber, was intended to designate all the unarmed, unscutel-
lated, long-legged Coprides of Fabricius, including the sections in this Table indicated under the letters A and
B, a; having the Scarabceus sacer as the typical species (Ent. Syst. i. p. 62.). The genus having been subse-
quently dismembered, the name has properly been retained by the French authors for the Sacred Beetles ; but
as the names Scarabceus and Heliocantharus ought to be given to those insects, the name Ateuchus must sink
as a synonym, and not be employed as Messrs. MacLeay and Vigors (Zool. Journ. No. 8.) propose to employ
it as the generic name for some of the species belonging to Section B, a, in the above Table.

SPECIES OF SACRED BEETLES. 157

Gymnopleurus, Illig.

B. Intermediate tibiee with two spurs, basal joint of labial palpi always
larger than the following.

a. Four posterior tibitB not dilated at the tip, nor in the shape of an
' elongated triangle.

Genera Sisyphus, Latr. ; Circellium, Latr. ; Coprobius, Latr. ; Chm-
ridium, St. Farg. & Serv. ; Hyboma, St. F. & Serv. ; Eurysternus,
Dalm. {Mschrotes, St. F. & Serv.).

b. Four posterior tibia dilated at the extremity, and of an elongated

triangular form ; head and thorax often cornuted in the males.
Genera Oniticellus, Onthophagus, Onitis, Phanwus and Copris.
Sect. 2. Corresponding with the family Aphodiida, MacL.

A modification of this distribution, arising from the discovery of another remarkable
insect, Ateuchus Adamastor, is given in the Encyclope'die Me'thodique by Messrs. Serville
and Saint Fargeau as follows :

COPROPHAGI.

A. Corresponding with the Scardbmidm of MacLeay.

* Scutellum wanting.

t Four posterior tibite subcylindric, not dilated at the tips.

Genera Ateuchus, Gymnopleurus, Hyboma, Sisyphus.
tt Four posterior tibia, short, dilated at the tips.
Genera Onthophagus, Phanceus, Copris, Chmridium.

b. Scutellum small but distinct, or represented by a space.
Genera Onitis, Oniticellus, ^schrotes.

B. Corresponding with the family Aphodiida, MacL.

The genus Ateuchus, here no longer characterised by the presence of a single spur
on each intermediate tibia, is thus distributed into sections.

I. Clypeus trilobed with six points, &c. (Heliocantharus, MacLeay.).

1 . Four posterior tibim obliquely truncate, prolonged into an inarticulate spur.

(Sacer, &c.)

2. Four posterior tibia truncated at the tips, the posterior pair having a single

spur.

A. Intermediate tibia with a single articulated spur. {Semipunctatus,

laticollis, &c.)

B. Intermediate tibi/s with two articulated spurs. (Ateuchus adamastor,

Sp. Nov. Cap. Bon. Sp.)
II. Clypeus not trilobed, four posterior tibia truncated.

158 MR. WESTWOOD ON SOME NEW

1 . Four posterior tibus, with a single spur to each. {Pachysoma, MacL.)

2. Intermediate tibia; with two spurs, posterior with one.

A. Clypeiis bidentate, thorax truncate behind, abdomen rounded. (Bacchus.)

B. Clypeus 2 — 6 — dentate, thorax rounded behind, abdomen square.

{volvens, triangularis, &c.)

The estabUshment of the genus Anamnesis by Mr. Vigors (in the eighth Number of
the 'Zoological Journal'), and Deltochilum by Eschscholtz (in the Entomographien) ,
have indicated the existence of two groups very nearly allied to Hyboma. Megathopa
Eschscholtz, is closely aUied to Circellum ; Scatonomus, Erichson, to Coprobius ; Drepa-
nocerus, Kirby, to Eurysternus and Dendropamon, Perty ; Enicotarsus, Guerin, to Oni-
ticellus. Such, as far as I am aware, are the only modifications suggested relative to
the distribution of the ScarabceidcE, or additions made to the rest of its pubUshed genera
since the publication of the Horee Entomologicce.

From a review of the two tabular sketches of the family presented above, it will be
seen that indications in both are given of the separation of the family into sections from
the general structure of the four hind legs ; and it appears to me that a distribution
founded upon such a character must be strictly natural, that is, with reference to the
natural oeconomy of the species of which the two groups are composed, all the long-
legged species being strictly " pilularii" or dung-rollers, the habit being as strongly
developed in the Sisyphi and Coprobii as in the Scarabcei of MacLeay.

We have seen that the essential character of the genus Scarabceus consists in the in-
termediate tibim being only provided with a single spur : it appears to me, however, that
if this be really the character of the genus, those Scarabai must be excluded which
may be strictly said to have no spur on the intermediate tibus (Section I. 1. of Saint
Faro-eau and Serville). How far this observation, together with the description of the
Scarabeus femoralis, may render necessary the modification of the characters of the genus
ScarabtBus, must be left for others more competent to the task than myself to decide.
I will only observe that the Ateuchus adamastor of Saint Fargeau and ServiUe, and the
insects hereinafter described, appear to be so intimately connected with species of the
p-enus Scarabeeus, MacLeay, that in my humble opinion the points of connexion between
them and Scarabtsus are far too numerous to be overweighed by their possession of a
pair of spurs on the middle tibiee, which alone separates them from that genus ; while at
the same time the characters of Ateuchus adamastor and the insect first hereinafter de-
scribed seem even to render necessary an extension of the characters of the subgenus
Heliocantharus, with which they entirely agree, except in the possession of a pair of
spurs on the intermediate tibice. I have, however, provisionally regarded these, as well
as the others, as distinct types, and which a further analysis of the long-legged Scara-
haidcB may perhaps prove to be essential.

SPECIES OF SACRED BEETLES. 159

SCELIAGES'.

Corpus latum subdepressura.

Caput subtrigonum planum, clypeo trilobato, lobo intermedio valdS emarginato, apicibus
eniarginaturfe obtusis, lobis intermediis obliquis angulis baud productis. Antenna
9-articulatffi, clava subglobosa, articulo Imo longissimo, 2ndo brevi, 3tio pauUo
longiori, tribus proximis brevibus subtequalibus sed sensim latioribus, 7mo magno
inferne producto, articulos duos terminales in sinu ejus includente, ultimo 8vo mi-
nori. Labrum membranaceum transversum ciliatum, lateribus incurvis. Mandihulm
elongatae, planiE, submembranaceee, intus ciliatae. Maxilles elongatte ad apicem
lobis duobus membranaceis terminatse, lobo supero maximo ciliato. Palpi maxillares
breves subfiliformes, 4-articulati, articulo basali minuto, reliquis longitudine cres-
centibus, ultimo longo obovato. Mentum vald^ pilosum oblongum antic^ attenuatum,
margine antico fere recte truncato. Labium bipartitum, ciliatum, membranaceum.
Palpi labiales abbreviati, 3-articulati, pilis rigidis obtecti, articulis magnitudine de-
crescentibus, ultimo minuto.

Thorax (seu Pronotum) latior quam longior, postice abdomine paullo latior, lateribus
rotundatis. Mesosternum magnum, prominens, et inter pedes intermedios (basi
subdistantes), elevatum. Elytra cum lateribus ad basin integris. Tibia anticee
magnae, pone medium intus curvatfe, extern^ dentibus quatuor obtusis, intern^
serrulatse, ad apicem calcari minuto instructee, etarsatse. Pedes 4 postici elongati ;
tibiis extus vix spinosis, intermediis bicalcaratis (calcaribus obtusis et mobilibus)
posticis 1-calcaratis, calcari longo acuto. Tarsi 4 postici formse ordinaria, pilosi
2-unguiculati.
Abdomen depressum.

SCELIAGES loPAS.

Seel, ater, nitidus, lavis, clypei dentibus duobus intermediis obtusis subelevatis, capite antice
punctatissimo, thorace Icsvissimo, elytris punctis nonnullis minutissimis irregularibus,
striisque sex longitudinalibus simplicibus, fere obliteratis ; tibiis anticis intus et extus ser-
rulatis, latere externa obtuse quadridentatis ; tibiis intermediis extus spinis duabus mi-
nutis acutis, posticis tribus.

Long. Corp. circiter 10 lin.

Habitat in Africa australiori.

In Mus. Rev. Hope et P. Walker, Equ.

Obs. Congenericus videtur Ateuchus Adamastor, Enc. Meth. x. p. 351.

Anomiopsis'.
Pedes elongati, tibiae intermedi<e curvatae bicalcaratae, calcaribus mobilibus interno elon-

' SK€\tayis, cruris fractio. ^ 'Avonoios, dissimilis ; et'O^pu, fades.

VOL. II. — PART II. Y

160 MR. WESTWOOD ON SOME NEW

gato acuto, externo breviori spatuliforme. Tarsi pedum anticorum obsoleti, quatuor
posticorum depressi, setosi, unguibus nullis. PaZ/)i maxillares, filiformes; arti-
culis tribus ultimis longitudine fere sequalibus ; labiales difFormes, articulo 2ndo
maximo transverso-ovato, ultimo minutissimo prsecedente intern^ et oblique inserto.

Obs. Species duas, hisce characteribus, in hac familia insolitis, gaudentes, adhuc vidi, at-

tamen aliter inter se tantiim discrepantes ut typi formarum diversarum forsan ha-

berentur.

Sect. 1 . Clypeus antice cornubus duobus porrectis depressis ; thorax transversus

linea impressa longitudinal! et puncto utrinque ordinario, marginibus lateralibus

pilosis ; abdomen parvum semicirculare. Tibice anticse dilatatae obtus^ 4-dentatse.

Anomiopsis Dioscorides.
An. ater nitidus punctatissirtms, elytris 6-punctato-striatis, capitis thoracisque lateribus,

femoribus anticis tarsisque quatuor posticis longe rufo-hirtis.
Long. corp. 13 lin.

Habitat ?

In Mus. Patr. Walker, Equ.

Descr. Caput latum transversum, lateribus postic^ subrotundatis ; clypeo in lobos tres
diviso, lateralibus parvis ; intermedio antic^ valde porrecto bifido, punctato, capitis
parte postica sublsevi. AntenncB longiores, 9-articulatae, clava elongata, sat gracili,
articulis 3, 4, 5, et 6 longitudine decrescentibus ; 6to interne subproducto, ultimis tri-
bus subaequalibus ; Labrum membranaceum antice emarginatum, dente parvo medio ;
lateribus incurvis ; Mandibulcs subtrigonse obtusse planse subcoriacese. Maxilla cor-
neje, lobo terminaUobtuso, palpis maxillaribus 4-articulatis, articulo Imo parvo, re-
liquis tribus fiUformibus longitudine fere aequalibus. Mentum subconicum lateribus
ad basin rotundatis apiceque emarginato. Labium membranaceum ciliatum bipar-
titum ; Palpis labialibus difformibus valde setigeris articulo Imo obconico, 2ndo
magno, externe valde producto obliquo, 3tio minimo ovali ante apicem latera-
lem supra inserto, inde parte producta setisque articuli prsecedentis subtus incon-
spicua est. Thorax transversus disco subconvexo, linea longitudinali centrali
punctisque duobus lateralibus impressus, punctatissimus, lateribus rufo-hirtis. Ely-
tra thorace pauUo angustiora, semicircularia, nigra nitida punctatissiraa striisque
sex punctorum majorum in singulo impressis. Tibia anticse validse, obtuse 4-den-
tatje, apice calcari unico acuto instructse, tarsis nullis ; tibia intermedis extus
curvatee, serrulatse, ad apicem calcaribus duobus instructae, calcari interno elon-
gate acuto, externo obtuso spatuliforme : tibia posticse sublineares fere rectae, ex-
tern^ serrulataj, ad apicem calcari unico elongato acuto interne instructae : tarsi 4
postici compressi 5-articulati, long^ rufo setigeri, articulo ultimo ovate ; unguibus
nullis.

SPECIES OF SACRED BEETLES. 161

Sect. 2. Clypeus trilobatus lobo intermedio emarginato, angulis lateralibus pauUo pro-
ductis, obtusis. Caput cornu elevato verticali armatum. Thorax impressione
central! valde irregular! et puncto utrinque ordinario ; angulis posticis reflexis.
TibieB antica; graciles, externe subsinuatse.

Anomiopsis Sterquilinus.
An. ater nitidus pundatissimusconvems, elytris semicircularibus, striis sex simplicihus in
singula, thoracis laterihus tibiisque quatuor posticis serrulatis ; capite, thorace,
tarsisque breviter rufo-hirtis.
Long. Corp. 10 lin.

Habitat ?

In Mus. Patr. Walker, Equ.

Descr. Caput mediocre subtrigonum, clypei lobis tribus, duobus lateralibus vix di-
stinctis, intermedio majori emarginato, angulis anticis paulo productis et obtusis.
Capitis vertex cornu brevi acuto elevato. Trophi fere ut in preecedenti. Thorax
transversus, abdomine vix latior, lateribus rotundatis serrulatis breviter rufo-
hirtis, angulis posticis reflexis, disco elevato et in medio impressione lata et
irregular! antic^ in tuberculos duos rotundatos terminato ; punctatissimus. Ely-
tra convexa semicircularia, punctatissima ; lineis 6 longitudinalibus leviter sin-
gulo impresso. Tibies anticee graciles, margine externo subsinuato, nee dentato,
calcari parvo acuto unico terminali. Tibia: intermedise extus curvats, serrulatae,
apice paulo dilatato, bicalcaratee, calcari interno brevi obtuso, externo elongato
acuto. Tibia postica; elongatje fere recte serrulatae, calcari unico elongato
acuto ad apicera intern^ instructs. Tarsi antici nulli, 4 postici depressi seligeri,
unguibus nullis.
06s. The two insects last above described present such a total diversity of habit and
form, that unless minutely investigated they would certainly be considered as two distinct
types of form which ought to be placed widely apart. Wlien, however, we examine
them in detail, they are found to agree in several very remarkable peculiarities, such
as the form of the labial and maxillary palpi, the structure of the middle and posterior
tibiee, tibial spurs, and tarsi, so that it is impossible to do otherwise than place them
in the same genus, although certainly differing far more widely from each other in
habit than the other groups or types of form of Scarabaus, which are estabhshed
almost entirely upon variations of habit. It must, therefore, be considered a very
remarkable circumstance, that whilst amongst the Scarabasida; in general, the uniformity
in the structure of the trophi is so great that we find the remark appUed to them,
" Instrumentis in cibariis haud valida patet distinctio," these two greatly diversified
forms should possess not only a similarity of organization in these parts, but that this
organization should be so anomalous ; for it is in vain that we look throughout the
insect world for labial palpi of a form analogous to that in these two species ; but it is

IG2 MR. WESTWOOD ON SOME NEW

still more remarkable that the same identity should exist in several other curious cha-
racters of the two insects as above detailed.

In the former species (A. Dioscorides) we find a striking approximation to the form
of the Pachysoma {Scarab, ^sculapius and Hippocrates) ; but the second species
{A. Sterquilinus) recedes from every known species of long-legged Scarabeeideg in having
the head cornuted and the surface of the thorax irregularly channelled. In Hyboma
carinata (Westw. in Mag. Zool. & Bot., October and December 1836), we indeed find
the latter character, and this genus is also assimilated to Anomiopsis in the structure of
the antenna ; but in comparing the figures which I have here given of Anomiopsis with
those of Hyboma carinata, above referred to, and Hyboma Guildingii (Westw. in Brit.
Cyclop., PI. Beetles), it will be evident that the habit of Anomiopsis is decidedly
towards Scarabeeus.

I much regret that I cannot state with precision the real locahty of these two per-
plexing insects, the late lamented Sir Patrick Walker, in whose collection they were
contained, (and who kindly permitted me to describe and figure as well as to dissect
the specimens, although uniques,) having purchased them from a dealer, with various
miscellaneous exotic species, but including many Javanese insects.

PLATE XXIX.

Fig. 1 . ScELiAGES loPAS, and details.

1 . The insect, of the natural size.

1 a. The same, seen laterally.

1 b. The same, seen from beneath.

1 c. Labrum.

1 d. Mandible.

1 e. Maxilla.

I /. Instrumenta labialia.

1 g. Ditto, seen from within the mouth, m. Mentum. I. Labium. I. p. Labial

palpi.
1 h. Antenna, seen from below, i i. Terminal joints of ditto, seen from above.
1 k. Anterior tibia.
1 I. Intermediate tibia and tarsus.

1 m. Posterior tibia and tarsus.

Fig. 2. Anomiopsis Dioscorides, and details.

2. The insect, of the natural size.

2 o. Labrum.

2 b. Mandible.

SPECIES OF SACRED BEETLES. 163

2 c. Maxilla.

2 d. Instrumenta labialia, from beneath.

2 e. Labial palpus removed.

2/. Antenna.

2 g. Anterior tibia.

■2 h. Intermediate tibia and tarsus. 21. Tarsus detached.

2 k. Extremity of posterior tibia and base of posterior tarsus.

Fig. 3. Anomiopsis Sterquilinus, and details.

3. The insect, of the natural size.

3 a. The same, seen laterally.
3 b. Labrum.

3 c. Mandible.

3 d. Maxilla.

3 e. Instrumenta labialia.

3/. Labial paZpws detached.

3 g. Underside oimeso- and metathorax.

3 h. Anterior tibia.

3 i. Intermediate tibia and base of tarsus.

3 /f. Posterior tibia and tarsus.

Addend. — Since the preceding memoirwas readl have seen three or four distinct species
most closely allied to Anomiopsis Dioscorides, in the Collection of Charles Darwin, Esq.,
by whom they were collected in the southern part of South America, at Bahia Blanca
and Mendoza, where they reside in the excrement of the Rhea.

I have therefore no hesitation in now regarding A. Sterquilinus as a distinct sub-
genus, for which the name of Glyphiderus' may be proposed, in allusion to the remark-
able sculpture of the thorax.

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[ 165 ]

XIII. Osteological Contributions to the Natural History of the Orang Utans (Simia,
Erxleben). By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S., Sjc, Hunterian Professor of Ana-
tomy at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Communicated October 25, 1836.

1 HE interest which is attached to the Orang Utans, their rarity and limited geogra-
phical distribution, and the obscurity which still envelopes the history of the species
which appertain to the genus Simia as limited by Erxleben, induce me to offer to the
Zoological Society some additional observations on that subject, which I hope may
contribute to extend and establish our knowledge of those remarkable anthropoid in-
habitants of the forests of the larger islands of the Indian Archipelago.

These observations relate only to the skull and teeth, — parts of the osseous system,
however, which each day's experience seems to indicate as the principal points from
which the best and surest specific as well as generic differences may be derived. The
descriptions are accompanied with drawings of the objects described of the natural size.
The first part of this paper describes an interesting stage in the change of the teeth in
the great Orang of Borneo {Simia Wurmbii) ; the second part relates to a skull of an
Orang in which that change had been completed, but which retains proportions and
presents a form apparently specifically distinct from those in any other known
species.

Hitherto the proof of the immature state of the so-called Simia Satyrus has been de-
rived from the discovery of the germs of large permanent teeth, hidden within the cavity
of the jaw-bones'. In the specimen now before the Society, (PI. XXX., figg. 1, 2, 3.)
some of the permanent teeth have come into use, and have displaced their puny prede-
cessors.

' Since this paper was read, the Livraison of the Monoyraphies de Mammalogie of M. Temminck, containing
the important observations of its distinguished author on the rich collection of osteological and stuffed specimens
of the Simia Satyrus in the celebrated Museum at Leyden, has been published. The wrapper of the Livraison
bears date 1835, but reference is made in the text, (p. 122) to a letter received by M. Temminck, from
Borneo, bearing date the 5th of October, 1836. It would have been unpardonable in me to have neglected the
writings of so great an authority on the subject of the Orangs, had they been accessible at the time when the
abstract of the present memoir was published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society.

The following is a summary of the observations recorded by M. Temminck on the progress of dentition in
the Orang of Borneo.

In an individual, 1 foot 5 inches high, all the deciduous teeth are in place ; they correspond in number and
kind with those of the human subject ; but the molars of the lower jaw are larger ; none of the permanent teeth
are developed.

VOL. II. — PART III. z

166 MR. OWEN ON THE OSTEOLOGY

My previous observations led to a knowledge only of the size of the permanent teeth,
and opportiinities like the present were wanting to gain an insight into the amount of
deviation from, or resemblance to the human subject which the Orang presented in
regard to the order of their development.

Tlie skull of the Orang here described belonged to an individual measuring from
the vertex to the heel two feet, eleven inches ; its native habitat could not be ascer-
tained with certainty, but I infer from the straightness of the contour of the skull
between the orbits and intermaxillary bones, from the position of the foramen magnum
occipitale, and the form of the zygoma and position of its suture, that this immature
specimen must belong to the large species which inhabits the Island of Borneo {Simia
Wurmbii.).

By comparing the side view of this skull with that given in PI. 55, fig. 2., of the
First Volume of the Society's Transactions, it will be seen that a considerable change
has taken place in the antero-posterior extent of attachment of the temporal muscle ;
the mastoid ridge has, as it were, shifted its place, and retreated, by progressive
absorption and deposition, nearer to the occipital plane of the skull. The size of the
cranial cavity remains unchanged, but its parietes are thickened, especially at the line
of the lambdoidal suture, preparatory to the development of the great ridge which is
continued from that part in the adult ; the zygomatic arches are also strengthened, and
the superior maxillaries more produced, while the intermaxillaries, having given passage
to the crowns of large permanent incisors, appear to have fallen in ; the rami of the
lower jaw are widened and deepened, and the horizontal portions lengthened in corre-
spondence with the growth of the upper jaw. The permanent teeth in place in the
upper jaw are the two middle or anterior incisors, and the first and second molars ;
the remaining teeth, viz., the lateral incisors, the canines, and the molar es., which oc-
cupy the place of the future bicuspides, belong to the deciduous series.

In the lower jaw both the middle and lateral permanent incisors are in place, as also
the first and second permanent molares on each side ; the rest of the teeth consist of
the deciduous canines and molares, corresponding to those of the upper jaw, together
with one of the lateral incisors which has not yet been shed, but which retains only an
insecure attachment in front of the corresponding permanent incisor.

In two other individuals a little more advanced in age, the two middle permanent incisors of the upper jaw have
come into place, together with the first permanent molar. M. Temminck describes the second molar in
these examples as having four tubercles (p. 130.) ; it is therefore deciduous, and would be replaced by the
second bimspis : the third molar which he describes, is the first of the permanent true molares.

In a female Orang, 2 feet, 4 inches, 6 lines high, the following permanent teeth are in place ; the four lower
incisors, the two middle upper incisors, the first and second true molares. The permanent teeth yet concealed
are the lateral upper incisors, the canines, the bicuspides, and denies sapientia.

In a male measuring 2 feet, 6 inches, 9 lines in height, probably younger than the preceding, the development
of the permanent incisors is not so far advanced ; the two middle ones of the upper jaw having scarcely pene-
trated the gum, the rest of the teeth are in the same condition.

OF THE ORANG UTANS. 167

In the human subject the permanent teeth come into place and use in the following
order : the first true molares (between the sixth and eighth year) ; the middle lower in-
cisors, the middle upper incisors, the lateral lower incisors, the lateral upper incisors,
the canines, the bicuspides, (between the seventh and ninth years) ; the second true
molares (about the twelfth) ; the third molares (twentieth to thirtieth year).

In the Orang Utan we see that the second true grinders are in place before the canines,
or bicuspides, or even the lateral incisors of the upper jaw are shed ; but as regards the
incisors, there is the same priority in the development of those of the lower jaw as in
the human subject. The difference in regard to the development of the molares indi-
cates the greater importance of the large grinders to the young frugivorous Orang,
as compared with the higher and more omnivorous animal.

It still remains to be determined in what order the bicuspides, last molares, and canines
succeed each other. Judging from the state of advancement which they respectively
exhibit, I should suppose that the huge canines would be the last to acquire their full
development in the Orang Utan. The intermaxillary bones are still distinct from the
maxillaries, and it is probable that the suture is not obliterated until the vascular activitv
in the neighbouring bone is excited by the passage into place of the permanent canine
teeth.

The follow^ng differences may be observed between the deciduous teeth of the Orang
and those of the human subject : the first or front incisors of the upper jaw are twice
as large, and the fangs are proportionally flatter and broader ; the lateral incisors very
slightly exceed in size those of the human subject, but are directed more obUquely in-
wards or towards the middle incisors. The four lower incisors of the Orang are nearly
twice the size of those of the human subject, and differ in the relative position of the
lateral pair which converge more obliquely towards the middle pair. The canines are
also nearly double the size of those of the human subject, and project beyond the level
of the cutting surfaces of the contiguous incisors, from which they are separated by a
short diastema. The difference in size is much less considerable in the deciduous mo-
lares ; it is most marked in the superior development of the second inferior molar of
the Orang. The grinding surface of the anterior molars in the Orang is divided into
two facets rising towards a middle transverse ridge, while the corresponding part of the
grinding surface in the human first deciduous molar of the lower jaw is occupied by a
depression.

Before proceeding to the description of the cranium of the adult Orang, wliich I take
to belong to an unknown species of Simia, Erxl., I shall premise a few observations on
those species, of the existence of which we have evidences from descriptions and speci-
mens of the entire individuals, both young and full grown.

The two great islands of the Indian Ocean, Borneo and Sumatra, are each inhabited

168 MR. OWEN ON THE OSTEOLOGY

by a large Orang or Pongo, alike in stature, which exceeds that of any other known
quadrumanous animal : they are also similar in respect to the formidable nature of their
dentition, but differ in the form of the cranium, and in some minor external characters.
The Bornean Pongo, if we may judge from the few specimens undoubtedly from that
locality which exist in the Museums of this country, is clothed with loose long hair
of a deep fuscous colour, approaching in some parts to black', the Sumatran Pongo is
covered with loose long hair of a reddish brown colour^ The adult male of the Bornean
species has the countenance disfigured by large dermal callosities upon the cheek-bones '.
These do not exist in either sex of the Sumatran species. The osteological differences
relating to the structure and contour of the cranium have been described in my pre-
vious communication on this subject, and I now subjoin figures, of the natural size, of
the cranium of an adult male, undoubtedly from Borneo, (PI. XXXI. and XXXII.) a
comparison of which with the figure of the (said to be Sumatran) Orang's cranium, (PI.
LIII. and LIV., vol. i. Trans. Zool. Soc.) will convey an adequate idea of the osteological
difference alluded to. As the teeth in both these large species of Orang closely resemble
each other both in form and size, it is impossible to determine from the germs of the
permanent teeth in the numerous crania of immature Orangs in our Collections, to which
of the species these crania should be referred. But this is certain, that the species
called Simla Satyrus by Linneeus, and which Fischer inserts in his " Synopsis Mam-
malium," in addition to the Simia Abelii and Si7nia Wurmhii, is an Orang JJtan in the
immature state, and with the deciduous teeth. All the crania of the young Orangs
which I have examined contain in the substance of the maxillary bones, germs of per-
manent teeth, which from their magnitude prove that the crania must have belonged to
one or the other of the two great species above mentioned ; but the characters of the
crania themselves are too feebly developed in the immature state to lead to more than
a conjectural determination as to which of the species they may belong.

With respect, however, to the cranium, now to be described, (PI. XXXIII. and
XXXrV.) the case is different. The condition of the teeth, which are all of the per-
manent series and far worn down, testifies that it is not the skull of a young Orang ;
while the size of the cranium, and the size and proportions of the teeth, indicate plainly
the existence in Borneo of a species of Orang distinct from the great Simia Wurmhii,
and altogether of a more anthropoid character. In this species, which I propose to call
/Simia Morio, the canine teeth are relatively smaller than in the female Simia Wurmbii ;
the whole series of the grinding teeth are smaller, while the superior incisors are nearly
as large, and the inferior incisors quite as large, as those of Simia Wurmbii.

' See the young of this species No. 3, Zoolog;ical Society's Museum, and the specimen in the College of
Surgeons.

- See the adult of this species, No. 2, ibid.

3 See the figure of the head of the male and female of this species, from specimens in the Royal Museum at
Leyden, Saturday Magazine, No. 205, Sept. 12, 1835, p. 100.

OF THE ORANG UTANS. 169

The teeth in the jaws of a quadrumanous cranium may be known to belong to the
permanent series, not only by their size and shape, but by the absence of the /oramma,
which, in an immature cranium, are situated behind the deciduous teeth, and which lead
to the cavities containing the crowns of the permanent teeth. The character afforded by
these foramina is well displayed on comparing together the cranium of the Simia Mono
with one of a young Simia Satyrus, in which the deciduous teeth are present together
with the first permanent molares. The deciduous teeth in the young Orang, besides their
smaller size, have their fangs more or less protruded from their sockets, and they are
thrust apart from one another by the interposition of the osseous particles which are
deposited to enlarge the jaw for the lodgement of their large successors ; while in the
Simia Morio the teeth are lodged firmly in the jaws, and with the exception of the charac-
teristic interval between the canines and incisors in the upper jaw, and the canines and
bicuspides in the lower jaw, are compactly arranged in close contiguity with each
other.

That the cranium of the Simia Morio here described, belonged to an adult, is proved
by the small interval between the temporal ridges at the crown of the skull, corresponding
to the extensive surface of origin of the crotophyte muscles ; and by the obliteration of
the intermaxillary sutures : that it belonged also to an aged individual is highly pro-
bable from the extent to which the teeth are worn down, and from the obUteration,
notwithstanding the absence of interparietal and lambdoidal crests, of the sagittal and
lambdoidal sutures.

The cerebral portion of the skull of Simia Morio equals in size that of the Pongo, and
indicates the possession of a brain at least as fully developed as in that species, while
the maxillary portion is proportionally smaller ; so that, as the cranium rises above the
orbits, and is, like that of the Pongo, more convex on the coronal aspect than in the
Chimpanzee, and wants the prominent supraciliary ridge which characterizes the African
species, it presents in the Simia Morio altogether a more anthropoid character.

There are, however, the rudiments of the ridges which so remarkably characterize
the cranium of the mature Pongo. Those which commence at the external angle of the
frontal bone pass backwards, upwards, and slightly converge, but do not meet ; they
gradually diminish in breadth, and, after passing the coronal suture, subside to the level
of the skull ; they are then only traceable by a rough line, which leading parallel to the
sagittal suture, and gradually bending outwards, rises again to be continued into the
lambdoidal ridges ; thus circumscribing the origins of the temporal muscles. The
lambdoidal and mastoid ridges are broader and more developed than in the Chimpanzee,
but inferior in both respects to those of the Pongo. The inial region of the occiput is
almost smooth, and is convex, without the mesial ridge, and strong muscular impressions
observable in the Pongo, where a preponderating weight in front calls for the insertion
of powerful muscles behind to counterbalance it.

The temporal bones join the frontal in Simia Morio as in the Troglodytes niger ; but

170 MR. OWEN ON THE OSTEOLOGY

this structure occasionally is present on one or both sides of the skull in Simia

Satyrus.

The additamentum suturce lambdoidalis is present on both sides in the Simia Morio, and
the beo-inning of the lambdoidal suture may be faintly traced, but the remainder is
obliterated.

Directing our attention to the base of the skull of Simia Morio we observe the occipital
foramen to be less posteriorly situated than in the Pongo, but more so than in the Chim-
panzee. The plane of the. foramen is also less obhque than in the Pongo. The occipital
condyles are as far apart anteriorly as in the Chimpanzee. The anterior condyloid
foramina are double on each side as in the Pongo -. the carotid and jugular foramina
open within the same depression ; they are relatively further apart in the Chimpanzee :
the petrous portion of the temporal bone, as in the Pongo, is relatively smaller than in
the Chimpanzee ; and the articular cavity, or surface for the lower jaw, forms a larger
proportion of the base of the skuU.

The other characters of the basis cranii correspond with those of the Pongo ; and the
smaller size of the meatus auditorius externus is probably associated in both species with
a smaller auricle as compared with the Chimpanzee.

On the bony palate the relative position of the foramen incisivum corresponds with
the development of the incisive teeth, showing the intermaxillary bones to be of larger
size in the Simia Morio than in the Chimpanzee : the situation of the sutures joining these
bones to the maxillaries is indicated by vascular grooves, but otherwise obliterated ;
while in the cranium of a young Pongo of nearly the same size as that of the Simla
Morio, the intermaxillary sutures still remain, corresponding to the non-development of
the permanent laniaries. It will be interesting to determine at what period these
sutures are obliterated in the more anthropoid Simia Morio.

The OS nasi is a single narrow long triangular bone, slightly dilated at its upper end
or apex, with the basal margin entire, presenting no indications of original separation
into two parts, as has been observed in skulls of the Chimpanzee.

In the contraction of the interorbital space, and the general form of the orbit and its
boundaries, the Simia Morio resembles the Simia Satyrus, but the orbital cavity, as
before observed, is smaller. In the plane of the orbit and straight contour of the
upper jaw, the /Simia Morio resembles the Bornean species of Pongo or /Simia Wurmbii,
rather than the Simia Abelii or Sumatran Pongo.

The orbital process of the os mala is perforated in the /Simia Morio as in the Pongo, by
several large /oromina. There are one principal and two very small infraorbital /oramina
on either side ; the upper maxillary bones are relatively smaller, as compared with the
other bones of the face, and especially the intermaxillaries, than in the Pongo ; a
structure which coincides with the smaller proportional development of the canine
teeth. The nasal aperture has the same form as in the adult Simia Wurmbii, being
more elongated than in the immature Orang.

OF THE ORANG UTANS.

171

The main and characteristic difference then between the Simia Morio and the Pongo,
whether of Borneo or Sumatra, obtains in the size of the laniary or canine teeth, to
the smaller development of which in the Simia Morio, almost all the other differences in
the cranium are subordinate or consequent'. The laniary teeth, it may be observed,
have little relation to the kind of food habitual to the Orangs ; had they been so related
they would have been accompanied with a structure of the glenoid cavity fitting them,
as in the true Carnivora, to retain a living prey in their gripe, till its life was extin-
guished or resistance effectually quelled. But the flattened surfaces on which the con-
dyles of the lower jaw rotate are in subserviency to the broad tuberculate molars,
showing the mastication of vegetable substances to be the habitual business of the jaws,

' With respect to minor differences not noticed in the description, these may be deduced from the subjoined
table of comparative admeasurements.

Simia
Morio,
adult.

Simia

Wurmbii,

adult male.

Length of the skull from the vertex to the base of the occipital condyle

Length of the skull from the posterior plane of the occiput to the margin of the 1

incisors J

Length of the skull from the posterior plane of the occiput to the fronto-nasal 1

suture J

Length of the skull from the fronto-nasal suture to the margin of the incisors . . . .

Greatest lateral diameter of the skull (at the post-auditory ridges)

Smallest lateral diameter of the skull (behind the orbits)

Distance between temporal ridges

Diameter of the skull at the zygomata

Length of the zygomatic /ossa

Diameter of skull taken between the outsides of the orbits

Interorbital space

Transverse diameter of orbital cavity

Vertical diameter of orbital cavity

Vertical diameter of nasal aperture

Transverse diameter of nasal aperture

Interspace between infraorbital /oramtna

Distance between the inferior margin of the nasal bone and the inferior margin of!

the intermaxillary bone /

From the anterior margin of the occipital /oramen to the posterior margin of the \

bony palate /

Length of the bony palate along the mesial suture

From the anterior margin of the intermaxillary bones to the anterior palatal!

foramina J

Breadth of the crown of the first incisor, upper jaw

Breadth of the crown of the second incisor, upper jaw

Breadth of the four incisors, in situ, upper jaw

Longitudinal extent of grinding surface of the molares, bicuspides included, of one "1

side, upper jaw J

Length of the enamelled crown of the canine tooth, upper jaw

Breadth of ditto

Length of the lower jaw from the condyle to the anterior surfece of the sockets "1

of the incisors /

Length of the ramus of the lower jaw

Greatest breadth of ditto

Interspace between the mental /oramina

iDcb.
3

lin.
7

inch.

4
10

Un.
6

172 MR. OWEN ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF ORANG UTANS.

and the application of the laniaries to be occasional, and probably defensive in most
cases. The utility of formidable canine teeth to the Orangs, whose stature makes them
conspicuous and of easy detection to a carnivorous enemy, is obvious ; such weapons,
in connexion with the general muscular strength of the Pongos, may enable them to
otfer a successful defence against a large feUne antagonist ; but in the smaller species,
which we have been describing, to which concealment would be easier, the canines are of
relatively smaller size, and those of the lower jaw are so placed as to be worn down by
the lateral incisors of the upper jaw ; they were reduced in the specimen described, to the
level of the other teeth ; and the points of the upper canines were also much worn. The
size, forms, and proportions of the teeth which relate more immediately to the food of
the Orangs, viz., the molars and incisors, show indisputably that the Simia Morio de-
rives its sustenance from the same kind of food as the larger Orangs. The singular
thickness or antero-posterior diameter of the incisors, which are worn down to a flattened
surface, like molar teeth, show that they are put to rough work ; and it is probable that
their common use is to tear and scrape away the tough fibrous outer covering of the
cocoa-nut, and, perhaps, to gnaw through the denser shell.

PLATE XXX.

Fig. 1 . Side view of the cranium of an immature Simia Wurmbii, showing part of
the permanent series of teeth in place.

2. Front view of the jaws of the same.

3. Grinding surface of the teeth of the lower jaw, (the mark X denotes the

lateral deciduous incisor not yet thrust out.)

PLATE XXXL

Side view of the cranium of the adult /Simia Wurmbii ; with a front view of
the incisors and canines.

PLATE XXXIL

Base view of the cranium of the adult Simia Wurmbii.

PLATE XXXin.

Side view of the cranium of Simia Morio, with a front view of the incisors
and canines.

PLATE XXXIV.
Base view of the cranium of Simia Morio.

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[ 173 ]

XIV. A Synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira ; with the principal Synonyms, Portuguese
Names, and Characters of the new Genera and Species. By the Rev. R. T. Lowe, M.A.,
Corr. Memb. of the Zool. Soc.

Communicated March 28, 1837.

Ord. ACANTHOPTERYGIAN^.

Fam. Percid^.

ApOGON rex Mullorum, Cuv. — " Alcaraz," Maderensi-Lusitanice. Ouv. if Val. Hist.
Nat. des Poissons, ii. p. 143.
Mullus iraberbis, Ldnn. Syst. Nat., ed. 12. 1. 496. No. 3. Rarior.
Pomatoraus telescopus, Risso. — " Ribaldo preto," or "R. do Alto." Risso, Hist. Nat., iii.
387.
P. telescopium, Cuv. S^ Val. ii. 171. t. 24. Rariss.
Serranus Cabrilla, Cuv. &; Val.—" Garoupa." Cuv. &; Val. ii. 223. t. 29.
Perca Cabrilla, Linn. i. 488. No. 33.
The smooth Serranus, Yarrell's British Fishes, i. p. 9. Vulgatiss.

Is the West Indian appellation " Grouper," derived from the Portuguese name
for this fish ?
Serranus Anthias, Cuv. &; Val.—" Imperador," or " Castanheta." Ouv. «f Val. ii. 250. t.3i.
"Anthias sacer, BL," Ouv.
Labrus Anthias, Linn. i. 474. No. 3. Vulgaris.
Serranus fimbriatus, nob. — " Mero."

S.fusco-nigricans, luteo submaculatus, maculis evanescentibus ; subtus croceus : pinnd
caudali, dorsalisque analisque parte molli, postice rotundatis, nigris, candido fimbri-
atis : spinis pinnee dorsalis analisque breviter filamentosis : operculo spinis tribus,
latis, distinctis : prceoperculo deorsum subsinuato, denticulato : ossibus intermaxil-
laribus esquamosis.
D.lI + lSy. 16; A.3 + 8; P. 18; V. 1 +5; C. ^^i^^; M.B.7; Vert. 24.

S. fimbriatus, nob. in Trans, of the Cam. Phil. Soc, vol. vi. p.\. t.l.

S. marginatus, nob. in Proceedings of the Zool. Soc. 1833, i. p. 142. Rarior.

From one to two feet and a half long. In colour very like a Tench (Tinea vulga-
ris, Cuv.) ; but the sides are mottled, or irregularly spotted with yellow. I have
reluctantly changed the name to avoid confusion with Serranus marginalis, Cuv.
and Val. (Holocentrus marginatum, Lacep.).
Serranus fuscus, nob. — " Badeijo," or " Badeija."

VOL. II. PART III. 2 A

174 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

S.fusco-nigricans, macuiis griseis ohscuris confiuentihus subvariegatus s. marmoratus :
pinnd caudali truncatd, supra suhlobatd s. suhemarginatd, dorsalique postice angu-
latd, analique postice truncatd, nigris : spinis pinna: dorsalis analisque simplicibus s.
exappendiculatis : operculo spinis tribus ; duobus inferioribus angustis ; superiore ob-
soletd, rudimentali, squammiformi : praopercido deorsum subsinuato, obsolete denti-
culato : ossibus intermaxillaribus deorsum squamosis.

D. 11 + 15v. 16; A.3 + 11;P. i6; V. 1 + 5 ; C.^^^^ iM.B. 7 ; Vert. 24.

S. fuscus, nob. in Trans, of the Cam. Phil. Soc, vol. vi. pt. 1.
Choetodon Leachii, Bowdich, Exc. in Mad. &; Pto. Sto. p. 124 (in part). Rarior.
In size, habit, and general colour, very like the last ; but the spots on the
sides are light gray, and more confused or indistinct. An excellent fish for the
table. Mr. Bowdich's Chwtodon Leachii is a mixture or confusion of the present
fish with the following.
Polyprion cernium, Val.—" Cherne" Sherny or Shern, Anglice. Cuv. 8f Vol. iii. p. 21.
^42.
Choetodon Leachii, Bowd., Exc. in Mad. p. 124 (in part).
Couch's Serranus, or Serranus Couchii, Yarr. i. 12. Vulgaris.

One of the commonest and generally most esteemed fish for the table. It grows
to an immense size, often Aveighing from fifty to one hundred pounds or more.
I have Mr. Yarrell's concurrence to the above reference of Mr. Couch's Stone-
Basse ; from which this common Mediterranean and Maderan species appears
occasionally to visit the coasts of Cornwall, following pieces of floating wreck or
timber.
Priacanthus fulgens, nob. — " Alfaraz," or " Realista," or " Alfonsin de Rolo."

P. caudd integrd, truncatd : pinnd dorsali et anali postice rotundatis ; ventralibus cor-

pori adnatis.
D. 9v. 10+13; A. 3+14 V. 15; P. 17—19; V. 1 +5; C. 18 v. 19 ; M.B. 6;

Vert. 23.
P. fulgens, nob. in Trans, of the Cam. Phil. Soc, vol. vi. p. 1. t. 2.
An P. macrophthalmus, Cuv. &; Val. iii. 97?
An P. boops, Eorund. iii. 103?

Serranus rufus, Boivdich, Ex. in Mad. p. 122, note? Rarior.
Beryx splendens, nob. — "Alfonsin."

B. ruber : pinnis ventralibus, radiis mollibus duodecim : membrand branchiostegd novem-
radiatd.

D. 4 + 14 V. 15 ; A. 4 + 30 ; P. 1 + 17 ; V. 1 + 12 ; C. |^ ; M.B. 9 ; Vert. 24.

B. splendens nob. in Proc. of the Zool. Soc. 1833, i. p. 142. Trans, of the Cam..
Phil. Soc, vol. vi. p. I. t. 3. Vulgatiss.

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 175

I have reason to suspect the existence of another species in these seas, con-
founded under the name of Alfomin, which may perhaps prove to be the true
Ber. decadachjlus of Cuvier and Valenciennes.
Trachinus Draco, Linn. — " Aranha do Mar," S]/st. Nat. 1. 435. Cuv. &j Val. iii. 238.

The great Weever, Yarr. i. p. 20. Rarior.
Trachinus vipera, Cuv. ^ Val. — "Aranha," Cuv. &f Val. iii. 254.

Lesser Weever, Yarr. i. 25. Rarior.
Sphyraena vulgaris, Cuv. Sf Val. — " Bicuda," Cuv. fif Val. iii. 327.
Esox Sphyraena, Linn. I. 515. Vulgaris.

This is the Spet of Languedoc ; the Sea-pike {Luccio marino) of Italy. It is
unknown in Britain.
MuUus Surmuletus, Linn. — " Salmoneta," Syst. Nat., I. 496. — Cuv. ^ Val. iii. 4-33.
Striped Red Mullet, Yarr. 1. 27. Sat frequens.

Fam. Triglid^.

Trigla Cuculus, Linn. — " Cabra," or sometimes " Ruivo," Syst. Nat. 1. 497. — Out'. ^■
Val. iv. 26.— "T. pini, Bloch," Cuv. &; Val.

T. lineata (Mont.), Flem. Brit. Anim. I. 215. No. 151.

The Red Gurnard, Cuckoo Gurnard, Yarr. 1. 34. Rarior.

Pennant's figure of his " Grey Gurnard," t. 54 (1st edition) appears to have
been taken from a gray variety of this species, rather than from the true Gray
Gurnard {Trigla Gurnardus, Linn.) ; which has the pectoral fins short, and the
sides of the dorsal groove unarmed. But neither this variety nor species occurs in
Madera. However, in April 1827 I once saw several specimens of another gur-
nard, taken in a sean upon the sandy beach of the Picdade, near Canical, at the
east end of the island, which, from their large blue pectoral fins, were probably
the Trigla Hirundo, L., or Sapphirine Gurnard. But at the time I unfortunately
neglected to examine or preserve them, and the species has neither since occurred
to me, nor do the fishermen appear at all acquainted with it.
Scorpaena Scrofa, lAnn. — " Carneiro," Linn. 1. 453. Cuv. 8f Val. iv. 288. Vulgaris.
Sebastes imperialis, Cuv. &f Val. ? — " Boca negra," or " Pai de Goto."

S. rostra subproducto, acuto : corpore oblongo, rubro, fasciis quinque verticalibus oper-
culoque fuscis ; quid intus nigra : spinis praoperculi marginalibus 4 ». 5 validis,
subuncinatis , distinctis, subecqualibus : costd suborbitali (cquali, subinermi s. obsolete
dentatd : pinnarum pectoralium radiis duobus primis octoque ultimis simplicibus ; no-
vem intermediis ramosis.

D. 12 -f 13 ; P. 19 ; V. 1 + 5 ; A. 3 -f 6 ; C. 16 ; M.B. 7 ; Vert. 25.

Sebastes imperialis, Cuv. Sf Val. iv. 336 ?

" Scorpaena dactyloptera, Laroche." — Risso, Hist. Nat., iii. 369. Rarior.

2a2

176 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

Of the five nearly equal prseopercular spines, the uppermost but one is still
decidedly the largest. In almost every point, indeed, the Maderan fish answers
to the description above referred to in the Histoire Naturelle of MM. Cuvier
and Valenciennes. A specimen examined had, however, seven csecal appendages ;
and the number of vertebra is certainly only twenty-five in the Maderan fish ;
whilst the remark at p. 339 of Cuvier and Valenciennes upon their Sebastes
imperialis, " Son squelette ressemble k celui de la sebaste du Nord, h I'exception
des legers details de la tete," seems to intimate that the number of the vertebra in
their fish, {Seb. imperialis,) was the same as in /S. Norvegicus, namely thirty-one.
Sebastes Kuhlii, nob. — " Requeime."

S. rostro subproducto, acuta: corpore subovali ; dorso antice gibbo ; rubra, maculis
olivaceo-jlavis, capiteque strigis flavis picto : are intus cameo ; guld superne macula
rubrd .- spinis praoperculi subquinis, inaqualibus , abbreviatis : casta suborbitali in-
aquali, dentatd: spind solitarid in corpore supra basin pinnarum pectoralium j harum
radiis omnibus simplicibus.

D. 12-f ,10;P. 17; V. l-f 5; A. 3 + 6;C. 16 ; M.B. 7 ; Vert. 24.

Scorpsena Kuhlii, Bawd., Exc. in Mad., p. 123. Vulgaris.

A very handsome, though extremely common fish : its usual size is about a foot

long.
Sebastes Maderensis, nab. — " Rocaz."

S. corpore oblongo, dorso antice gibbo, olivaceo-rubro, fasciis latis verticalibus fuscis :
capite latissimo, magna ; rostro abbreviato, obtuso : ore guldque intus pallide carneis,
immaculatis : spinis praoperculi marginalibus quatuor, rectis, parviusculis, subeequa-
libus : costd suborbitali inaquali, valide spinosd : spinis duabus in corpore supra basin
pinnarum pectoralium ; harum radio prima decemque ultimis simplicibus ; quatuor
intermediis ramosis.

D. 12 + 10; P. 15; V. 1+5; A. 3 + 6; C. |±^';M.B. 7.

Scorpaena Maderensis, Ckiv. 8f Vol. ix. 463. Vulgaris.

A small pretty species, four or five inches long ; found very commonly in pools
left by the tide amongst the rocks.

Fam. SciiENiD^.
Pristipoma Bennettii, nob. — " Roncador," " Roqueirao," or "Salmao."

P. dorso pinnisque maculdque operculari olivaceo vel eereo-fuscis : lateribus chalybeis ;
ventre argentea : membrand branchiostegd operculoque intus aurantiis ; cauddfurcatd.

D. 12+16; A. 3 +12 v. 13; P. 17; V. 1 + 5 ; C. ^^^^;t_^i ; M.B. 7 ; Vert. 26

Rarior.

From eight to ten or twelve inches long. Except the spot above the angle of

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 177

the operculum, immaculate ; the dorsal and caudal fins being of the same uniform,
rich olive or yellowish-brown umbre, as the back. The anal fin is paler, and
the pectorals are brighter, but of the same tint, which also in some specimens
spreads quite down the sides of the body. The sixteenth ray of the dorsal fin,
and twelfth or thirteenth of the anal, are double, or forked to their base.

Notwithstanding the external differences just indicated, I should scarcely have
ventured, in the absence of better materials for comparison, to found upon them
a new species, in a genus so intricate as Pristipoma, had they not been corrobo-
rated by certain important anatomical characters, at variance particularly with
those assigned by MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes to their P. Rogerii {Hist. Nat.
V. p. 254), the species which in other respects appeared most nearly allied to the
Maderan fish. Its name is a tribute due to the memory of my much-regretted
friend, E. T. Bennett, Esq., late Secretary to this Society.

Glyphisodon luridus, Cuv. 8( Val. — " Castanheta Ferreira," Cuv. % Val. v. 475, and ix.
509. Rarior.

Heliastes limbatus, Cuv. % Val. — " Castanheta baia," Cuv. Sf Val. ix- 511. Rarior.

The above slight modification of the name "Heliases " is proposed, in deference
to the common rules of Greek derivatives.

Fam. Sparid^.

Sargus Rondeletii, Cuv. Bj Val. — " Sargo," Cuv. % Val. vi. 14. t. 141. Vulgaris.
Sargus Salviani, Cuv. ^ Val. — " Seifia," or " Sargo amarello," Cuv- &; Val. vi. 28. t. 142.

Rarior.
Charax cervinus, nob. — " Sargo Veado."

C. oblongius cuius, utrinque subattenuatus, purpurascenti-aureo-fuscus, strigis vertica-
libus quinque fuscioribus, earum interstitiis latioribus : rostra producto : labris tu-
midis, crassissimis : dentibus incisoribus superioribus duodecim vel undecim ; infe-
rioribus octo vel novem ; molar ibus par vis, paucis, biseriatis : pinnis verticalibus lati-
usculis ; dorsali antice elevatd.

D. 1 1 -1- 12 ; A. 3 + 1 1 ; P. 15 ; V. 1 -f 5 ; C. ^^^j ; M.B. 6 ; Vert. 24.

Rarior.
Pagnis vulgaris, Cuv. Sj Val. — " Pargo," Cuv. &; Val. vi. p. 142. t. 148.

The Braize or Becker, Yarr. i. 102. Vulgaris.
Pagellus centrodontus, Cuv. Sf Val. — " Goraz," Cuv. S^ Val. vi. 180.

Aurata massiUensis, Risso, Hist. Nat., iii. 357. No- 269.

The Sea Bream, Yarr. i. 107. Vulgatiss.
Pagellus acarne, Cuv. ^ Val. — " Bezugo," Cuv. 8f Val. vi. 191. Vulgaris.
Pagellus rostratus, nob. — " Bica."

P.roseus, immaculatus ; corpore avail, subanguloso ; dorso elevato, carinato : rostra

178 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

subproducto, ore prominente ; dentibus molaribus biseriatis : prteoperculo basi angu-
lato ; limbo punctata et striata, striis rectis, (Bquidistantibus : lined laterali utrinque
curvatd, antice immaculatd.
D. 12 + 10 ; A. 3 + 9 V. 10 ; P. 15 ; V. 1 + 5 ; C. ^J'^^yui ' ^•^- ^ ' ^^^^- 24-
Rara.

The teeth are truly those of a Pagellus, those in front exactly resembling the
front teeth in Pagel. centradantus. In other respects it much resembles Pagrus
orphus, Cuv. Sf Val. vi. 150. t. 149.
Cantharus griseus, Cuv. 8f Val. — " Chaupa," Cuv. ^ Val. vi. 333,
Pagrus lineatus, Flem. Brit. Anim., p. 211. Na. 138.
The Black Bream, Yarr. i. 114. Sat frequens.
Box vulgaris, Cuv. 8,' Val—"Boga," Cuv. & Val. vi. 348. t. 161.

Spai-us Boops, Linn. i. 469. Vulgatiss.
Box salpa, Cuv. 8f Val.—" Salema," Cuv. &i Val. vi. 357. t. 162.
Sparus Salpa, Linn. 470. Vulgaris.

One of the handsomest but most worthless of fishes.
Oblada melanura, Cuv. Sf Val. — " Dobrada," or " Dobradica," Cuv. &f Val. vi. 366. t.
162 bis.
Sparus Melanurus, Linn. i. 468. Vulgaris.

This fish has the rather anomalous character of having the lower lobe of the
caudal fin larger, or with one more long ray than the upper.

Fam. M^NiD^.

Smaris Royeri, Bawd. — " Bacairdo," or " Boqueirda."

Sm. Royeri, Bawd. Exc. in Mad., p. 123./. 26.— Cuv. 8f Val. vi. 421.
Sm. insidiator, Cuv. ^ Val. vi. 414.

Sm. angustatus, Cuv. 8f Val. (Scisena angustata, Soland. Park.) vi. 421. Vulgatiss.
There can be little doubt that the above three synonyms belong to one and
the same species, viz. the very common Bacairdo of Madera, of which the follow-
ing is the correct fin-formula :
D. 13v. 12+ lOv. 9; A. 3+ 10 ; P. 18 v. 17; V. 1 + 5 ; C. 17 ; M.B. 6 ; Vert.24.

The Portuguese name, signifying " a gulph, whirlpool, pit, abyss, or swallow,"
(Vieyra), is probably derived from "Boca," " a mouth, hole, or opening," V.,
and no doubt refers to the peculiarly protractile mouth, instead of " denoting
that it is found in deep waters," as supposed by Bowdich.

Fam. Bramid^e, nab. in Trans, of the Cam. Phil. Sac.
Gen. PoLYMixiA, nob.
Corpus elliptico-oblongum compressum ; squamis asperrimis, sat magnis.

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 179

Caput parvura, declive, nuchiique squamosum, epunctatiun. Rostrum brevissi-
mum, obtusum, nudum : maxilla inferiore squamosa, cirrisque geminis longis,
symphysi subtus affixis. Ossa intennaxillaria, omnia palati, dentaria, linguaque
dentibus minutis creberrimis scabra. Operculum inerme, rotundatum, squamo-
sum. Preeoperculum squamosum ; limbo inferiore anguloque nudo, striato, mar-
gine eroso-denticulato. Interoperculum nudum, minutissime denticulatum.

Pinna dorsalis et pinna analis nudse, antice elevatse, spinis debilibus, inconspicuis,
brevibus, paucis ; basi in sulco sita, squamisque marginalibus sulci utrinque
celata. Pinna ventrales septem-radiatie ; radio primo simplici, at molli, articu-
late.

Cauda furcata.

Membrana branchiostega quadriradiata.
Polymixia nobilis, nob. — " Salmone'ta do Alto." Trans, of the Cam. Phil. Soc, vol. vi.
p. \. t. 4. Rarior-

This curious new genus is perhaps more closely allied to the Percidte than to
the true Chatodontida. Viewed as one end of an osculant group, connecting
these two families together, by means of the old-established genus Brama, Bl.,
and the following new one Leirus, nob., it is an interesting addition to our ca-
talogues, to which it is only most extraordinary that it has not sooner been ad-
mitted, being far from uncommon, and a well-known market -fish, deservedly held
in the very highest estimation for the table.
Brama Raii, Guv- 8f Val.—"Freira," Cuv. Sj Val. vii. 281. t. 190.

Brama marina, Flem., i. 210. No. 135.

Ray's Bream, Yarr. U ?•

Toothed Gilt-head, Penn., Brit. ZooL, Ed. l""" iii. 243. t. 43. Rarior.

Gen. Leirus, nob.

Corpus ellipticum, compressum, squamis deciduis, Isevibus, parvis.
Caput parvum, declive, nuchaque nudum, punctato-gelatinosum. Rostrum brevis-
simum, nudum, truncatum. Os parvum : maxilla superior obtusissima, inferiore
brevior, truncata. Denies minuti, simplices, in utraque maxilla uniseriati : pa-
latini nulli. Opercula inermia, squamosa, marginibus serratis.
/ Pinna dorsalis et pinna analis squamosee, postice latiores.

Cauda subfurcata.

Membrana branchiostega septemradiata.
Leirus Bennettii, nob. — " Leiro." Proc. of the Zool. Soc. 1833. i. p. 143. Trans, of the
Cam. Phil. Soc, vol. vi. p. 1. t. 5. Rarior.

Another new and very distinct genus, closely allied to Brama, and through it
to the preceding genus Polymixia ; whilst on the other hand it approaches the
true Chtetodontidee in more points than even Brama does. Each of these three

180 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

genera, however, offers characters so much at variance with those of other
constituted famihes, whilst they possess collectively so strong an air of family
resemblance amongst themselves, that I have not hesitated to consider them as
the nucleus of a new small family group, for which, in the Cambridge Transac-
tions, I have proposed the name of BramidtE.

Fam. ScoMBRiDyE.
Scomber scomber, Linn. — " Cavalla." Linn. i. 492. No. 1.
S. scombrus, Cuv. Sf Val. viii. 6.
The Mackerel, Yarr. i. 121. Vulgatiss.
Thynnus vulgaris, Cuv. &; Val. — " Atum Rabilha," Cuv. if Val. viii. 58. t. 210.
Scomber Thynnus, Linn. i. 693. No. 3.
The Tunny, Yarr. i. 134. Vulgatiss.

Three other species or varieties of Tunny proper are distinguished by the
fishermen, under the names of "Atum Patudo," "Atum Albacora," and "Atum
Avoador."
Thynnus pelamys, Cuv. S,- Val.—" Gaiado," Cuv. 8f Val. viii. 113. t. 214.
Scomber Pelamis, Linn. i. 492. No. 2.
Tlie Bonito, Yarr. i. 140. Vulgatiss.

Gen. Aplurus, nob.

Corpus elongatum, compressum, capiteque cute coriaceo, retrorsum echinato-scabro

asperrimum: abdomine carinato : postice utrinque planum, simplex s. ecarinatum.
Caput magnum, simplex, inerme. Rostrum brevissimum. Apertura branchialis

rictusqne vastissima. Operculum et PrtEoperculum inermia, plana, integerrima.

Maxilla superior inferiore brevior. Denies exteriores in utraque maxilla unise-

riati, sequidistantes, compressi, subrecurvi, serrati ; quibusdam praelongis : inte-

riores in superiore (intermaxillares) anteriores iii — v, ad apicem positi, maximi ;

posteriores (s. Vomeris) i — iii, palatique plures, uniseriati, minores.
Pinna dorsales duae : prior angusta, spinis debilibus, brevibus, subaequalibus :

secunda triangulari, antice elevata, postice in pinnulas spurias subsecedente.

Pinna analis secundae dorsali simillima.
Cauda f areata.

Membrana branchiostega septem-radiata.
CcBca plura. Vesica aerea parva.
Aplurus simplex, nob. — " Escolar." — Tetragonurus ? simplex. Proceed. Zool. Sac. 1833.

i.p. 143.
A. tola purpureo-fusca ; 3 ad4 v. 5 pedes longa; muriculato-squammulosa ; s.squam-

mulis in spinellas subradiantes, adpressas, postice abeuntibus, retrorsum scaber-

rima, quasi furfur acea .

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 181

D. 14 V. 15—^—11 ; A. T-V— II ; P. 14 ; V. 1 + 5 ; C. fere 20 ; Vert. 32.
Rarior.

The flesh of this very singular species is said to be extremely rich, and the
bones, it is afiirmed, abound in an oil or marrow, which, when they are sucked
incautiously, produces speedy diarrhoea. The fish is not uncommonly brought
into the market, where its flesh is sold by the pound ; but it is seldom seen ex-
cept at the tables of the Portuguese. Its place in the system seems to be next
Thyrsites, Cuv. & Val.
Prometheus atlanticus, nob.—" Coelho," v. " Peixe Coelho."

Gempylus Prometheus, Cuv. 8; Val. viii. p. 213. t. 222. (piscisjunr.)

Solandri, Cuv. &f Val. viii. p. 215. {piscis adult.)

(Scomber macrophthalmus, Soland.) Cuv. &f Val. Vulgatiss.
Lepidopus argyreus, Cuv. &; Val.—" Espada," v. " Peiwe Espada," Cuv. &; Val. viii. p. 223.

t. 223. L. lusitanicus. Leach. Zool. Misc. ii. p. 7. t. 62.

Lepidopus or peite espada, of the Tagus, Bowd. Ex., p. 10./. 1.

The Scabbard-fish, Yarr. Brit. Fish., i. 176. Rarior.

Gen. Alepisaurus, nob.

Corpus elongatum, attenuatum, capiteque omuino nudum, valde compressum ;

postice utrinque carinatum.
Rostrum productum. Rictus magnus, pone oculos longe diductus. Opercula

inermia, Integra ; operculo et suboperculo radiato-striatis. Intermaxillaria ser-

rulata. Palata dentibus uniseriatis, validis, compressis, subrecurvis, quibusdam

praelongis armata.
Pinna dorsales duae : prior alta, a nucha longe per dorsum producta : posterior

parva, triangulari adiposa. Ventrales parvae, abdominales. Analis parva an-

gusta, antice alta. Caudalis magna, furcata (lobo superiore producto).
Membrana branchiostega septem-radiata.
{CcBca vesicaque aeris nulla).
Alepisaurus ferox, nob.—" Golpim," " Cavallo," or " Bicuda da India," Proc. of the

Zool. Soc. 1833, i. p. 104. Trans. Zool. Soc. i. p. 128. t. 19. (imperfect). Id.

p. 395. t. 59. Rariss.

Two more specimens have occurred in the spring of the present year ; one

about two feet, the other about three feet and a half long. The fin-formula was :
In the smaller specimen,

D. 46 ; A. 15 ; P. 14 ; V. 9 ; C. LU]^.

' 9 + IX

In the larger specimen the dorsal fin was injured at the hinder end, and had

only thirty-nine rays left. The others were,

A.16;P.14;V.9;C.iJ^^.

VOL. II. PART III. 2 B

182 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

In each the hranchiostegous membrane was on both sides seven-rayed ; and the
joints of the spine, which was soft and flexible, or almost merely cartilaginous,
and when dry fragile, thin, and light almost as tissue-paper, were in number fifty.

The viscera are singularly simple. The stomach is a vast, oblong, simple,
black sac, filhng the whole abdominal cavity (when distended with food) from
one end to the other. The intestine is perfectly straight and simple, originating
remarkably forward, even from the very entrance into the stomach or oesophagus,
with no trace of c(Bca at the pylorus. The liver is small ; and there is no air-
bladder. This remarkable simpUcity of internal organization reminds one
strongly of the Blenny family {Gohida) ; to which there are not wanting points
also of external resemblance, such as the general smoothness, want of scales,
feebleness of the fin-rays, &c. (Confer Anarrhichas.)

The stomach of these two individuals was found completely gorged with food.
In that of the smaller I found specimens of three distinct species of Hyaleea, of
Carinaria mediterranea, a Limacina, Cranchia, Loligo ; and various pelagic Iso-
podous Crustacea in great numbers. Of fishes, it contained two small speci-
mens of Capros aper, Lac. ; two of the young of some Shark {Squalida), too
much decomposed to be made out ; and a single specimen of the fry of its own
species ! only two inches and a half long, but perfectly formed and entire, except
the tail-fin, which was quite decomposed. The teeth, it is highly interesting to
observe, had attained, even in this minute specimen, their full development,
especially in size, being even proportionately larger than in the more full-grown
specimens. In the lower jaw there is a pair of moderately-sized ones at the
tip ; and at some distance behind these there is another pair of vastly larger
size, locking between two corresponding pairs, one behind the other, in the
upper jaw. In the upper jaw there is a pair, a Uttle backward from the tip, of
large moveable teeth, placed close together, side by side, one upon each palatine
bone, near its anterior symphysis ; and at some distance behind these, so as to
allow the long pair of the lower jaw to lock into the interval, a smaller pair
further apart ; each tooth of the pair being exactly opposite the other. The
rest of the teeth are exactly as in the larger specimens.

The stomach of the larger of the two individuals above-mentioned contained
three specimens of Capros aper, Lac. ; two small ones of Sphyrasna vulgaris, Cuv.,
four or five inches long ; a pretty large Garoupa {Serranus cabrilla, Cuv. & Val.),
five or six inches long ; the beak of a Cuttle-fish ; a Hyalcea ; and an Idotea.

I have had no opportunity of accurately examining the " Sword-fish" of Ma-
dera, which is occasionally taken, but have no reason to doubt its being the true
Xiphias gladius, L. It is called by the Portuguese " Peixe Ayulha;" though
the fish more commonly known by that name is the Gar-fish {Belone vulgaris,
Cuv.).

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA, 183

Naucrates ductor, Cuv. ^ Vol. — " Romdro," Ckv. 8f Vol. viii. p. 312. t. 232.
Gasterosteus ductor, Linn. i. 489. No. 2.
The Pilot-fish, Yarr. i. 149. Rarior.
Lichia glaycos, Cm. 8f Val. — " Ranhosa," " Tronbeta," or " Pelumbeta," Cuv. &f Val.
viii. 358. t. 234.
Scomber Glaucus, Linn. i. 494. No. 5. Vulgatiss.
Caranx Cuvieri, noh. — " Chicharro."

C. corpore graciliore ; linece lateralis angusttB parte posteriore recta, anteriori cur-
^ vatd eequali; scutellis 94 ad 99 armatd.

Cuv. &!Val.ix.p. 18.
Seriola picturata, Bowd. Exc. p. 123./. 27. (pessima.) Vulgatiss.

First properly indicated as a distinct species from the common Horse Mackerel
of the British Channel (C trachurus, L., Yarr. i. 154. Cuv. &; Val. ix. 11. t. 246.),
by MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes, as above cited.
Caranx luna Geoffr., Cuv. Sf Val. — " Enxare'o," Cuv. ^ Val. ix. 80.

Cituia Bancksii, Risso, Hist. Nat. iii. p. 422. No. 338./. 13. Rarior.
Temnodon saltator, Cuv. S^ Val. — " Anchova," Cuv. Sf Val. ix. 225. t. 260.
Gasterosteus Saltatrix, Linn. i. 491. No. 7.

" Horse Mackerel of New York, U. S." (Cmj;. &j Val. loc. cit. p. 230.) Rarior.
Coryphsena hippurus, Cuv. S^ Val. ? — " Dourado," Cuv. &; Val. t. ix. p. 278. & 266. ? An
^ potius C. Hippunoides Rafin. ? See Cuv. &; Val. vol. ix. 287. Rarior.

The only specimen I have seen was twenty-two inches and a quarter long.
Zeus Faber, Linn. — " Peixe Gallo," Linn. i. 454. No. 3. Cuv. 8f Val. x. p. 6.
The Dory, or Doree, Yarr. i. 162. Sat frequens.

Not inferior in flavour to the common European or English John Dory, from
which it differs in no point whatever of external character.
Capros aper, Cuv. Sf Val. — " Tinta empe," Cuv. Sf Val. x. p. 30. t. 281.
Zeus aper, Linn. i. 455.
Zeus Childrenii, Bowd. Exc. in Mad. p. 124.
The Boar-fish, Yarr. i. 169. Vulgaris.
Lampris lauta, nob. — " Peixe Cravo."

L. lingud Itevi: membrandbranchiostegd sexradiatd: caudd ecarinatd: vertebris 69.

D. 1 -I- 54 ; A. 1 + 39 ; P. 1 -f 25 ; V. 16 ; C. pt^. M. B. 6 utrinque ; Vert. 49.

6 -|- lA

In another specimen the fin-formula was
D. 1 4- 54 ; A. 1 + 41 ; P. 1 -f 24 ; V. 17.
Rarior.

The general agreement of this fish with the descriptions of L. guttatus, Retz,
is very close ; and to that species, notwithstanding certain important differences,
I had formerly referred it, known, as it long remained to me, only by the exa-

2 b2

184 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

mination of a single specimen. MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes, however, state,
in the 10th volume of their Histoire, the number of the vertebrae in that
species to be only forty-three. I have also lately obtained the fin-formula
of another specimen, and ascertained the smoothness of the tongue to be constant
in several more of the Maderan fish. The strongest grounds for its specific
distinction from the old-established species are, that the only specimen ex-
amined as to these two points had six vertebrae more, and one branchiostegous
ray less, than L. guttatus, Retz, is described to possess. It may, however, pos-
sibly prove identical with L. guttatus of Nilsson and Faber, which had also only
six branchiostegous rays.

Fam. MuGiLiD^.

Atherina presbyter, Cuv. 8f Val. — " Guelro," Cuv. &i Val. x. 439.
The Atherine, or Sandsmelt, Yarr. i. 214. Vulgatiss.

It is a curious fact that the Atherine of the Canaries is, according to MM. Cu-
vier and Valenciennes, a different species from that of Madera, viz. the true
A. hepsetus, L.
Mugil chelo, Cuv. — " Tainha da moda," Cuv. R. An. ii. p. 232. Cuv. S^ Val. Hist. xi. p. 50.
M. cephalus, Penn. Brit. Zool. iii. 329. t. 66. No. 158.
M. labrosus, Risso, Hist. Nat. iii. 389. No. 304.

The Thick-lipped Grey Mullet, Yarr. i. 207.

IstD. 4 ; 2nd 1 + 8 ; A. 3 -I- 9 ; P. 1 + 17 ; V. 1 + 5 ; C.|^^|iiiXJ; M. B. 6; Vert.24.

Rarior.

This fish is altogether more slender and shapely than the next species; but
is at once distinguished by its perfectly smooth and even upper lip, which is
also smaQer and thinner than in M. corrugatus, and has the edge very di-
stinctly ciliated. The suborbitaries are more slender, narrow, and strongly cre-
nulated, but not notched, yet showing just the ends of the maxillaries when the
mouth is closed. Several scales above the axil of the pectoral fins are more
pointed than the rest, but not enlarged or elongated.

Mugil corrugatus, nob. — " Tainha."

M. labro superiore lata, crassissimo, antice corrugato : intermaxillarium extremitatibus,
ore clauso, conspicuis : suborbitariis subemarginatis, minutissime crenulatis : fora-
minibus nasalibus approximatis.

lstD.4 ; 2nd 1 -f- 8 ; A.3 + 9;P.l + 17 ; V. 1 + 5; C.^^Jiii|Jj; M.B. 6; Vert.24.

Vulgatiss.

There is no enlarged or pointed scale above the pectoral fin, or adipose veil
at the fore and hinder edge of the orbit, in this species, which is the common
" Tainha," simply so called, or Gray Mullet of the island. The ends of the

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 185

maxillaries appear altogether below the commissure or canthus of the closed
mouth, as in M. labeo, Cuv. & Val., or M. chelo.

Fam. GoBiD/E.

Blenniuspalmicornis, Cuv. S^Val.—" Cahoz," "Frade," or " Peixefrade," Cuv.&fVal. xi.
p. 214; haud Yarr.
B. pholis, Risso iii. 232. No. 1 19.

D. 33 ; A. 21 ; P. 13 ; V. 2 + 1 ; C. L±J^ ■ M. B. 6.

4 + V

Vulgaris ; cum Sal. atlantico, inter rupes ah cestu relictas. About six inches long.
My specimens certainly belong to this species.
B. parvicornis, Cuv. &^ Val. xi. p. 257.
D. 32. A. 21. P. 13. V. 2. C. 13.
Blennius inaequalis, Cuv. &; Val. xi. 230. Rariss.

A single specimen only, 2^ inches long, has occurred, which I had not an
opportunity of examining, but which, judging from Miss Young's notes and
drawing, must be referred to B. incsqualis rather than to B. trigloides, Cuv. &
Val. In this figure the upper tentacle is placed upon the vertex, behind rather
than between the eyes ; so that I am not entirely fi-ee from suspicion that it may
prove an imperfectly observed B. Montagui, Flem. ; and this rather than B.
Artedii, Cuv. & Val., though the latter has been established from Maderan
specimens'.
Pholis laevis, Flem., Cuv. 8f Val. t. ix. p. 269.

Shanny, or Smooth Shan, Yarr. v. i. p. 230.
Salarias atlanticus, Cuv. gf Val.—" Cavallo," Cuv. &f Val. xi. 321. Vulgatiss.

Always characterized by an orange-red patch in the middle of the pectoral,
and on the upper and lower parts of the caudal fins.
Tripterygion nasus, Risso. Rkso iii. 241. No. 131. Cuv. «f Val. xi. 409.

D.3— 17— (2+ 10); A.2 + 25; P. 16; V.2; C.^ + ' + ''^; M. B. 6.

6 + I + III

Longit. 2-jV unc. Rariss.
Gobius niger, Linn. — Cuv. Sf Val. t. xii. p. 9.
Black Goby, Yarr. v. i. p. 251.

Fam. Labrid.e.

lulis turcica, Risso. — " Pevre verde," Risso, Hist. Nat. iii. p. 312. No. 212. f. 21.
La Girelle turque, Cuv., R. Anim. ii. p. 258. Vulgaris.

I Messrs. Cu\-ier and Valenciennes' list of Blennies, in their Uth volume, contains the following species
from Madera: B. trigloides, p. 228. B. Artedii, p. 231. h. parvicornis, p. 257.

186 REV. R. T, LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

lulis speciosa, Risso. — " Peixe de Rolo," Risso, iii. p. 311. No. 211./. 20. Rariss.
lulls Giofredi, Risso. — "Peixe do Rei," Risso, iii. p. 310. No. 210.

La Girdle rouge, Cuv. R. An. ii. p. 257. Vulgaris.
Crenilabrus caninus, nob. — "Peixe Cdo."

C. ruber : pinna anali trispinosd, albidd, immaculatd ; dorsali flavd, antice rubescente
nigroque maculatd; pinnis pectoralibus carneis, basiflavis ; caudes radiis exterioribus
rubris ; mediis flavis, interstitiis nigris.

D. 12 + lOv. 11 ; A.3+ 13.V. 14; P. 17; V. 1 + 5 ; C. 16; M.B.6; Vert. 28.

^'^ulgaris.

From twelve to sixteen inches long. Of a nearly uniform deep bright ver-
milion, with an obscure olivaceous band over the head, from the front corner
of one eye to the other, and a black patch, extending some way up each side,
from the origin of the anal fin. Traces of narrow, dusky, waved, vertical bands
are also seen, low down along the sides or belly. The head and opercula are a
little variegated with yellow. The large patch on the first three or four spines
of the dorsal fin is dark violet, or black. The caudal fin has the rays red or
yellow, with the interstices black ; so that the tail appears in the middle longi-
tudinally barred alternately with black and yellow. The flesh of this fish is as
indifferent as its outer colouring is brilhant.
Crenilabrus pictus, nob. — " Trombetao."

C. capite nuchd guldque cwruleis, inter oculos fasciis jlavis flexuosis : corpore rubes-
cente, coeruleo variegatd ; macula supra lineam lateralem coeruleam ad basin caudcB
fused : pinnis pectoralibus ' citrinis, basi macula cosruleo-nigrd ; dorsali analique
Jlavis aurantiisve, plus minusve rubris, immaculatis, nigro-caruleo marginatis ; cau-
dali basi aurantid, dimidio posterior e nigro-cwrideo.

D. 17-F8.V. 9; A. 3 -f 11. V. 12; P. 15; V. 1 + 5 ; C. 15. Rariss.

I propose this as a species not without diffidence, a single example only
having yet occurred. In so intricate a genus as the present, it is better to err
by over distinguishing than confounding ; and, in the present state of ichthyo-
logical knowledge, to labour to supply those who may have hereafter means of
judging the materials for coming to a sure decision, by separately registering
every variation, which cannot at present be referred with certainty to its appro-
priate type. The evil of an useless name swelling the list of synonyms, every
accurate naturaUst will readily admit to be far less than the confused entangle-
ment resulting from a describer mistaking affinity or similarity for identity. The
present fish, in its general reddish tint of body and blue head, reminds one of
C. Tinea, Yarr., but diffiers in the dusky spot above the lateral hne at the base
of the caudal fin, and the deep indigo spot at the base of the pectoral fins, which
is bordered by a crescent-like mark or lunule of brilliant lemon yellow. In this

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 1*8^

last point it approaches C. Boryanus, Risso ; but in the number of fin-rays, and
several other points, it seems nearer C. mediterraneus of the same author.
Crenilabrus trutta, nob. — " Truta do Alto."

C. virescens, variegata et maculata ; squamis medio fuscis ; fasciis verticalibm fusco-
nigrescentibus : cauda utrinque basi fusco uni-maculata : pinna anali quinque-spi-
nosd, bi- vel tri-maculatd ; dorsali quadrimaculatd.

D. 17 + 8 ; A. 5 + 8 ; P. 14 ; V. 1 + 5 ; C. 13 ; M. B. 5.

C. Trutta, 7iob. in Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1833, p. 143.
(3 Var. unicolor ; viridis, subimmaculata. Rariss.

Crenilabrus luscus, Yarr. — " Truta."

The Scale-rayed Wrasse of Couch's MS., Yarr. i. p. 300. Rariss.

The anal fin in the Maderan fish has only five spines. The dorsal fin has a
large black patch at the end of the spiny portion, while the root of the tail has a
dark patch at its lower or ventral, as well as at its upper or dorsal edge; neither
of which characters are noticed by Mr. Couch in his description, quoted by my
friend Mr. Yarrell. With these exceptions there is in general a strong agreement ;
and especially the peculiarity of the large scales extending up between the rays
of the dorsal and anal fins, thus forming imbricated moveable processes, renders
most probable the identity of the Maderan with the British species.
Xirichthys Novacula, Cuv. — " Papagayo" Cuv. Regne An. ed. 2. ii. p. 262.

Coryphaena Novacula, Linn. i. 447. No. 4. Rariss.
Scarus mutabilis, nob. — " Bodiao."

S. versicolor; olivaceo-fuscus, vel ruber, vel utroque colore pictus : cauda truncata.

D. 9 + 10 ; A. 3 + 9 ; P. 1 -M2 ; V. 1 -J- 5 ; C. 13 ; M. B. 5.
Vulgaris.

In the absence of materials for accurate comparison with other genuine Scari,
the provisional formation of a new specific name and character, however imper-
fect the latter, seems less likely to produce confusion than a doubtful reference
of the present fish to an old synonym. It possesses no pretensions, except in
brilliancy of outer colouring, to the fame of the celebrated Scarus of the Romans,
being one of the worst, if not the very worst, of the Fishes usually brought into
the market in point of quality or flavour.

Fam. FisTULAEiD^.
Centriscus Scolopax, L. — " Trombeteiro" Linn. Syst. i. 415. No. 2. Cuv. R. An. ii. 268.
The Trumpet-fish. Sea-snipe, Yarr. i. 302. Rarior.

188 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

Ord. MALACOPTERYGIANiE ABDOMINALES.

Fam. Cyprinid^e.

Cyprinus auratus, L. Linn. 8yst. i. 527. No. 7. Cuv. R. An. ii. 272.
The Gold Carp, Yarr. i. 315. Vulgaris.

Domesticated, or rather naturalized in all the tanks, &c. of the island, yet not
found in the streams or torrents.

Fam. EsociD^.

Belone vTilgaris, Cuv. — " Agulha" or " Peixe agulha," Cuv. R. An. ii. 285.

Esox Belone, Linn. i. 517. No. 6.

Gar-pike, or Sea-needle, Penn.

The Gar-fish, or Sea-pike, Yarr. i. 391. Haud rara.
Scomberesox saunis, Cuv. — " Delphine," Cuv. R. An. t. ii. p. 285.

Saury Pike-skipper, Yarr. i. 394.
Exocoetus exiliens (Bl.), Cuv. — " Voador," or " Avoador," Cuv. R. An. ii. 287. Risso iii.
446. No. 357. Haud infrequens ; rarior.

Fam. Salmonid^e.

Saurus Lacerta, Riss. — " Lagarto," or " L. do mar," Risso, Hist. Nat. iii. 463. No. 371 .
Rarior.

I do not feel by any means secure in the above reference. Besides other dis-
crepancies, the following is the fin-formula of the Maderan fish :

lma,D. 15; 2da, adiposa; A. 11. v. 12; V. 9 ; P. 13 ; C. 19 ; M. B. 16.v. 17;
Vert. 51.

Saurus griseus, nob. — " Lagarto de rolo," or " L. da costa."

S. griseo-fv^cus, subimmaculatus, v.fusco subvariegatus : capite granulato et radiato-
striato ; dentibus in maxilla superiore biseriatis ; palatinis, maxillesque inferioris
triseriatis.

Ima, D. 12 ; 2da, adiposa ; A. 1 1. v. 12 ; V. 8 ; P. 13 : C. f-tl^LVj" . M. B. 16 ;
Vert. 60.

An Salmo Saurus, Linn. i. 511. No. 14? Rariss.

Very distinct from the preceding, whatever it may prove to be from others,
when compared by those who have the means of judging. One of the only two
specimens I have seen had sixteen branchiostegous rays on the right, and seven-
teen on the left side.

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 189

Fam. Clupeid^.
Clupea maderensis, nob. — " Arenque."

C. oblonga, dorso post caput recto ; abdomine post pinnas ventrales suhito adscen-
dente : operculis suborbitarioque simplicibus s. Iwvibus : squamis lunatis, serratis :
lined laterali distinctd : carind ventrali acutissimd : caudd graciliore ; lobis suban-
gustatis : pinnis pectoralibus operculo subremotis.

D. 19; A. 19; V. 1 + 7; P. 17; C. 19; M. B. 6; Vert. 47.

Vulgatiss.

This, the common Herring of Madera, abounds in the spring and earlier sum-
mer months.
Clupea sardina, Cuv. ? — " Sardinha."

C. lanceolato-elliptica, utrinque attenuata, abdomine cequaliter curvato : operculis
suborbitarioque sulcato-striatis : squamis tetragonis, subdistantibus, laxiusculis,
deciduis, margine subserratis : lined laterali obsoletd : caudd abruptd ; lobis sub-
abbreviatis, latiusculis : pinnis pectoralibus operculo approximatis.

D. 17; A. 17; V. 1 + 7; P. 16; C. 19; M. B. 7; Vertebrse 50 v. 51.

La Sardine (Clupea sardina, N.), Cuv. R. An. ii. 319.?
Clupanodon sardina, Risso iii. 451. .No. 360.

Much less abundant ; and scarcely taken, except in stormy weather during

the winter months. This species never exceeds six inches in length. The

"Arenque" averages eight or ten inches.

Ord. MALACOPTERYGIAN^ SUBBRACHIALES.

Fam. GADiDiE.

Merluccius vulgaris, Cuv. — " Pescada," R. An. ii. 333.
Gadus Merluccius, Linn. i. 439. No. 11.

The Hake, Penn. Brit. Zool. iii. 191. No. 81. Yarr. ii. 177. Rarior.
Motella tricirrata (Nilss.), Yarr. — "Abrotea de Poca."
Three-bearded Cod, Penn. iii. 201. t. 33. No. 87.
The three-becirded Rockhng, Yarr. ii. 186.
La MustMe commune, Cuv. R. An. ii. 334. Rariss.

This species, having only three beards or cirri, can scarcely be properly referred,
as it is by Cuvier, to the Gadus Mustela, L., which is described as having five.
Phycis mediterraneus {Lar.}, Cuv. — "Abrotea," Cuv. R. An. ii. 335. Risso, iii. 222.
No. 107.
Blennius Phycis, lAnn. i. 442. No. 7.

Phycis furcatus Bowdich (baud aUorum), Exc. in Mad. p. 122. f. 28, male, et cauda
casu quodam fissa. Vulgatiss.

VOL. II. PART III. 2 c

190 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

A much-esteemed fish for the table when in season, and thought to resemble
the Whiting {Merlangus vulgaris, Cuv.) in flavour.
Phycis Yarrellii, nob. — "Abrotea do alto."

P. capite depresso : corpore graciliore, elongato, angusto, pallide cinereo-lilacino :
pinnis dorsalibus anali et caudali nigris, albo fimbriatis : primcB dorsalis quinque-
radiattE radio primo producto, elongato, secunda dorsalis radios duplo excedente :
ventralibus capite subbrevioribus.
Ima, D. 5 ; 2da, 59 ; A. 60 ; Ps. 23 ; V. 1 ; C. 20, fere ; M. B. 7. Rariss.

The only specimen yet seen was between eight and nine inches long. By the
name, I wish not only to offer a public tribute to one of our ablest ichthyologists,
but my private acknowledgements to the friend who first drew my attention to
this very distinct and pretty species.
Macrourus rupestris (J5/.), Cuv. — " Pagra," or " Lagatricha do mar." R. An. ii. 337, note.
Lepidoleprus coelorhyncus, Risso, iii. 244. No. 133. Rariss.
Of this most singular fish I have seen but three examples.

Fam. Pleuronectid*.
Rhombus maderensis, nob. — " Sola," or " Solha."

Rhombus, Cuv. R. An. ii. 342. SS. ii. Oculi remoti ; superiore subpostico.
R. corpore ovali; latere sinistro scabriusculo, etuberculato, olivaceo-fusco, ferrugi-
nascente, annellis punctorum albidorum ocellatim picto : pinnee dorsalis analisque
radiis inclusis, indivisis : dentibus minutis, uniseriatis : maxilla superiore ambitu-
que oculorum antice tuberculato-cornutis.

D.91-95, A. 69-71; P. {S,^";:}^; V. {tt'sv.e.}^ C. 15-17.
Proceed. Zool. Sac. 1833. 1. p. 143. Trans. Cam. Phil. Soc. vol. vi. part 1. t.6.
Rarior.

I have heard of another "Sole," but have not yet obtained a specimen.

Fam. CYCLOPTERIDiE.

Lepadogaster ? — " Chupa sangue."

L. Candollii, Risso, iii. 275. No. 169.? Rariss.

Of this very curious little fish I have only obtained a single specimen, which
agrees tolerably with the species above referred to, as far as the account there
given goes. Without better materials, however, both for description and com-
parison, I can by no means satisfy myself even as to the genus of the Maderan
fish. The ventral disk is truly double ; or rather there are two, properly distinct
and separate ventral disks, as in a genuine Lepadogaster ; but the ventral fins
spring from the sides of the first, or anterior disk, and are united by their hinder
margins with the pectoral fins, as in Liparis : thus they have no connexion what-

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 191

ever with the second, or hinder sucking-disk. A short fleshy conical ciUa, close
behind the vent in a groove, reminds one of Gobidee. In form this fish resem-
bles a good deal Lep. bimaculatus, Yarr. ii. 268 ; but the muzzle before the eyes
is considerably longer, broader, and more depressed ; and the dorsal and anal
fins are continued nearly to tlie caudal, though still not joined to it. The fin-
formula is,
D. 14; A. 10; P.25; V.4; C. 15.

Fam. EcHENEIDiE.

Echeneis ? — " Pogador," or "Apogador." Rariss.

Of this I have also seen only a single specimen, which I cannot venture to
identify positively with any published species ; far less at present to characterize
as really new. It approaches nearest to E. naucrates, L. in the truncate tail :
while in its uniform dark slaty colour and scaliness it resembles the West Indian
species, pubUshed in the fifth volume of the Zoological Journal (E. lunata, Bancr.) .
It differs, however, from both, and approaches E. Remora, L., in having only six-
teen laminae to the sucker. The pectoral fins were very obtuse, or even truncate.
The specimen was nearly eight inches long. The fin-formula as follows ;

D. 28 ; A. 24 ; P. 26 ; V. 1 -f 5 ; C. ^^•^ + y^|- ; M. B. 8.

Echeneis Naucrates, L.? — " Peixe Pogador." Linn. I. 466. No. 2.? Rariss.

All I know of this fish is from a short note, furnished me by my friend and
assistant Miss Young, of a single specimen, seen for a few minutes only, and par-
tially examined by her. " It was about fifteen inches long, and the sucker had
twenty-four pairs of laminae. It was round and thick at the shoulders, yet much
attenuated at the tail, where the other species was broad and thick. The tips and
edges of the dorsal and anal fins were white."

As to the colour and the shape of the tail, I can only say, that had they dif-
fered from the former species in any remarkable degree, Miss Young would no
doubt have observed it.

Ord. MALACOPTERYGIANiE APODES.

Fam. MuR^NiDiE.

Anguilla latirostris, Yarr. — " Eiro."
The Broad-nosed Eel, Yarr. ii. 298.

Eels are the only indigenous fresh-water fish of the island. They abound in
the torrents, up to the height of about 500 feet above the sea. There are more
species or varieties ; but I am not sufficiently acquainted with them at present
to attempt their classification.

2 c2

192 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

Congrus vulgaris, Cuv. — " Congro," Cuv. R. An. ii. 350.

Muraena Conger, lAnn. i. 426. No. 6.

The Conger. Yarr. ii. 304. Sat frequens.
Murana Helena, L. — " Moreia," Linn. i. 425. No. 1. Cuv. R. An. ii. 352.

The Muraena, Yarr. ii. 308. Vulgaris.
Muraena anatina, nob. — "Moreia Serpents," or " Serpents."

(The Duck's-bill Mureena, or Sea-serpent).

M. corpore post caput contracto, dein crassiore, postice attenuato ; purpureo-hepatico ,
Jlavo maculato ; maculis longitudinaliter seriatis : capite incrassato, occipite elevato,
gibboso ; rosiro tenui, elongato, producto, depresso : dentibus acicularibus, rectis,
elongatis, numerosis ; in maxilla superiore tri-, in inferiore bi-seriatis : pinna dor-
salis radio prima super aperturam branchialem.

Sat vulgaris.
Muraena guttata, Riss.? — " Moreia pr eta."

M. corpore utrinque attenuato, nigrescente, albo guttata 5, punctata: capite minima,
brevi, acuta: dentibus acicularibus, rectis, elongatis; in maxilla superiore sub-
biseriatis ; in inferiore uniseriatis.

Risso, iii. 191. iVo. 77.? Sat vulgaris.
Murtena unicolor (Lar.), Cuv. — " Marriao."

M. corpore pastice attenuato, antice crassiore, hepatino, immaculato, lineis circulari-
bus capillaribus, flexuosis, canfertissimis picta : capite incrassato ; occipite gibboso ;
rostro brevissimo, obtusa : dentibus brevibus, conicis ; in maxilla superiore antice
tri-, lateralibus bi-seriatis ; in inferiore antice bi-, lateralibus uni-seriatis.

Cuv. R. An. ii. 352.

M. Cristini, Risso, iii. 191. No. 78. Sat vulgaris.

Ord. LOPHOBRANCHIA.

Fam. SYNGNATHIDiE.

Hippocampus brevirostris, Cuv. — " Cavallo," Cuv. R. An. ii. 363.
The short-nosed Hippocampus, Yarr. ii. 342. Rariss.

Hippocampus ramulosus, Leach. — " Cavallo marinho." Leach's Zaol. Miscell. i. 105.
t. 47. Rariss.

Dr. Leach's figure, though generally good, is deficient in several points, espe-
cially in colour, being taken from a preserved specimen. ■ I had an opportunity
of delineating the form, and watching the movements of this most interesting
little animal, while living, in a glass of sea-water, for nearly a whole day. No
pencil can do justice to its elegance and beauty ; and the gem-like brilliancy
of its eye especially is quite inimitable by colours. The branched ciliae are
quite flexible, soft, and floating ; not straight and rigid, as they appear in Leach's

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 193

figure. Those on the head resemble a stag's antlers. With the tail curled round
a stick placed in the water, it was frequently at intervals employed in making
circular sweeps with the head and body round the glass, as if in search of food,
or trying its extent, accompanying each sweep with a rapid vibratory flutter of
the fin.

Ord. PLECTOGNATHI.

Fam. Gymnodontid^e.

Diodon reticulatus, L. — " Sapo." Orbis muricatuS et reticulatus. Will. Ichth. p. 155.
tab. i. No. 7. Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. lOma, 334. No. 2.

Ostracion subrotundus ; aculeis undique brevibus triquetris raris. Artedi, Gen. 59.
No.\6. Syn. 86. No. 19.

Diodon Atinga, j3. reticulatus, Linn. ed. I2ma, 1. 413.

Le Diodon orbe, Lacepede. Rarior. A foot long or more. From the synonyms,
this would appear to be the Diodon rivulatus of Cuv. R. An. ii. 367, note.

Tetrodon Pennantii, Yarr. — "Sapo," Yarr. ii. 347.

T. lasvigatus, Penn. ed. Ima. iii. 132. t. 20.

T. stellatus, Flem. Brit. Anim. i. 174.

Pennant's Globe-fish, Yarr. loc. cit. Rariss.
Tetrodon marmoratus, nob. — "Sapo."

T. pusillus ; corpore supra fusco, maculis majusculis diffusis nigris marmorato, lavis-
simo, sparsim ciliolato ; lateribus colore in lined longitudinali rectd seriato-maculatd
abrupte desinente : infra lacteo, immaculato, aqui-ciliolato .
D. 7 ; A. 6 ; P. 14 ; C. 7. Rarior.
This pretty little Toad-fish seems nearest allied to T. Spengleri, which is
also T. Plumieri, Lac. according to Cuvier, though it cannot safely be referred
either to that, or any other species in Artedi, Linnaeus, or Lacepede. It scarcely
exceeds six inches in length. The cilise are compressed, very short and obscure,
being concealed in little pits or pores ; those on the belly are regularly disposed
quincuncially. The dorsal and pectoral fins are pale : the caudal fin is dark
brown, like the upper half of the body, with a pale vertical band near the base.
The anal fin is white.

Fam. BALiSTiDiE.
Balistes forcipatus {List. app. Will.), Art. "Peixe Porco."

Guaperva cauda forcipata, pinnis maculosis, e MS. R. Will, Ichth. App. p. 21. iii,

tab. i. 22.
B. cauda bifurca, pinna dorsi maculosa. Art. Gen. 54. No. 3 ; Syn. 82. No. 3.
Le Baliste queue-fourchue, Lacep.
Balistes lunulatus, Risso, iii. 175. No. 57.? Rara.

194 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

Ord. CHONDROPTERYGIAN.E.

Fam. Squalid^.

Scyllium Artedi, Risso. — "Leitdo do Mar," Risso iii. 117. No. 4./. 5.
" Squalus prionurus, Otto," Cuv. R. An. ii. 386, note 2. Rariss.
Carcharias vulpes, Cuv. — "Peixe Cavallo," Cuv. R, An. ii. 388.
Long-tailed Shark, Penn. iii. 110. t. 14. No. 44.
The Fox Shark, Yarr. ii. 379. Rara.
Carcharias glaucus, jFYem. — "Tintureira," Flem. Brit. An. i. 167. No. 13.
The Blue Shark, Penn. iii. 109. Yarr. ii. 381. Rarior.

The "Marraxo" of the fishermen is probahly some species of this genus;
though it may be also merely the following {Lamna cornubica, Cuv.) full-grown,
or of large size. I have not seen a specimen.

The "Tubardo" is another large-sized Shark, which I have not seen. From
the teeth being described as small, it may prove, perhaps, to be the Basking
Shark {Selache maxima, Cuv.).
Lamna cornubica, Cuv. — " Requim" or " Nequim," R. An. ii. 389.

The Porbeagle, Penn. iii. 117. No. 40. Yarr. ii. 384. Rariss.
Galeus vulgaris, Flem. — "Ca^ao," Brit. An. i. 165. No. 6.
Squalus Galeus, Linn. i. 399. No. 7.
Tope, Penn. iii. 111.

The Common Tope, Yarr. ii. 390. Rarior.
Mustelus Isevis, Flem. — "Caneja," Brit. An. i. 166. No. 9.

The Smooth Hound, Penn. iii. 116. t. 16. Yarr. ii. 393. Vulgaris.
Notidanus griseus, Cuv. — ''Albufasa" or "Albufara," R. An. ii. 390. Rarior.
Notidanus cinereus, Cuv. — " Bica doce," R. An. ii. 390.
" Le Squale Perlon, Lacep." M. Young.

" Squalus cinereus, Gm." Cuv. Rarior. I have not seen the specimen, but depend
on Miss Young's identification of one brought to her in May 1835, with " le
Perlon, Lac", during my absence from Madera. The head of this specimen is
at present in the Society's Museum.
Centrina Salviani, Will. Hist. Pise. p. 58. t. B. 2.

A single female specimen only has occurred, measuring 3 feet 3 inches in
length. It contained six young ones, from 3 to 3^ inches long ; they were al-
together white, except their fins and tail ; the teeth unfortunately were not yet
formed. Their dorsal spines were soft and flexible. The branchiae were com-
pletely external, being exserted through the branchial openings in the form of
copious long filaments.
Centrina? nigra, nob. "Gata nigra," Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1833. p. 144. Rariss.
Scymnus nicseensis, Risso. — "Gata," Risso, iii. 137. No. 22. f. 4.

OP THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 1 95

"L&Leiche ouLiche, Brouss. (Sq. Americanus, Gm.)," Cuv. R. An. ii. 392. Rarior.
Zygaena malleus (Val.), Cuv.—" Cornuda," R. An. ii. 393. Yarr. ii. 406, vignette.
Squalus Zygaena, Linn. i. 399. No. 5. Rarior.

Fam. RAiiDiE.

Torpedo marmorata, Risso.—"Dromideira," i.e. Dormideira, Risso, iii. 143. No. 28./. 9.
Rarior.

Torpedo hebetans, 7106. — " Tromentin."

T. mhtus alba, nigra marginata: supra nigrescens, unicolor, punctulis minimis raris,
ad marginem anteriorem crebrioribus adspersa: spiraculis majusculis, simplidbus':
Cauda corporis fere longitudine, vix breviore, apice truncatd.
Rariss.

I should scarcely jhave ventured to consider this distinct from T. Galvani,
Risso, had not Cuvier fortunately supplied a most essential mark of difference^
by describing that species " A sept dentelures charnues autour de ses Events."
This character belongs indeed to my T. marmorata, but not to the present spe-
cies ; which may, however, also possibly be only a plain immaculate variety of
" La Torpille k taches oeillees," Cuv. ii. 397, T. narke, Risso, iii. 142.
Raia Maderensis, nob. — " Raia" or "Arraia."

R. corpore exacte rhombiformi': supra scabro, griseo-fusco, maculis pallidis, cinereis,
ocellatis, infigurasfasdasveflexuosas, transversales, indistinctas dispositis guttata ':
rostro brevi haud praducto, marginibusque pectoralium anterioribus hispido-scabris ;
dorso subinermi, media tantum fere bi-aculeato : cauda aculeis triseriatis ; late-
ralibus subobsoletis ; omnibus basi simplidbus, recurvis.
Haud rara.

The upper or dorsal surface of this fish, which is the common Skate of Ma-
dera, is rough like a file, especiaUy towards the anterior edges of the pectorals
and snout ; but otherwise unarmed, except generally two pretty conspicuous
prickles about the middle of the back, one close behind the other, and a single
prickle at the anterior, and another at the posterior canthus of each eye. AU these,
as well as those on the tail, which extend no further forward than its root, are
recurved, and without the prominent tubercular base, resembling the head'of a
nail, so remarkable in the Thornback, R. clavata, L., to which this species comes
in shape the nearest. The teeth are quite flat and pointless, like those of the
'•Caneja," Mustelus lavis, Flem. No. 106, supra. The eye is fiirnished with a
most curious and beautiful palmato-radiated nyctitaUng membrane, of a green-
ish or brassy gold-colour, like their lids. I have seen only female specimens ;
none exceeding 20 inches long by 14 broad.

' Lateribus scilicet omnibus xquolibus.

196 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS

Trygon Pastinaca, Cuv.—" Ratao," R. An. ii. 399.

Raia Pastinaca, Linn. i. 396. No. 7.

The Sting Ray, Yarr. ii. 442. Rarior.
Myliobatis Aquila, Cuv. — " Dormideiro," R. An. ii. 401.
Raia Aquila, Linn. i. 396. No. 6.

The Eagle Ray, Yarr. ii. 445. Rarior.

The foregoing list has no pretensions for consideration as a full and perfect catalogue
of the Maderan fishes. Having scarcely begun to feel much interest in ichthyology till
a period when continual engagement in more serious duties precluded all regular or
close attention to the subject, I have been obliged to rely altogether for the capture or
collection of the species on the common fishermen, whose indolence a bribe will scarcely
stimulate, and whose carelessness is only to he matched by their propensity to imposi-
tion and deceit. Thus many of the smaller and rarer kinds no doubt remain to be dis-
covered by any one provided with the proper nets or apparatus, and commanding
leisure, time, and personal industry for their collection.

But allowing for much imperfection from these various causes, sufficient data are,
perhaps, here afforded for a tolerably correct approximation to the general character of
Maderan ichthyology ; for it is not probable that future discoveries will do more than
slightly affect the coordinate value of several amongst the secondary groups (e. g. Tri-
glidfE, Gohidcs, Labridai, ClupeidtE, Pleuronectida, Muranida:, Cyclopteridte, SfC.) ; raising
these, perhaps, to a somewhat higher value in proportion to the rest, but not counter-
balancing the general preponderance of others (e. g. Scombridte, Sparida, &c.), or al-
tering the more obvious and striking features of the whole. To exhibit these results,
therefore, at once in a clear and convenient form, I have composed the following Table,
relying solely on the admirable work of Mr. Yarrell for the British species ; and for the
Mediterranean principally upon Risso's Histoire Naturelle, &c., de I'Europe Meridionale,
corrected, as far as to the middle of the Gobida, by the Histoire Naturelle des Poissons
of MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes, and by the second edition of the Regne Animal of
Cuvier for the remainder.

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA.

197

A Table of the comparative number and distribution of the British, Mediterranean, and

Maderan Species of Fishes*.

Families.

Wiiole

number of Species
found in

Species peculiarf to

Species common to

Brit, from
Yarr.

Med. froiT

Cuv. &

Vul.

Mad.
Lowe.

Brit.

Med.

ibd.

Brit, and
Hod.

Med. and
Mad.

Brit, and
Med.

iBrit.Med
and Mad.

PercidsE

+ 2
12

+ ?

1
12

1
14

11
1

+ 3

+ 6

1
43
10
14

2
37

+ 1
51

3
11
1
3
18

9
1

+ 1

+ *

1
1

+ 2

+ 3
1

8
12

1
26

+ 1
41

3
2

2
4

4
2

+ 1
5

+ 3

4
1

1
8

Triglidae

Sciaeiiidae

Sparidaj

Moeiiidae

Briimidae

Scombridae

Tfenioidie

Muefilidae

Gobidae

Labridae

Fishllnridac , ,

1 . Acanthopterygianse

+ 9

229

+ .0

+ 5

150

+ 6

+ *

+20

+ 1

+12

+ 2

8
7

+ 1
2

+ 2

5
4

1
1
1?

1
2

+ 2

+ 1

Esocidce

Salmonidse

2. Malacopterygianae. 1
Abdominales /

+35

22
+ 2

+ I

+ s

4
+ «

+ •

+ I
16
5

1
2

+ 1
12

1
1
1

Pleuronectidae

3. Malacopt. Subbrachianae . .

41
+ 1

44 9

+ 1

4. Malacopt. Apodes, i. e.l g
MuracnidEe J +3

21
+ 3

+ 1

2
+ '

Malacopterygii

57
+39 ■

87 20

+ 2

7 J 8 1 17

1 1

5
+ «

* The freshwater fishes are added in smaller figures under the numbers of the marine species ; and all fa-
milies which have no British or Maderan rejiresentatives are omitted.

t By peculiar, is meant only not found in either of the other two localities here specified.

J No attempt is made to distribute geographically, or even in some cases to enumerate the freshwater Ma-
iacopterygians, or the Raiida, further than Great Britain and Madera are concerned, in the present absence of
all accurate knowledge of the South European species of the former, and the inextricable confusion in the
synonyms of Raia, Risso.

VOL. II. PART III. 2 D

198

REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS
Table (Continued).

Families.

Whole number of Species
found in

Species peculiar to

Species common to

Brit.from Med. from
Yarr. CuVj&

Mad.
Lowe.

Brit.

Med.

Mad.

Brit, and

Mad.

Med. and
Mad.

Brit, and
Med.

Brit. Med.
and Mad.

5. Lophobranchise, i. e. Syn- ^
gnathidae /

Gymnodontidae

6. Plectognathi

7. Chondropt. Ord. I. i.e."! q
Sturionidse J

8. Chondropt. Ord. II.

C Squalidae

i. e. \ Raiidse

+ 4

26
26

12
5

3
2

5
1

6
2

L Petromyzidse

Chondropterygil

Total

173

392

116

+ 2

+ 7

230

+52

It only remains briefly to indicate a few of the chief results above displayed in figures.
The first of these is one, indeed, which might have almost safely been anticipated, in
consideration of the physical condition of the country ; the small extent of which, its
abruptness of elevation above the level of the sea, and the extreme inequality of the
surface, are causes combining to reduce its freshwater streams, however copious, to the
mere character of rapid rivulets or mountain torrents, and to prevent the natural for-
mation of any permanent lakes, pools, or ponds of stagnant water. Thus is excluded
of necessity, with the exception of the Eel {Anguilla), the whole race of either perma-
nent or temporary freshwater fishes.

Bearing in mind this great source of deficiency, and then considering another almost
equally influential on the numerical abundance of the species, namely, the perfect uni-
formity of these shores in structure and materials, occasioning a corresponding uniform-
ity of food and shelter, and encouraging tenants alone of one particular set of habits;
it is only matter of surprise that the total number of Maderan fishes is not less than
half the whole number inhabiting the rivers, lakes, and seas of England, Ireland, and
Scotland. Excluding the freshwater species, as in the foregoing Table, for the purpose
of a fair comparison. Great Britain possesses along all its well-searched, varied, and ex-
tended shores, only one-third more fishes than Madera. And in the Acanthopterygian
or Spiny -finned division the numbers are very nearly equal.

But allowing for the absence of the fluviatile species in Madera, by omitting them on

OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 199

the side also of the Mediterranean and Great Britain, there still remains an essential
difference characteristic of the former ; a difference, however, conformable to what there
seems some reason to suppose may prove a general law, namely, a variation in the ratio
between the marine Acanthoptenjgians and the Malacopterygians inversely proportion-
able to the latitude. In Britain the marine Acanthopterygians are to the marine Mala-
copterygians as low as one and a quarter to one, i. e. nearly in a ratio of equality ; in
the Mediterranean they are as two and three-fifths to one ; and in Madera the ratio has
increased to three and a half to one.

Another curious general feature deducible from the foregoing Table, is that Madera
has nearly as many species in common with Great Britain as it has in common with
the Mediterranean. For striking off one third part of the whole number of Maderan
fishes, which is the proportion peculiar to the island, it appears that one-half of the re-
maining two-thirds belongs to the Mediterranean, while the other half is formed of
species also found in Britain. Indeed, in several respects, instead of occupying a place,
considered ichthyologicaliy, corresponding with its latitude, Madera seems rather to be
intermediate between Great Britain and the Mediterranean. It presents us with a very
small sprinkling of species {Priacanthus, Pristipoma, Glyphisodon, Heliastes, Diodon,
Tetrodon, Balistes) belonging to the tropical forms ; while the numbers of the species,'
in most of the families, either about equal those of the same famiUes in Britain, or are
intermediate between them and the numbers for the Mediterranean. The families of
Triglidte, Gohidai, Clupeida, Cyclopteridte, and Syngnathida; are, it must be confessed,
at present seemingly exceptions to this rule, but exceptions which, I think, will pro-
bably not prove to be such ultimately. GadusidcB, PleuronectidcB, and Raiidee are such
exceptions, which should rather go to prove the rule. In respect to these pecuUarly
northern tribes of fishes, Madera takes the place, accordant with its latitude, as lowest
in the scale.

In one particular the foregoing Table fails to convey a faithful picture of the general
character and aspect of Maderan Ichthyology. It does not sufficiently express the de-
cided predominance of the Sparidal, Scombridal and Percidal forms above all others.
This arises from the profusion in which the individuals of certain species in these fa-
milies occur ; while the species which compose the other families are in general poorer
considerably in this respect. The commonest edible fishes of the island are found in
the three famiUes just named, as well as the more gregarious and proUfic species.

Thus the European visitor on entering the markets, or examining the boats, is struck
at once with the almost total absence of the Flat-fishes, Salmonida;, and Cod-fish tribe,
which more especially characterize our stalls in England, and with the unwonted forms
of the Sargus, Pagrus, Pagellus, Box, Oblada, Smaris, Thynnus, Prometheus, Lichia, &c. ;
or with the brilliant hues of the Serranus, Beryx, Scarus, &c., or the grotesque deformed
Scorpcena and Sebastes.

This impression will be somewhat different at different seasons. The spring is cha-

2d2

200 REV. R. T. LOWE'S SYNOPSIS OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA.

racterized by the commoner appearance of the splendid-coloured Beryx in the streets ;
attracting notice no less by its form and hues of silver, scarlet, rose and purple, than
bv the extraordinary size, and opaline, or rather brassy lustre of its enormous eyes.
With this, or even earlier, appears abundantly the common Herring of Madera {Clupea
Maderensis) ; and as the season advances the Mackerel {Scomber scombrus, L.) ; the
scarlet Peixe Cao, or Dog-fish of Madera (Crenilabrus caninus) ; Carneiro, or Mutton-
fish {Scorpana Scrofa, L.), and Requieine {Sebastes Kuhlii) ; the Pike-like Bicuda, or
Spet of the Mediterranean {Sphyrmna vulgaris) ; the Sargo {Sargus Rondeletii, Cuv. &
Val.), with teeth resembhng the human; the elegantly golden-striped but worthless
Salema [Box Salpa, Cuv.) ; and the plain-coloured Dobrada (Oblada melanura, Cuv.).

The Herring and the Alfonsin {Beryx splendens) attain the climax of their season
about March or April; the Mackerel in May and June; but the whole, except the
Herring, continue throughout most pai't of the summer and autumn. In May the
magnificent Lampris lauta, the beauty of which in the water excites the admiration even
of the fisherman, begins to make its occasional appearance in the market ; and what is
of far more importance in an economic point of view, the Tunny fishery begins. This
last is at its greatest height in June or July ; and to it succeeds the capture of the
Gaiado {Thynnus Pelaniys, L.), which is pursued with such success, that I have some-
times watched a single boat, furnished with scarce half a dozen rods, pulling them in
at the rate of three or four a minute^ With the Gaiado appears in almost equal plenty
the Coelho, or Rabbit-fish {Prometheus atlanticus) ; and these continue till the close of
the summer by the equinoctial rains of October. The winter months of January and
February are chiefly characterized by the presence, close along the shores, of the little
Guelro {Atherina presbyter, Cuv.), or Sandsmelt of Madera, of the common Maderan
Herring {Clupea Maderensis) , and Sardinha {Clupea Sardina, Cuv.?) ; the two last being
captured principally after violent gales and storms, when the swollen rivers or torrents
carry down much mud into the sea.

The following species occur in great profusion, more or less, throughout the year,
but still most plentifully in the spring and summer ; viz. Garoupa {Serranus cabrilla,
Cuv.) ; Cherne {Polyprion cernium, Cuv. & Val.) ; Goraz {Pagellus centrodontus, Cuv.) ;
Bezugo {Pagellus acarne, Cuv.) ; Pargo {Pagrus vulgaris, Cuv.) ; Boga {Box vulgaris,
Cuv.) ; Bocairiio {Smaris Royeri, Bowd.) ; Ranhosa or Tronbeta {Lichia glaycos, Cuv.) ;
Chicharro or Maderan Horse Mackerel {Caranx Cuvieri) ; Bodiao {Scarus mutabilis) ;
and Abrotea {Phycis mediterraneus, Lar.). The well-known John Dory, or Peixe Gallo
(Zeus Faber, L.), and delicate Red Mullet or Salmoneta {Mullus surmuletus , L.), are also
taken at all seasons, but more sparingly. The Grey Mullet, or Tainha, is captured
very plentifully throughout the year, but most abundantly perhaps in June.

[ 201 ]

XV. Observations on the Genus Galictis {Bell), with the Description of a new Species.
By Thomas Bell, Esq., V.P. Z-S., F.R.S., &;€., Prof. Zool- in King's College.

Communicated April 25th, 1837.

In the year 1826, in offering to the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society' some
remarks on a living female Grison which had been for some years in my possession, I
was led to consider this species as constituting a new generic type, to which I gave the
name of Galictis, but without then assigning its distinctive generic character.

The existence, in the museum of the Zoological Society, of a new species, nearly
allied to the former and yet evidently distinct, has induced me now to enter more par-
ticularly into the subject, and to lay before the Society, in addition to a description of
the new species, some observations on the characters and affinities of the genus.

Buflbn, in the third volume of the supplement to his " Histoire Naturelle," gives
two figures under the respective names of " Fouine de la Guyane " and "Grison,"
which have always been considered as belonging to one animal, the Viverra vittata of
Schreber.

The animal which forms the subject of the first-named figure was brought from
Guiana ; the teeth were wanting, but the general form of the body led Buffon, with his
usual ignorance of true distinctive character, to consider it as a variety merely of the
former or Marten. His description as well as the figure is sufficiently clear to designate
the animal as identical with that which has subsequently been known as the Viverra
vittata, and could not have appertained to the species which I shall presently describe.
The second figure above alluded to, accompanied by a description, was first published
in the fifth volume of the Dutch edition of Buffon, by AUamand, who gave it the name
of "Grison," quasi Belette grise. This animal was said to have been brought to M. Al-
Jamand from Surinam. The figure is certainly very different from the former, so as to
prove that great fault exists in the stuffing of both specimens. The former has an
extremely attenuated nose with a lengthened body ; in the latter the muzzle is thick
and obtuse and the body less slender. But the colours, if the engraver can he
trusted, and the character of the hair, are sufficiently different to warrant considerable
doubt whether this may not be a representation of the same species as that which is
now introduced to the notice of the Society. It is also the " petit furet" of d'Azara's
History of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay.

Schreber, in his History of Martunalia, placed the former animal amongst the Viverra,

' Zool. Joum. ii. p. 551.

202 MR. T. BELL ON THE GENUS GALICTIS.

under the name of Viverra vittata, which was retained by Gmelin and others ; but the
semiplantigrade character of the foot seems to have led Thunberg to consider it as
more nearly allied to the Ursid/e, and he accordingly calls it Ursus Brasiliensis. By
Desmarest it is arranged in the genus &ulo ; and the name Gulo vittatus, given to it
by this author, has been employed by the Cuviers and all other subsequent writers, with
the exception of Dr. Traill, who, in the third volume of the Memoirs of the Wernerian
Society, restores it to its proper family the MustelideB, but under the erroneous name of
Lutra vittata; for it has no nearer affinity to the otters, than that which is possessed
by the whole of the species of the genus Mustela. M. Fred. Cuvier has given in his
great work on the "Mammif^res," an account of an individual which lived in confine-
ment, whose habits almost exactly agreed with those of mine already alluded to ; the
figure which this naturalist has there given, although the best that has hitherto ap-
peared, is so faulty that 1 have thought it necessary to offer another, taken from my
own specimen when living. When the form, the structure, and the habits of this animal
are considered, it appears strange that all the Zoologists subsequent to Buffon, who
have hitherto examined it, should have failed to ascertain its real affinities. In the form
of its body, and particularly in the structure of the teeth, it is absolutely similar to
many of the genus Mustela, particularly to i\ie ferret and the polecat. This similarity,
at least in form, was detected both by D'Azara and by Buffon, as is proved by the
names which they assign to it. Nor is there a single difference of any importance in
the structure of the teeth, between this animal and the polecat, with the single excep-
tion, that the inner tubercle of the carnivorous tooth is, in a very slight degree, broader
in the present species. The character which induced me to consider it as generically
distinct from Mustela, for there cannot for a moment exist a doubt as to the necessity
for its removal from Gulo, is the semiplantigrade nature of the feet ; and this appeared
to be a structural distinction of sufficient importance to warrant such a separation.
This view has been confirmed in a very interesting manner by the occurrence of the
new species about to be described, having exactly the same general character of colora-
tion and markings, but with sufficient essential distinctive characters to point it out as
specifically different.

The genus then belongs to the family of the Mustelidee, but exhibits in the form of
the feet a slight indication of an approach to the Ursidce, in which group it is probably
represented by the genus Ratelbis, which, whilst it shows a similar degree of aberration
from the type of its family, has an almost identical peculiarity of coloration. It is in
such circumstances as these, where the animals really possess the more important ana-
logies of form and of relation to their respective types, that the confirmatory though
only subordinate analogies of colour are of real value ; and it is surely unnecessary to
point out the difference between relying upon colour and markings, on the one hand,
as a primary analogical character, irrespective of other and more important relations ;
and, on the other, considering them as constituting only a collateral corroboration of

MR. T. BELL ON THE GENUS GALICTIS. SOS

them. I wish however to be understood as offering this suggestion respecting the ana-
logical relation between Galictis and Ratellus as still doubtful ; for I cannot but feel it
to be a far more difficult matter to decide upon these relations than some naturalists of
the present day appear to consider it. That relations of analogy between the members
of different groups do exist, there cannot perhaps be any reasonable doubt ; that such
analogies do in many instances, and would in all, were our information less limited,
assist us in the determination of the affinities of correlative groups, may also possibly
be true ; but that these relations are to be perceived at a single glance, that they are
to be picked up, as it were, by every careless passer-by, and forced with all the confi-
dence of undisputed authority into the service of every fabricator of systems, is incon-
sistent with the modesty of true science, derogatory from its dignity, and calculated
only to bring the study of zoology itself into contempt.

Fam. MusTELiD^.
Genus Galictis.
Denies molares spurii-a-ra
Rostrum breve ;

PalnifE atque plantw nudae subplantigradse ;
Ungues breviusculi, curvi, acuti ;
Corpus elongatum, depressum.

1. Galictis vittata.
Tab. XXXV.
Gal. vertice, collo, dorso, atque caudd flavescenti-griseis ; rostro, guld et pectore fuscescenti-
nigris ; fascia a fronte usque ad humeros flavescenti-albidd ; pilis longis laxis.

Viverra vittata. Schrebeus, Saugth. p. 447, t. cxxiv. Gmel. Syst. Nat. Linn. i. p. 89.

Ursus Brasiliensis. Thunb. Mem. Acad. Petersb. vi. p. 401, t. xiii.

Lulra vittata. Traill, Mem. Wern. Soc. iii. p. 437, t. xix.

Gulo vittatus. Desmar. Mammal, pp. 175, sp. 268 ; Ism. Geoffr. in Diet. Class, vii.

p. 384 ; Fred. Cuv. in Diet, des Sc. Nat. xix. p. 79.
Galictis vittata. Bell, Zool. Journ. ii. p. 552.

Petit furet. D'Azara, Essai sur I'Hist. Nat. de Parag. (Trad. Franc.) i. p. 190.
Fouine de la Guyane. Buffon, Suppl. iii. p. 161, t. xxiii.

Grison. Shaw, Gen. Zool. i. p. 392 ; Cuv. Reg. An. i. p. 146 ; Fred. Cuv. Mam. i.
Habitat in Guyana, Paraguay, Brazilia.

The general form, attitudes, and movements of this animal resemble those of the com-
mon Polecat. The head is depressed ; the muzzle moderately acute, but not attenuated,
projecting beyond the lower jaw ; the eyes are moderately large, the iris dark brown, or
nearly black ; the ears short, broad, and rounded ; the teeth are almost exactly similar

204 MR. T. BELL ON THE GENUS GALICTIS.

to those of true Mustela, particularly M. putorius. The hody is elongate and much
depressed, covered with rather long loose hair, the under hair soft and short ; the tail
more than half the length of the head and body ; the hair of the tail very long and
lax. The legs are rather short ; the toes five on each foot, with short, strong, curved,
rather acute claws ; the upper part of the toes hairy ; the soles of the feet naked. The
fore-feet with a thick pad under each toe ; the palm furnished with a broad tubercle
consisting of three elevated portions, with a slight one internally, and a round simple
one at the wrist, behind the little or outer toe. The hinder foot likewise furnished with
a thick pad beneath each toe, and a broad trifid tubercle beneath the metatarsus : there
is also a long tubercle beneath the heel at the outer side. The whole of these parts,
that is to say, the soles of all the feet, are covered with a soft naked skin, and are
e\adently placed on the ground in progression.

The colours are very remarkable, and the markings distinct and decided. The
whole of the upper part of the head, the neck, the back, the flank, and the tail are
yellowish light or brownish gray, produced by the mixture of a dirty yellowish white,
with brownish black, the hairs being brownish black for about two-thirds of their
length, the tip dirty or yellowish white. The muzzle, the cheeks, the throat, the
under part of the neck, the belly, the anterior legs, and the hinder feet are black, with
a brownish tinge lighter towards the back part, and on the belly interspersed with a
few whitish hairs. The gray of the upper, and the black of the under parts, are sepa-
rated by a rather broad fascia, extending on each side from the centre of the forehead
above the eye backwards as far as the shoulder, including the ears ; this fascia is of a
buff or yellowish white colour.

There is a large round follicle situated on each side the anus, covered with a muscle,
and opening by a round duct within the anal orifice, secreting an unctuous matter, less
fcEtid than that of the Polecat, but not possessing the rather agreeable odour of the
Marten, or the powerful perfume of the Viverre. The stomach is very simple, the
pyloric extremity long, cylindrical, and curved. There is no ccEcum.

2. Galictis Allamandi.

Tab. XXXVII.

Gal. vertice, collo, dorso, atque caudd nigricanti-griseis ; partibus inferioribus nigris ;

fascia a frunte usque ad collum utrinque alba ; corpore pilis brevibus adpressis.
Habitat ?

This species, although evidently distinct from the former, exhibits the same general
character of colour and marking, with some remarkable differences, however, which,
though not easily expressed in a specific phrase, are tangible and important. The
whole of those parts, which in the former species are yellowish, are here perfectly
white ; and those which are blackish brown in the former, are in this pure black.

MR. T. BELL ON THE GENUS GALICTIS, 205

The basal portion of the hairs on the back, therefore, is black, and the apical quite white,
forming a pure blackish gray, or black, with white points and lines ; whilst all the under
parts of the throat and part of the belly are black. The fascia extending from the fore-
head to the sides of the neck is also white. This fascia does not extend in the speci-
men described so far back as in the former species. The hairs of the whole body are
very short in comparison, and much stiffer and more closely set. The animal is con-
siderably larger, and the tail, as far as can be ascertained from a stuffed specimen,
short in proportion.

The native habits of the Grison are, doubtless, those of the terrestrial MustelidcE gene-
rally. Pursuing the smaller quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles on the ground, and even into
trees, its carnivorous instinct is, probably, judging from its dentition, equally strong with
theirs. The beautiful female specimen, which I had living for more than three years,
was as tame and affectionate as a dog. She followed me, if permitted, wherever I went
about the house, was extremely frolicsome and playful, and was delighted at being
caressed. She would throw herself on her back, and seize the hand that fondled her
with all four of her paws and her mouth at the same moment, pressing it with her
teeth, but never sufficiently hard to cause the sUghtest degree of pain. She was ex-
tremely fond of eggs, which she ate in a very singular manner. On one being given
her, she first played with it for some time, running backwards, and at the same time
pushing it under her belly with her fore-feet. At length she would fix one of her sharp
canine teeth through the shell, and lick or suck as much of the contents as would
flow through the orifice. Then again inserting her tooth, a piece of the shell was
broken out so as to enable her to insert her tongue ; and finally, the egg-shell was
broken to pieces and each fragment carefully licked clean. For frogs she exhibited a
decided fondness ; and she attacked two small alligators which I had living ; one of
which she killed and partly ate, and the other she wounded. The wound in each case
was inflicted under the axilla, as being the least protected part, and that at which the
large blood-vessels being torn through, would speedily bleed the animal to death. She
died of stricture of the pylorus, without any other disease.

This description of the genus appears to warrant the opinion which I have given of
its affinities ; namely, that it essentially belongs to the family of the Mustelida, but
deviating from that type by the plantigrade character of the feet, in which it exhibits
an obvious approach to the Ursida.

To Viverra its relation must be very remote ; to Ursus and Gulo its approach has
just been alluded to ; to Lutra, in which genus we have seen it was placed by Dr. Traill,
its affinity is more obvious, as it clearly belongs to the same family ; but by the im-
portant character of the dentition, as well as its general form, it approximates so closely
to Mustela {Putorius of Cuvier) the typical genus of the family, that but for the more
plantigrade character of the feet, it must have been associated with it.

VOL. II. — PART III. 2 E

206 MR. T. BELL ON THE GENUS GALICTIS.

PLATE XXXV.
Galictis vittata.

PLATE XXXVI.
Fig. 1 . Cranium of Galictis vittata, seen from beneath.

•>

The same seen laterally, with the addition of the lower maxilla.

3. The odoriferous glands: the left one covered by its investing muscle, which

o
has been removed from that on the right.

4. The stomach.

5. The right fore foot.

6. The right hind foot.

PLATE XXXVn.
Galictis Allamandi.

v\^

7 #^^ PJ

.'/^^n^JZu'.'C n/:^.'^.36^.m:

W§

'.yix/i^

'cc^^ ^i^^^r/a ■

'■'.'^

,*•

[ 207 1

XVI. On a new Sub-genus of Fhhes, allied to Ophidium. By William Thompson, Esq.,
Vice-President of the Natural History Society of Belfast. Communicated % the Se-
cretary.

Read June 13th, 1837.

1 HE species of fish which is the subject of the present communication ranks under
the Malacopterygii Apodes, and in its genus most nearly approximates Ophidium.
Although with Ophidium, as described in the " R^gne Animal" (t. 2. p. 358. 2nd ed.),
it possesses many characters in common, others are at the same time presented which
have suggested the propriety of constituting it a sub-genus. Cuvier having given
as a character of Ophidium, " I'anus assez en arri^re," strictly considered' prevents
the admission of the present specimen. The genus is, again, in the R^gne Animal
subdivided into the true Ophidia and the Fierasfers ; the former, "Portent sous la
gorge deux paires de petits barbillons adherents h la pointe de d'os hyoide," and the
latter, " Manquent de barbillons, et leur dorsale est si mince, qu'elle ne semble qu'un
leger repli de la peau."

In external characters— for the specimen being, so far as known to me, unique, I have
been unwiUing to injure its appearance by dissection,— it is excluded from the Ophidia
proper in consequence of not having the barbules ; and though agreeing with the Fieras-
fers in the negative character of wanting these appendages, yet, by having the dorsal
fin strongly developed and elevated, it ranges not with them.

Its want of the very obvious character of the Ophidia, renders all comparison with
them unnecessary ; but of two species belonging to the Fierasfers, and which approach
the present specimen most nearly, I may state, that it possesses many of the characters
of the Oph.fierasfer of Risso, but differs from that species in the teeth, (both jaws
are described as armed with three rows of sharp and hooked teeth,) number of fin-
rays, and some minor characters ; besides, there is nothing said of the remarkable
teeth terminating both jaws, as exhibited in my specimen. In the Regne Animal we
again find an Oph. dentatum described as having in each jaw " deux dents en crochets,"
but no further details are given. In this only character, however, the Oph. dentatum

' It may, perhaps, be objected to this strict reading, that Cuvier has himself admitted into the genus the
Oph. Vassalii, which i.s described by Risso as having " I'anus situc prt-s de la gorge" (tome iii. p. 212. ed. 1826);
but although tlie characters of tliis species are pretty fully detailed in tlie Hegne Animal (t. ii. p. 359.), the one
here quoted from Risso is not mentioned. Tlie last-named author similarly describes the position of the rent
in the Oph.fierasfer. On the contrary, both of the British Ophiilia figured by Pennant (Brit. Zool. vol. iv. pi. 93.
ed. 1777). and Montagu (Wcrn. Wem. vol. i. pi. 4.), accord with Cuvicr's generic description in this cha-
racter.

2 e2

208 MR. W. THOMPSON ON A NEW SUB-GENUS OF FISHES.

differs from my fish, which has four large hooked teeth in the upper, and two in the

under jaw.

The specimen under consideration was found dead on the beach at Carnlough near
Glenarm, in the county of Antrim, by my friend Dr. J. L. Drummond," when collecting
AlgiE there in the month of June 1836, and, along with some other fishes, &c. obtained
about the same time, was kindly handed over to me on his return to Belfast. Dr.
Drummond informs me, that from its appearance when found, it had most probably been
cast ashore by the tide of the preceding night when a strong easterly wind prevailed.

Genus Echiodon.

Corpus valde elongatum, complanatum et lanceolatum.

Caput ovale ; rostrum mediocriter productum ; os sub-oblique fissum ; maxillce denti-
bus armatcB sicut ossa palatina vomerque ; dentes duo utrinque apud maxillte
superioris apicem magni et prselongi ; maxilla mferior utrinque dente unico cyUn-
draceo terminata ; apertura branchialis magna ; operculum satis amplum.

Pinna dorsales et anales vald^ productse.

Anus anteriora versus positus.

Echiodon Drummondii.

Tab. XXXVIII.

Ech. corpus lave; maxillce amba, vomer, ossaque palatina dentibus parvis ohtusiusculis

dense armata ; maxilla superior longior, cujus dentes externi ore clause coiupicui ;

vomer admodum prominens antrorsumque valde productus ; lingua brevissima ; pinna;

dorsales analesque cum caudali continue, et postice corpore multo altiores ; pinna analis

ante dorsalem exoriens ; radii pinnales nulli ramosi ; membrana branchiostega septem

radiata.
Total length 1 1 inches ; greatest depth (at 1 inch 4 lines from the snout) 6 lines,
thence posteriorly gradually narrowing ; greatest breadth of body anteriorly 3 hues ; at
the middle of the entire length 1 line, and thence to the tail becoming gradually more
compressed.

Head 1 inch 2 lines long, or rather more than one-ninth of the entire length ; pro-
file sloping forward equally on both sides to the snout, which is truncated, and projects
1 line beyond the lower jaw ; narrow, increasing in breadth very gradually from the
snout, its breadth as 1 to 3^ of its length ; height half its length, compressed at the
sides, and rather flat above from the eyes backward ; from the eyes forward a central
bony ridge ; snout viewed from above somewhat bifid in consequence of the forward
position of the large teeth on each side. A few large punctures extend from the snout
below the eye, and are continued just behind it ; a series of small ones closely arranged
extend from the upper portion of the eye in a curved form posteriorly to near the edge
of the pre-opercle, and thence a double row extends downwards. Nostrils very large.

MR. W. THOMPSON ON A NEW SUB-GENUS OF PISHES.

209

placed just in advance of, and before the centre of the eye, and in form a somewhat oval
transverse aperture. Eye large, occupying the entire upper half of the depth of the
head; Its width greater than its height, in the length of the head, occupying the place
of 1 m 4^; Its distance from the snout 3 lines, or equal to its diameter, consequently 2^
of Its diameters are contained between it and the edge of the operculura. Operculum
rounded at the base, terminating above in a minute point directed backwards, strongly
mdiated,.^n^ distant; preoperculum ascending vertically; cheeks smooth and soft
Mouth rather obliquely cleft. Teeth, two large strong ones, placed close together, and
curving inwards at each side the extremity of the upper jaw, the two inner ,Vth of an
inch apart. In the lower jaw one slender rounded tooth, nearlv 1 line long on each
side, curving outwards at the base, and inwards at the point. Entire upper and under
jaw and vomer densely studded with small bluntish teeth, somewhat uniform in size ■
vomer extending far forward, and very much developed, forming a cavity in the lowei^
jaw, and in advance of the tongue when the mouth is closed ; a series of rows of teeth
similar to those last described on the palatine bones ; all the teeth of the upper jaw ex
posed to view when the mouth is closed. Tongue short, not reaching within 2\ Mel
of the extremity of the lower jaw, and apparently toothless. On the dorsal ridge 1
inch from the snout, or 2^ lines behind the cranium, is a short, stout, bony spine not
very conspicuous, and, excepting its extreme point, covered with skin : it is 6 lines in
advance of the first ray of the dorsal fin. Scales none' (?). Lateral line inconspicuous
bemg a slight depression extending in a straight line along the middle of the sides pos-
terior y or throughout the greater portion of its length, but anteriorly nearer to the
dorsal than the ventral profile. Vent 1 inch 3 lines from the extremitv of the lower
jaw. Branchiostegous membrane opens forward rather before the extremity of the <^ape
Dorsal fin commencing 1 inch 6 lines from the snout, low at its origin, but gradually
increasing in height to near the caudal fin, which it joins, the two or three anterior
rays, which are very short, flexible and simple^ (?), remainder articulated. Anal fin
originates just behind the vent, or at 1 inch 3 lines from the point of the lower jaw
joins the caudal fin, near to which it increases in depth posteriorly from its or gin'
deeper han the dorsal fin throughout; about U inch from the caudal fin the rays ar
m length four times greater than the depth of the body at the same place, the rays of
he dorsal fin opposite being three times the depth of the body; the first and second
nenor ray-s flexible and simple (?), remainder articulated. Pectoral fins originate
1 line behind the head and are equal to half its length, central rays longest, all very
flexible, placed below the middle of the sides. Caudal fin, central rays longest Arl
culations very long on the rays of all the fins ; no branched rays in any of J^hem
D. 180? A. 180? P. 16? C. 12?— Br. 7.

* .oIX'b;!' hT,"' T '1o-: ^'^'^'"^" """^"^ ^^"'^^ "' "^^ ^^-^ "^'"- - ^^°- o^ the Ce,o^a ru-

210 MR. W. THOMPSON ON A NEW SUB-GENUS OF FISHES.

Although the numbers of these fin-rays be marked with doubt, they were reckoned
with the greatest care ; but without injury to the specimen they could not be ascer-
tained with certainty to a single ray. Vertebra, which distinctly seen through the skin
can be reckoned with accuracy, 98. Colours, anterior half a dull flesh colour, similar
to specimens of Cepola rubescens preserved in spirits, hence it is presumed to have
been originally red ; behind this portion, reddish-brown markings appear on the body
at the base of the dorsal and anal fins, and suddenly increase in number, until from an
inch behind the middle, the whole sides are closely marked and spotted over ; the entire
top and the sides of the head before the hinder line of the eye are similarly spotted ;
just beliind the cranium a few spots also appear : the posterior rays of the dorsal and
anal and the entire caudal fin blackish. Iris, operculum, and under surface, a short
way beyond the vent, bright silver.

The two large teeth, resembling serpents' fangs, which terminate the upper jaw on
each side, have suggested the generic appellation of Echiodon (e'x'Ci « viper, and o&uc,
a tooth) ; and the specific name of Drummondii is proposed in honour of its discoverer'.

Although when this fish first came into my possession, I saw that it might be classed
under the Malacopterygii Apodes, and be placed near Ophidium, I considered that in a
natural arrangement it would best constitute a new genus of the family Tanioidea. In
being apodal it was not excluded from this family, as two genera belonging to it are
destitute of ventral fins. I did not hesitate to place it under the Acanthopterycjii, as
some genera which are included in this order are, like it, strictly Malacopterygian, their
natural connexion with genera having fins with spinous rays being considered — and in
my opinion most philosophically — to outweigh this character : and further, I felt less
reluctance in thus placing it, in consequence of Cepola rubescens, which it assimilates in

' In Mr. Templeton's catalogue of " Irish Vertebrate Animals," published in the Magazine of Natural History
(new series) for 1837, we find the following remarks in reference to Ophidium imberbe. "The only specimen I
have observed was thrown on the shore of Belfast Lough, near the Whitehouse Point, on January 9, 1809.
It was a large specimen, not less than a foot long, and agreed so exactly with the figure in the British Zoology,
and differed so much from that of Mr. Montagu (Wem. Mem. p. 95. pi. 4.), that I am led to beUeve there are
two distinct species, of which Pennant has described the one and Montagu the other." New series, vol. i. p. 412.

In endeavouring to gain further information on this subject from the late Mr. Templeton's papers, (all of which
through the kindness and liberality of his family are accessible to me,) I have been only able to find the follow-
ing note, which appears in his Journal, under date of January 10, 1803. " Went to the White House to look
for Fuci: found a fish about 18 inches long, more taper than an Eel, at the thickest part about an inch and a
half diameter. I think it was the Ophidium imberbe. Brit. Zool. iii. 398. t. 93, in vol. iv." It is much to be
regretted that the information was not more precise, as it is not improbable that the species alluded to may
have been identical with that which forms the subject of the present article. The White House Point and
Camlough Bay are in a direct line about twenty mUes distant.

MR. W. THOMPSON ON A NEW SUB-GENUS OF FISHES. 211

some respects, having but one spinous ray, and that in the ventral fin. At the sug-
gestion of John Edward Gray, Esq. F.R.S., I have, however, reconsidered the subject,
and have come to the conclusion above advanced.

As a difference of opinion may still exist with regard to the position of this genus, I
subjoin the observations originally made.

Like certain other genera which are comprehended under Acanthopterygii, the first
order of the Osseous Fishes, its fins are altogether destitute of spinous rays, but like
those alluded to, such as Zoarces, &c., its other characters' seem to point out the Tceni-
oides as the family to which it belongs. Of the eight' genera of Tcsnioides already
known, viz. Lepidopus, Trichiurus, Gymnetrus, Stylephorus, Cepola, Lophotes, Truchypte-
rus, and Alepisaurus' , the specimen under consideration agrees with Trichiurus . and
Stylephorus in being apodal, or wanting ventral fins, but in this character only is there
any generic accordance. Though considerably more elongated, from the head poste-
riorly it approaches most nearly to Cepola rubescens in the form of the body and in the
forward commencement of the anal fin, which, with the dorsal, is prolonged until it joins
the caudal ; but it is only in the continuity of these fins until this junction is effected
that the resemblance holds, as in my specimen the dorsal rays (of which the five fore-
most are very short) increase in length posteriorly, and near the caudal fin are about
thi-ee times as long as the depth of the body beneath them ; in the anal fin, which is
throughout much higher than the dorsal, the rays likewise increase posteriorly, and
near the caudal are in length four times greater than the depth of the body at the same
place. The length of the posterior rays of these fins causes the dorsal, anal, and caudal
to appear as one, whilst, though they do join in Cepola rubescens, the last ray of the
dorsal and anal being much shorter than the outer rays of the caudal, may at the same
time be said to mark distinctly the termination of each fin*. In my specimen the anal
originates two lines in advance of the dorsal fin.

In the form of the head and in dentition, it differs so remarkably from all the other
genera as to render a comparison with them unnecessary. Its absolute characters must
suffice for distinction.

As Mr. Yarrell has in his valuable work on " British Fishes" (vol. i. p. 185.) sug-
gested, that of the two specimens described as Trichiuri by Mr. Hoy in the Linnean
Transactions (vol. xi. p. 210.), the first may be the type of a new genus, it should be
observed, that this individual approximates the specimen under consideration in but one
generic, and that a negative character, namely, the want of ventral fins.

' I allude to external characters only, being unwilling to dissect a specimen as yet unique.

- For the purpose of comparison, all the genera given by Cuvier in the " R^gne Animal " and " Hist, de Poiss."
are here brought together. ' Zool. Trans, vol. i. p. 123.

* For illustration of this, see Cuv. and Val. Hist, de Poiss. pi. 300. Two species of Cepola from Japan, the
C. limbata and C. maryimUa, are (as has been observed in this work, tome x. p. 403.) figured by Kruscnstern
with the caudal fiu continuous with the dorsal and anal, as in the genus Anguilla.

212 MR. W. THOMPSON ON A NEW SUB-GENUS OF FISHES.

PLATE XXXVIII.

'"- I a"::::;":™ rLd see„ >,.e.al>y. .he ja»s e«e,*d to .„o- the dental

system, enlarged.
3. Front view of the anterior terminal teeth, enlarged.

. %a^^, iXr/.. A'.,; f,.A z . -:/'A:m\ /, , z

2/Z.

Gcd6(>i^^ !:^.f^ym'^i^m4^/

-rtj* .A^tU i*I*

t 213 ]

XVII. Description of a new Species of Antelope. By Capt. W. C. Harris, {Bombay
Engineers,) in a Letter addressed to the Secretary.

Communicated January 9th, 1838.

Sir, Cape Town, South Africa, Oct. 10, 1837.

1 BEG the favour of your presenting to the Zoological Society the accompanying
drawing and description of an entirely new and very interesting species of Antelope,
which I discovered in the course of an expedition to the interior of Africa, from which
I have lately returned. A perfect specimen that I brought down has been admirably
set up by Monsieur Verreaux, the French naturalist at Cape Town, and will be sent to
London in the course of a few days, to the care of Dr. Andrew Smith. It would appear
to belong to the sub-genus Aigocerus, and in form, as well as in other respects, bears
remote resemblance to the Aigocerus Equina, (Roan Antelope or Bastard Gemsbok,)
with which it has been confounded by many persons imperfectly acquainted with the
subject to whom it has been exhibited. A comparison of the two animals will, however,
render the existing difference between them too obvious to demand any observation
from me.

During nearly three months that I hunted over the country lying between the 24th
and 26th parallels of south latitude, within 28° and 30° east longitude, I only once met
with the Antelope in question. On the northern side of the Cashan range of moun-
tains, about a degree and a half south of the tropic of Capricorn, I found a herd, con-
sisting of nine does and two bucks, and followed them until I captured the specimen
from which the enclosed drawing was made.

None of the natives of the country were familiar with the appearance of the animal
when first interrogated on the subject, although after conferring amongst themselves,
they agreed that it was Kookame, {Oryx Capensis,) the Gemsbok ; and, of the many
individuals to whom it has been shown, a trader named Robert Scoon is the only one
by whom it has been recognized. He declares that he saw a herd of them some years
ago near the very spot I have described, but could not succeed in killing one. It is,
doubtless, very rare ; and, judging from the formation of the foot, entirely confined to
the mountains.

The females are somewhat smaller than the males, are provided with shorter and
slighter, but similarly shaped horns, and are similarly marked ; a deep chestnut brown,
verging upon black, taking the place of the glossy black coat of the male. I did not

VOL. II. PART III. 2 F

214 CAPT. W. C. HARRIS ON A NEW ANTELOPE.

obtain a female specimen ; but whilst riding down the buck, I had abundant opportu-
nities of narrowly observing them within the distance of a few yards, and am, therefore,
positive as to the correctness of the description here given.

I have for the present designated the new Antelope " Aigocerus niger ;" but of course
it will rest with the Zoological Society either to confirm that name, or to bestow one
more appropriate or more scientific ; and I shall be gratified by their doing so.

I have the honour to be, sir.

Your most obedient servant,

W. C. Harris.

Aigocerus niger. The Sable Antelope.

Adult male four feet six inches high at the shoulder ; nearly nine feet in extreme
length. Horns thirty-seven inches over the curve, placed immediately above the eyes,
rather higher than occurs in the Aigocerus Equina ; flat, slender, sub-erect, and then
strongly bent back scimitar wise ; at first gradually diverging, and then running parallel
to each other ; three-fourths annulated with about thirty strongly pronounced, incom-
plete rings, more rigid on the edges, but chiefly broken on the outside of the horn ; the
remaining one-fourth smooth, round, slender, and pointed. Head somewhat attenuated
towards the muzzle, and compressed laterally. Carcase robust. Withers elevated.
Neck broad and flat. Hoofs black, obtuse, and rather short. Hair close and smooth :
general colour of the coat intense glossy black, with an occasional cast of deep chestnut.
A dirty white streak commencing above each eye, continued by a pencil of long hairs
covering the place of the suborbital pouch, (of which cavity no trace is to be found in
this Antelope,) and then running down the side of the nose to the muzzle, which is en-
tirely white ; the same colour pervading one half of the cheek, the chin and the throat.
Ears ten inches long, narrow, tapering and pointed ; white within, lively chestnut with-
out, with black pencilled tips. A broad half crescent of deep chestnut at the base of each
ear, behind. A small, entire black muzzle. A copious standing black mane, five and
a half inches high, somewhat inclined forwards, and extending from between the ears
to the middle of the back. Hair of the throat and neck longer than that of the body.
Belly, buttocks, and inside of thighs, pure white. A longitudinal dusky white stripe
behind each arm. Fore-legs jet black inside and out, with a tinge of chestnut on and
below the knees. Hind-legs black, with a lively chestnut patch on and below the hocks.
Tail black ; long hair skirting the posterior edge, and terminating in a tuft which ex-
tends below the hocks. Sheath tipped with black.

Female smaller than the male, with smaller but similarly shaped horns. Colour,
deep chestnut brown verging upon black.

Very rare. Gregarious, in small families. Inhabits the great mountain range which
threads the more eastern parts of Moselekatse's territory.

CAPT. W. C. HARRIS ON A NEW ANTELOPE. 21 i

Dimensions.

Height at shoulder 54 inches.

Length of body 44

Length of neck 17

Length of head 19

Length of tail 25

Length of hind-quarter 19

Depth of chest 30

Length of fore-arm l(j

Fore-knee to foot 15

Croup to hock 35

Hock to foot 18-L

Breadth of neck 16

Breadth of fore-arm 6

Breadth of thigh 6

Breadth of fore-leg 2J-

Breadth of hind-leg 3

Length of horns 37

Breadth asunder at base ]

Breadth asunder at tips 9^l

Length of ears ]

Breadth of head 9

PLATE XXXIX.

AlGOCERUS NIGER".

' From a drawing taken on the spot by Captain Harris. The original specimen is in the collection of the
British Museum.

2 F 2

X'>u.^'oo/.^y<,c . IU.?J^/. 'iff. /, ?^6 .

lrai'(rf//j ?Uf/c

[ 217 3

XVIII. Notes on the Anatomy of the Nubian Giraffe. By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.8.,
Sjc, Hunterian Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Communicated January 23rd, 1838.

xVFTER the lapse of many centuries the civilized nations of Europe begin again to be
familiar with living specimens of the rarer animals from the remote regions of the globe ;
and as a consequence naturally flowing from the great moral revolution which has
been effected during that interval, they can plead higher and better motives for such
collections than those which stimulated the citizens of ancient Rome to excel in the
exhibitions of the circus. But the improvement in our tastes and wants, in reference
to collections of Uving animals, has not hitherto produced a corresponding activity in
their gratification : nor, indeed, does the service of modern zoological science require
the extraordinary energies and pecuniary expenditure which enabled a Roman dictator
or emperor to gratify the vitiated desires of an enslaved and cruel people with spectacles
of the slaughter of Lions-, Bears, Elephants, Dromedaries, and Ostriches, by hundreds
at a time. It is the variety and not the number of rare animals which we are now
concerned in procuring ; but even in this respect much remains to be done before we
shall have rivalled the ancients as importers of rare species ; and it is somewhat morti-
fying to reflect that the living Hippopotamus and the two-horned Rhinoceros have
hitherto been witnessed in Europe, only in the degrading sports of a Roman amphi-
theatre, and that science has profited nothing by their exhibition.

No person who has perusefd the "Historia Animalium" of Aristotle but must feel con-
vinced that, if the Grecian naturahst had enjoyed opportunities like those afforded to
the Roman philosophers of observing the rare animals which were repeatedly exhibited
ahve, and slain in the pubUc games in their times, he would have left to posterity the
same accurate and philosophical record of their characteristic forms and qualities as of
the animals whose descriptions are given in the wonderful treatise above mentioned.
The Hippopotamus was known to Aristotle only through the medium of a vague de-
scription by Herodotus ; the two-horned Rhinoceros and the Giraffe he had neither
seen nor heard of ; yet at Rome, besides the Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros, the
Giraffe ' was more than once exhibited. The third Gordian showed ten living Giraffes,
which it is conjectured were afterwards slaughtered at the millenarian games-. But our

' ■• Nabun jEthiopes vocant, collo similem equo, pedibus et cruribus bovi, camelo capite, albis maculis rutllum
colorem distinguentibus, unde appellata Camelopardalis. Dictatoris Caesaris Circensibus ludis primum visa
Romae." C. Plinii Hist. Nat. liber viii.

- " Dio decern Camelopardales narrat a Gordiano exhibitas, quas mox Roma interfectaa in millenariis ludis,
Philippe imperante, speculata est." Cuvier's Pliny, vol. i. p. 392. nota 4.

218 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

knowledge of these facts is derived, less from the descriptions of the naturalist, than from
the satire of the poet, the records and medals of political history, or the mosaic pavements
and other ornaments of pubhc buildings. We can scarcely perceive in the works of the
Roman philosophers a trace of that love of natural knowledge which induced the pre-
ceptor of Alexander the Great to investigate and record the habits and structure of the
animals which that monarch's conquests and just appreciation of science placed at his
disposal. A greater contrast cannot be found in the literature of natural history than
is afforded between the description of the Elephant, in the Historia Animalium, and the
crude and casual notice by Pliny of those rarer animals which more extended conquests
brought within his reach and observation. The spectacles and slaughters of the amphi-
theatre, such as have been alluded to, were continued uninterruptedly for more than
four hundred years, and must have afforded to the Roman philosophers, ample oppor-
tunities of making observations on the form and organization of foreign animals : yet
it seems that these animals, once killed, were applied to no further use. Everything,
in short, that such occasions could afford to debase the human mind and heart was
extracted from them, but nothing to elevate or improve.

It is surely a just subject of congratulation, that in these later times worthier mo-
tives for bringing rare animals within the sphere of our observation have been asso-
ciated with happier and better results. Our national menageries not only add to the
innocent pleasures of the people, by gratifying ordinary curiosity, or ministering to the
— perhaps somewhat spurious — enjoyment which arises from a consciousness of per-
sonal security while standing at arms' length from the encaged monarch of beasts, or
affording the amusements of witnessing the sagacious feats of the ponderous Elephant
or the nimble antics of the Ape ; but their chief object is to give to the scientific inquirer
the means of determining the relations which subsist between habits and organization,
and to trace the modifications of form and structure by which each species is adapted
to its destined sphere in the wide and diversified field of nature. These estabUshments
afford at once the opportunity of combining observation of the living animal with dissec-
tion of the dead. It is true, indeed, that the menagerie offers a very imperfect substi-
tute for those opportunities and advantages which the intelligent traveller enjoys in
witnessing the habits of a species in its free state and native wilds ; but, on the other
hand, the conveniences for prosecuting anatomical inquiries are much greater, and the
neglect of the latter means of advancing zoological knowledge would now be much
more reprehensible, than in the time of Pliny.

The scientific publications of the Zoological Society give ample proof that its mem-
bers have not been indifferent to the opportunities which a choice menagerie affords of
prosecuting anatomical researches into the structure of rare and interesting animals.
In the present communication I propose to give the results of a dissection of the male
Giraffe which died in the gardens at Regent's Park, and of various parts of a male and
a female Giraffe which died at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, and which were sent to
me for examination by the kindness of Mr. Cross.

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 219

The position of the Giraffe in the mammiferous series has hitherto been laid down
from external characters alone, and one cannot wonder therefore that Zoologists should
not be unanimous on this point. Cuvier assigns to the genus Camelopardalix a place
between Cervus and Antilope. The horns of the Giraffe, in fact, are of a bony texture,
covered with a periosteum and a hairy integument, like the growing antlers of the Deer ;
but the teguraentary defence of the vascular periosteum is not deciduous, and the horns
are consequently persistent, as in the Antelopes, in which the vascular covering of the
bony core is protected by a sheath of horny substance.

In regard to the existence of horns in the two sexes, we find a few examples among
both Deer and Antelopes, which thus resemble the Giraffe. The horns of the Giraffe
possess, however, certain characters which are peculiar to themselves ; the basis of the
horn, for example, is articulated by synchondrosis to the frontal and parietal bones, and
thus constitutes an epiphysis rather than an apophysis of the cranium. A broad, obtuse,
osseous eminence in the middle of the forehead' has been described as a third horn,
and has been stated to be similarly articulated to the frontal bone, at least in the male
Nubian Giraffe, and to be the only instance of a horn developed in the mesial hne of
the cranium, and over a cranial suture in the Mammiferous class. Cuvier says, " Au
milieu du chanfrein, est un tubercle ou une troisi^me come plus large et beaucoup plus
courte, niais egalement articulee par suture"." J. B. Fischer^ describes the third arti-
culated horn as peculiar to the male Giraffe.

The general form of the Giraffe is modified with a special reference to its exigencies
and habits, which are dependent upon its geographical position and the nature of its
food ; the prolongation and extensibility of the hair-clad muzzle, and the peculiar
length, slenderness, and flexibility of the tongue, are in exact harmony wuth the
kind of food on which it is destined to subsist. The oblique and narrow apertures
of the nostrils, defended by the hair which is continued to their margins, and sur-
rounded by cutaneous muscular fibres by which the animal can close them entirely and
at will, form a beautiful provision for the defence of the air-passages, and the irritable
membrane lining the olfactory cavity, against the fine particles of sand which the
storms of the desert occasionally raise in suffocating clouds, and which man, and the
animals compelled through his necessities to become occasional inhabitants of the
desert, find so much difficulty in excluding.

The position and pecuhar prominence of the large, dark and lustrous eye of the

' See the section of this protuberance in the figure of the cranium, pi. 40.

- Rfegne Animal, 2nd ed. tom. i. p. 2G6. The figure of the skull which illustrates the account of the Nubian
Giraffe in the "Atlas zu Riippel's Reise im Nordlichen Afrika," pi. 9. p. 23., represents indeed this third tubercle
as distinct and articulated by suture with the cranium ; but in the original cranium, from which the figure is
taken, and which I have examined in the Frankfort Museum, I could not perceive any evidence of tlie existence
of such a suture ; the mesial protuberance had not been detached from an epiphyseal articular surface, but had
been sawn off in order to be preserved in the stuffed skin.

' Synopsis Mammalium, p. 455.

220 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

Giraffe, together with most of the external peculiarities of the body, have already been
ably detailed in Riippel's Raise, above quoted. Observations taken from the living
animal have also been recorded by Geoffroy in the Annales des Sciences, xi. p. 210.;
bv Salze in the Memoires du Museum, xiv. p. 68.; and some remarks on the tongue
and stomach are given, with figures, in the 5th and 6th volumes of the Comparative Ana-
tomy of Sir Everard Home.

All the three Giraffes on which the present observations were made were young
animals and had not shed the deciduous incisors and anterior 7)tokres; two of them (a male
and female) were ascertained to be about three years old ; the third (a male, of which the
skeleton is now preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London,)
mio:ht, by its size, be about four years old.

The following admeasurements were taken from the female Giraffe, which died (De-
cember 10th, 1836) in the Surrey Gardens: —

Ft. Ins.

From the nose to the hind-hoof in a straight line 12 6

From the nose to the vent . 8

The length of the head, following the curve of the forehead ..20

Breadth of the head across the eyes 9

Circumference of neck immediately behind the head . . . . 1 9|

Do. Do. near the trunk 3 5

Greatest circumference of trunk 6

Length of the fore-leg, from the axilla, or setting on, to the hoof 4 5^
Length of the hind-leg, from the setting on at the groin ... 4 8

The apparent greater length of the fore-legs in the hving animal while in the erect
posture, arises from the remarkable depth of the chest, length of the anterior dorsal spines,
and corresponding length and position of the scapula.

In the Horse, as is well known, there is a central point on each flank, whence the
hair radiates in a somewhat spiral manner : the corresponding centre in the Giraffe is a
little behind the middle of the abdomen, towards the lower part.

There are four nipples in the inguinal region, of which the two anterior are wider
apart than the two posterior.

Organs of Digestion.

In the form of the mouth the Giraffe differs from every other Ruminant. In the non-
division and extensibility of the hair-clad upper lip it resembles the Elk, but differs
w^idely from that animal in the elegant tapering form of the muzzle. There is no trace of
the bifid division of the upper hp which distinguishes the Camel.

The inner surface of the lips, especially where they join to form the angles of the
mouth, is beset with numerous, close-set, strong, retroverted and pointed papilla.

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 221

similar to those which are distributed over the interior of the gullet in the Turtles (Che-
Ionia). Other Ruminants have this structure', but less stronglj' developed than in the
Giraffe. On the palate there are about sixteen irregular transverse ridges, some slightly
incurved, others tending to the chevron form, but all presenting a free denticulated edge
turned backwards ; these are traversed by a median groove, and gradually subside
posteriorly. At the anterior part of the palate there are transverse rows of large obtuse
■papill'E in the interspaces of the ridges. This mechanical apparatus for detaining the
food in the mouth and ensuring its deglutition, is required in the Giraffe more particu-
larly on account of the small size of its head and jaws as compared with the body.
The holus which is regurgitated in rumination is generally so large as considerably to
distend the cheek externally to the grinders ; and all the callous processes which beset
the interior of the mouth tend to direct the nutritive matter to the space between the
grinding teeth.

It is in relation to the lengthened mastication which the alimentary substances un-
dergo in the mouth of the Ruminants, that these peculiarities of the lips and palate exist.
They have not escaped the notice of Cuvier ; but their presence by that great anato-
mist is only connected with the corresponding existence of papillary productions from
the lining membrane of the paunch ; and he states it to be difficult to trace a final con-
nexion between their development and the kind of food on which the animal lives.
But in reasoning on this structure, I think we may legitimately ascend beyond the
simple relation of coexistence to which Cuvier alludes. In the act of rumination the
bolus is driven into the mouth with great force ; and the use of these papilla as mecha-
nical obstacles to its escape, and their tendency to confine the soft slimy comminuted
vegetable substances to the molar region during the second mastication, appear to be
offices of sufficient importance to found upon their presence an argument of special
adaptation or design. Cuvier, in illustrating his opinion, cites the Horse as ha^^ng no
buccal papilla;, and as having, in like manner, no papillce in the interior of the stomach ;
but the front part of the mouth of this Herbivorous animal is closed by teeth both above
and below, and its food is never regurgitated for the purpose of undergoing a lengthened
remastication. That they have no necessary relation of coexistence with papilla; in the
stomach or any other parts of the alimentary canal is obvious from the simple struc-
ture of the lining membrane of the stomach in the Turtle, in which the oesophagus is
remarkable for the numerous, callous, pointed papillre, designed to facilitate and ensure
the passage to the stomach of the slippery sea-weed and other substances which con-
stitute its food.

Having frequently witnessed the great extensibility, flexibility, and extraordinary
command and power which the Giraffe possesses over the movements of its tongue, and
knowing the important share which this organ plays in the prehension of food in the

I See Bojanus, Nova Acta Acad. Nat. Cses. Cur. Bonn. t. xii. pi. xxiii. fig. 7.
VOL. II. PART III. 2 G

222 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

wild animal, I was prepared to expect that it would offer some well-marked and
perhaps anomalous modifications in its structure; but the modifications are in fact of
a very simple nature. (PL XLI.) The muscles of the tongue are the same in number,
position, and attachments as in other Ruminants ; the principal difference obtains in
the greater extent of the organ, anterior to the insertion of the genio-glossus; and as
this free and active part consists entirely of a firm muscular tissue, invested by a thin,
but dense and very closely adhering integument, there is a corresponding increase in
the bulk of the linguales muscles as compared with those muscles of the tongue which
have attachments to the bone ; of these latter the stylo-glossi , (fig. 2. a. a.) which are
the principal retractors of the free anterior part of the tongue, are relatively stronger
than in other Ruminants ; they arise by a thin but strong tendon from near the lower
extremity of the styloid bone, and run forwards below the lateral margins of the tongue,
to which they are braced by a thin sheet of fibres (fig. 2././.) descending obliquely for-
wards from the sides of the linguales to the upper margin of the stylo-glossi. The lin-
gualis inferior is a broad thin sheet of muscular fibres (fig- 2. c. c.) , which comes off from
the condensed cellular tissue at the under part of the root of the tongue, and runs for-
ward parallel with the fibres of the stylo-glossi, with which it becomes blended anterior
to the hyo-glossi (fig. 2. b. b.) ; these accessory fibres cross the inner surface of the hyo-
glossus muscle, which is thus inclosed between the two layers of longitudinal retractors.
Sir Everard Home, in his observations on the anatomy of the Giraffe which died in the
menagerie of His Majesty King George IV., near Windsor, conceived that the extension
and change of size of the tongue was effected chiefiy by vascular action — by " its con-
taining a reservoir, out of the course of the circulation, which can be filled with blood
at the will of the animal, so as to give it rigidity, and enable it to extend itself for the
performance of the different actions in which it is employed with the smallest possible
degree of muscular exertion," and that the increase and diminution of size arose from
the blood vessels being at one time loaded with blood and at another empty. The
movements of the Cameleon's tongue have been explained on a similar theory of vas-
cular or erectile action.

The arteries and veins of the tongue of one of the Giraffes dissected by me, were
both successfully injected, and the non-existence of either a reservoir of blood or a vas-
cular erectile tissue was clearly proved. The Ungual artery (fig. 2. i.) at the base of the
tongue, sends off a large branch which runs upwards on the outside of the posterior part
of the genio-glossi muscles (fig. 2. d.), and is principally distributed to the large fossulate
mucous papilla and glandular surface on the raised posterior margin of the tongue :
the main artery is then continued forwards along the inner surface of the stylo-
glossi muscles, giving off branches here and there to the muscular substance of the
tongue, and the only modification which it offers worthy of note is the existence of
numerous and large anastomotic communications with the lingual artery of the opposite
side. The first of these intercommunicating branches, which was as large as a crow

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 223

quill (fig.2./f.), occurred immediately anterior to the genio-glossus.and full six inches from
the apex of the tongue. In the specimen here described there was a marked difference
in the size of the two lingual arteries : the left was the larger, and, beyond the preceding
anastomosis, formed the principal channel for the supply of the free prehensile part of
the tongue with blood, which part thus displays more singleness and unity in its organic
composition than in man and most other Mammalia, in which the arteries supplying the
two lateral moieties of the tongue are equal in size, and have only a slight anastomosis near
Its apex. The lingual veins in the Giraffe are of large size and present a shght plexiform

arrangement beneath the baseof the tongue(fig.2.A. A.). Thevein,togetherwith the lingual
artery which it accompanies, along the inner side of the sty lo-glossus muscle, is covered by
a thin stratum of transverse fibres, which pass from the middle line of the under surface
of the tongue over the stylo-glossi to the upper surface of the tongue, and when in action
would serve to compress the vessels, and at the same time elongate the relaxed fibres of the
stylo-glossi; but the space surrounding these vessels is quite inadequate to allow of their
distention, so as in any degree to affect the size or motion of the tongue. The whole of
the movements of the tongue, in fact, are due to muscular action : any physiologist who
has felt the firm but regulated grasp of the tongue of the Giraffe, when twined round the
finger, must have been convinced that the action was totally dissimilar to that sudden and
fitful force arising from vascular or erectile action. The muscular fibres in the free and
flexible part of the tongue present an arrangement adequate to all its movements. The
stylo-glossi and inferior linguales expand into a layer of longitudinal fibres, about a line
m thickness, covering the whole of the inferior surface of the free portion of the tongue
and becoming continuous at the sides, with a corresponding hut thicker stratum of lon-
gitudinal fibres on the upper surface of the tongue ; these longitudinal muscles inclose a
mass of fibres, which run in the transverse direction. The action of these transverse
fibres, combined with that of several short vertical fibres near the margins, and of
those forming the thin circular stratum surrounding the stylo-glossi at the middle part
of the tongue, serves to attenuate or diminish the transverse diameter of the tongue and
increase its length ; while thus rigidly extended, the apex of the tongue can be curved
upwards or downwards by the superficial longitudinal fibres, which are less intermingled
with the transverse fibres than in the tongues of most other iV/«mm«//« : the contraction
of the longitudinal fibres taking place with the relaxation of the transverse ones, produces
the retraction of the whole organ. The nerves of the tongue present the same dispo-
sition as those in ordinary Ruminants, but the ninth pair is relatively larger than the
branch from the fifth pair : the nerve which runs along the inner or under surface of the
stylo-glossi towards the free extremity of the tongue is remarkable for its beautifully
wavy course (fig. 2. g.), by which it is accommodated to the variations which occur in
the length of the organ in the living animal.

The epithelium is thickest at the apex of the tongue, on the upper surface of which
It IS developed into numerous minute retroverted spines, which occasion the rasp-like

2 g2

224 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

roughness which is felt in the tongue of the living animal (PI. XLI. fig. 3). A dark
leaden-coloured pigment is developed beneath the epithelium, covering the anterior half
of the tongue, in relation doubtless to its frequent exposure; the pigment assumes a black
colour over the prominent round obtuse papilla which are somewhat sparingly scattered,
like coarse grains of gunpowder, over the dark-coloured portion of the tongue : from
fifteen to twenty larger fossulate papillm are arranged in an irregular longitudinal row
on each side of the raised inter-molar part of the tongue. This surface of the tongue
is otherwise smooth, and does not support any large pointed papilla, like those which
characterize the corresponding part of the tongue in the Camel and Llama. There is
a fold of lingual integument on each side of the posterior part of the tongue, which
is covered with a thicker epithelium, and supports a longitudinal row of pointed
papillw, together with numerous orifices of a thick layer of mucous glands (PI. XLI.

On looking down the mouth into the fauces the cavity appears to be as completely
closed as in the Capibara ; but instead of narrowing in an infundibular form to a small
circular depression, it is terminated by a transverse sht, through which projects a soft,
rounded, val\ailar ridge, formed by the broad superior margin of the epiglottis, which
is folded down upon itself at that part. The surface of the fauces is broken by large
risings and depressions, or is coarsely corrugated. (PI. XLII. fig. 3.) The velum palati,
when viewed from behind, is seen to descend to the margins of the glottis in the inter-
space between the epiglottis and the large arytenoid cartilages ; and on raising the soft
palate, a small process, or mdimental uvula, appears, descending from the middle of its
inferior margin into the open laryngeal fissure ; but it fits only into the posterior part
of this fissure, the anterior part being defended by two processes of the mucous mem-
brane of the larynx which are continued from the sides of the base of the epiglottis.
These processes are thick, of a triangular form, with their apices turned backwards and
inwards, so as to cover and close the anterior part of the glottis : when the soft palate
is raised to bring them into view, as in PI. XLII. fig. 1 , they seem like two accessory
epiglottides ; but they consist merely of a duplicature of mucous membrane. At the
posterior part of the soft palate there is an oval glandular body about one inch in long
diameter.

The tonsils are well-developed glands of a flattened oval form, two inches long, and
one inch broad ; having each a short duct communicating with the fauces by a single
wide opening, or fossa, and thus exhibiting a higher type of structure than they present
in the human subject, where the mucous follicles terminate by several separate aper-
tures.

(Esophagus.

The (esophagus, like the other parts running along the neck, is chiefly remarkable for
its great length. It presents a very regular and uniform diameter throughout (1| inch).

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 225

It is surrounded by two strong layers of muscular fibres. The external muscular layer
is the thickest, and its fibres are nearly transverse in their arrangement : those of the
internal layer are obUque, but approach towards the longitudinal disposition. I sub-
jected them to microscopical observation, and compared them with the muscular fibres
of the four cavities of the stomach ; they presented a structure which may be regarded
as intermediate between that which characterizes the voluntary and involuntary muscular
fibre. In the voluntary muscles the ultimate filaments are collected into what may be
called ultimate fascicles, which present a uniform or definite size, and these are charac-
terized, as is well known, by transverse struB : in the involuntary muscles, as those of
the stomach of the Giraffe, the ultimate filaments are not collected into fascicles, but are
uniformly interwoven with each other in a wavy course, and there are consequently no
striated fascicles. In the muscles of the oesophagus the ultimate filaments are aggregated
into regular-sized ultimate fascicles, in which they present a parallel disposition : but
the fascicles exhibit no trace of the transverse stria which characterize the voluntary
fascicles, but, on the contrary, are perfectly smooth and sub-transparent.

True involuntary fibres arranged round mucous membranes, as those of the intes-
tine, or urinary bladder, may be thickened by increased action, but do not acquire a
deeper red colour : the muscular fibres of the heart, which are developed in the vascu-
lar layer of the germinal membrane, and which present the striated character, are
generally the reddest in the body, and present the red colour in those animals in which
all the other muscular fibres are white. Now the muscles of the wsophagus, which re-
semble in their ultimate aggregation the true voluntary fibres, also assume a deeper red
tint in the Giraffe and other Ruminants, in relation to the increased number and force
of the contractions which they have daily to perform, as compared with the oesopha-
geal fibres in the non-ruminating animals.

The mucous membrane of the wsophagus is thick and firm ; it is fined by a well-
developed smooth and polished epithelium, and is connected to the muscular coat by
a very lax cellular membrane.

Abdominal viscera.

Before adverting to the rest of the ahmentary canal, I may describe the position in
which the abdominal viscera were seen in two dissections of the Giraffe.

In the female, which died at the Surrey Gardens, the paunch occupied the ventral
aspect of the anterior two-tliirds of the short abdominal cavity, resting immediately
upon the abdominal muscles and their strong and elastic fascia. The great omentum,
which was studded with fat, as in the Deer and Ruminants generally, extended from
the paunch to below the brim of the pelvis -. on raising it, a fold of the colon appeared
immediately below the paunch, towards the left side ; below this were several convolu-
tions of small intestines : the obtuse bhnd end of the cacum made its appearance in the
left hypogastric region, and below these was another portion of the colon.

"226 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

In the male Giraffe, dissected at the Zoological Gardens, the abdominal viscera pre-
sented nearly the same appearances : the paunch here also, as in other Ruminants, was
so placed that no viscus was interposed between its weighty and indigested contents
and the inferior abdominal parietes.

On raising the paunch, the spiral coils of the colon, characteristic of the Ruminants,
came into view, together with the rest of the jejunum and ileum. When these were re-
moved, the third and fourth stomachs were exposed, together with the small liver which
was wholly confined to the right of the mesial plane.

The spleen, as usual in Ruminants, had its concave surface applied to the left side of
the first stomach or rumen.

The pancreas extends transversely behind the stomach within the posterior duplica-
ture of the omentum, from the spleen to the duodenum.

The kidneys occupy the usual position in the loins ; the right one a little more ad-
vanced than the left : their figure is rounded and compact, as in the Deer and Antelopes ;
they are not externally lobulated, as in the Ox.

The stomach presents in every respect the structure which characterizes the horned
Ruminants. The paunch or rumen has the usual enormous proportions, and is bifid at
the lower extremity; the papillce (PL XLI. fig. 4) with which its inner surface is every
where beset, are more regular and uniform in their size and shape than in the Ox, they
are relatively thicker, narrower and longer; their margins are thickened but entire, in-
stead of being irregularly notched ; and they become expanded and rounded at their free
extremity, instead of tapering to a point, as in many parts of the paunch of the Ox: they
resemble more those of the Reindeer. There is more variety among the horned Ru-
minants in the form and depth of the cells of the reticulum ; and these modifications have
been supposed to relate to differences in the power of retaining fluids. The structure
of the Reindeer's stomach appears to be confirmatory of this view : the snow which must
be swallowed with the lichen through a great part of the year would render any reservoir
for water unnecessary, and the cells in the reticulum are, in fact, in this Ruminant re-
markably shallow. The same structure also obtains in the Giraffe. The cells are not,
however, as has been stated, entirely wanting ; but their hexagonal boundaries appear
as mere raised lines supporting a row of pyramidal papilla larger than those in the in-
terspaces (PI. XLI. fig. 5) ; for any imaginable use, they might have been arranged in
any other even the most irregular forms ; but that pattern is closely adhered to which
grouping together a number of cells in the least possible space renders necessary in
other Ruminants, and almost universal in nature. In ihepsalterium, between each two
narrow folds, there is alternately one of great and one of moderate breadth, as in the
Ox, &c. : these lamellce are beset with short pyriform papilla. In the fourth stomach,
the rug(B of the digestive membrane are slightly developed, and chiefly longitudinal ;
the pylorus is protected by a valvular protuberance, placed above it, just within the
stomach ; this protuberance is relatively smaller than in the Llama.

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE.

227

The duodenum is dilated at its commencement ; it receives the biliary and pancreatic
secretions about ten inches from the pylorus.

The small intestines are rather tightly bound to the spine in short coils by a narrow
mesentery, which contained much fat. They were of the following length :

Cross's Female.

Cross's Male.

Zool. Male.

Small Intestines
Large Intestines
Ccecum

ft. in.

43 2

2 2

ft. In.

ft. in.

The small intestines present a pretty uniform size, measuring in circumference four
inches. The ileum ceases to be convoluted towards its termination, but ascends in a
straight course and enters the ccecum near the root of the mesentery. The termination
of the ileum forms a circular tumid lip within the ccecum, and presents a less efficient
mechanical obstacle to regurgitation than in the human subject.

The c(Ecum is a simple cylindrical gut, as in other Ruminants ; its circumference is
six inches ; it extends downwards from where the ileum enters, and its blind end ap-
pears on the left side above the pelvis ; but this position might be accidental as its
connexions are loose.

The disposition of the colon resembles that of the Deer. The extent of this intestine,
before it begins to make the spiral or involuted turns, is about eight feet ; it becomes
narrower where it takes on this characteristic disposition, and the separation of iht fasces
into peUets begins at the end of this part. The spiral coils are situated to the left of
the root of the mesentery, which, with the small intestines, must be turned to the right
in order to bring them into view: there are four complete gyrations in one direction,
and four reverse coils in the interspaces of the preceding, the gut being bent back upon
itself; the length of this part of the intestine, when unravelled, is about fourteen feet.
The spiral coils are not on the same plane, but form a depressed and obhque cone, whose
concavity is next the mesentery. The colon, emerging from its coils, passes to the right,
behind the root of the mesentery, becomes connected with the duodenum and the first
part of its own course, then winds round to the left of the mesentery, and finally re-
cedes backwards and descends to form the rectum : I may observe, that in those Ru-
minants which have soft undivided faeces as the Ox, the coils are less numerous and
regular, and the colon shorter and wider than in the Giraffe and Deer tribe.

The Liver is a small viscus, as in most herbivorous Mammalia ; it weighed but six
pounds, eleven ounces, avoirdupois ; it is of a flattened form, consisting^of one lobe,
with a smaU posterior Spigelian process; its greatest breadth twelve inches; its antero-
posterior diameter eight inches. The inferior cava passes through a notch at the poste-
rior edge of the liver, and does not perforate it.
As the presence of a gaU-bladder distinguishes the hoUow-horned from the solid-

228 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

horned Ruminants, the investigation of this point in the anatomy of the Giraffe was
attended with much interest ; and the result of an examination of three individuals
shows how necessary it is not to generalize on such a point from a single dissection.

In the first Giraffe, the female at the Surrey Gardens, I found a large gall-bladder,
which presented an unusual structure, being bifid at its fundus. It was attached in
the usual manner and situation to the under part of the liver, having a covering of
peritoneum over three-fourths of its surface. It measured three inches in length, and
two inches in diameter. On making a longitudinal incision down one side of this
apparently single gall-bladder, it was seen to be divided throughout its length by a
middle vertical septum. Further dissection of this septum showed that the gall-
bladder in fact was double, and that the two reservoirs of equal size, were connected
together, side by side, by means of a common investment of serous membrane. The
lining membrane of each bladder was smooth ; they communicated separately with the
commencement of a single cystic duct, the terminal orifices admitting freely the blunt
end of a common probe, and being protected by a valvular fold. The cystic duct re-
ceives the hepatic ducts in its course towards the duodenum. (PI. XLII. fig. 4.)

In the two males afterwards examined there was not a vestige of a gall-bladder, but the
bile was conveyed by a rather wide hepatic duct to the duodenum. I conclude, there-
fore, that the absence of a gall-bladder is the rule, or normal condition ; and that the
Giraffe in this respect, as in the structure of its horns, has a nearer affinity to the Deer
than to the Antelopes.

The pancreas is broader, thinner, and of a more irregular form than in the Calf or
human subject. It is attached on the left side to the diaphragm and posterior part of
the stomach, and it extends transversely across the spine to the termination of the
biliary duct.

I found in one Giraffe that the spleen was ten inches long and seven inches and a
half broad ; in another of the same stature, nine inches long and five inches broad.
It is of a pretty regular oval form, but very thin, not exceeding one inch and two-thirds
at the thickest part.

The kidneys present the usual disposition, the right being nearest the diaphragm.
They are of a short or full oval figure, with a simple unbroken exterior, as in the Deer ;
about four inches and a half in length, four inches in breadth, and two inches and a
half in thickness. The tubuli uriniferi converge towards a single ridge, which receives
eight processes like abutments on each side, and occupies a narrow pelvis.

Organs of Circulation.

In the chest the viscera presented the usual disposition. The processes of the pleura
supporting the lungs contain fat disposed between the layers, as in the mesentery.
The heart measured in the full length of the ventricles eight inches and a half, and

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 229

the same in the transverse diameter of the base. The auricles are small as compared
with the ventricles, which form a rounded lengthened cone. The right ventricle termi-
nates at two inches from the apex. The left flap of the tricuspid valve has its free margin
attached by long chorda: tendinea: to the septum ventriculornm on one side, and to a co-
lumna carnea on the other ; which columna also gives attachment to some of the chordes
tendinea; of the right flap of the tricusj)id ; the rest of the chorda; of this flap, and all the
chorda of the third or internal flap, are attached to a very short and thick columna which
rises from the septum. Below the left flap of the tricuspid valve there is a fleshy column
connecting the free wall of the right ventricle to the septum. In the right auricle
the Eustachian valve is represented by a slight ridge circumscribing the left boundary'
of the lower cava. At the base of the heart, on one side of the origin of the aorta, and
imbedded in the tendinous circle which gives attachment to the muscular fibres of the
ventricle, there is a curved bone two-thirds of an inch in length.

The arch of the aorta, after distributing the vessels to the heart itself, gives oft', first,
a large innominata which subdivides into the right vertebral artery, the right brachial '
artery, and the common trunk of the two carotids ; secondly, the left brachial artery;
thirdly, the left vertebral artery. The common trunk of the two carotids is remarkable
for its length. The cranial plexus of the internal carotid is much less developed than
in the grazing Ruminants.

Nervous System.

The brain of the Giraffe resembles in its general form, as well as in the number, dis-
position, and depth of the convolutions, that of the Deer -. it is more depressed than in
the Antelope (Antilope picta) and relatively broader and deeper than in the Ox : the ce-
rehrum lies wholly in front of the cerebellum. The anterior contour of the cerebral
hemispheres is somewhat truncated, as may be seen in the figure (PI. XLIII. & XLIV.),
which supersede the necessity of further description of the external form. The cerebral
convolutions are divisible, as in other Ruminants, into primary and secondary; they
average a breadth of three lines and are almost symmetrical in the two hemispheres.
The two posterior convolutions next the median line, towards which they converge and
meet in the form of a chevron, are relatively larger than in the Ox ; the two larger
primary convolutions, external to these, proceed in an undulating course from behind
inwards and forwards, as in the Ruminants generally, but they are more comphcated
by secondary convolutions than in the Ox. There is little symmetry in the disposition
of the primary convolutions of the cerebellum : the middle one on the upper surface repre-
senting the superior vermiform process, pursues a wavy course from side to side ; but the

' The epithet "subclavian" is so obviously inaiipropriate as applied to the Ruminants and other non-
claviculate Mammals, tliat no apology seems necessary for adopting Dr. Barclay's term for the trunk supplying
the pectoral extremity.

VOL. II. PART III. 2 H

230 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

inferior vermiform process is straight, narrower than the upper one, and very promi-
nently developed : these, with the lateral convolutions of the cerebellum, are subdivided
as usual into narrow transverse folds. On divaricating the cerebral hemispheres, the
corpus callosum was seen to be situated from nine to ten lines below the superior surface
of the brain. Large and prominent corpora striata, a small triangular septum lucidum,
with the fornuc and other usual structures, were observed in the dissection of the lateral
ventricles. Tlie pineal gland presented a depressed subrhomboidal figure, and a very
firm solid texture; but no particles of earthy matter could be discerned in its substance
with the naked eye. The bigeminal bodies have the usual proportions observable in
other Ruminants ; the superior pair being the largest masses ; the inferior bodies, or
testes, resemble a thick transversely arched commissure, with the concavity appUed to
the superior vermiform process of the cerebellum, and the two extremities enlarged and
rounded.
The following admeasurements of the brain and its parts were taken.

Inches. Lines.

Longitudinal diameter of the brain 5 2

Vertical ditto 2 8

Breadth of the cerebrum 4 2

Length of the cerebellum 1 10

Breadth of ditto 2 5

Length of the pons Varolii 1

Breadth of ditto 1 6

Length of the corpus callosum 2

Length of the pineal gland 6

Breadth of ditto 4

Breadth of the superior bigeminal bodies .... 11

Depth of ditto 7

Breadth of the inferior bigeminal bodies .... I
Weight of the entire brain, stript of its membranes, fourteen ounces avordupoise.
The olfactory nerves were very large, as in most Ruminantia, and terminated in ex-
panded bulbs, in length one inch and a half, in breadth one inch ; these were lodged in
special compartments of the cranial cavity. The optic nerves and ninth pair were re-
latively larger than in the Deer or Ox, corresponding with the magnitude of the eye,
and the length and mobility of the tongue in the Giraffe. The other cerebral nerves
presented no peculiarity.

The spinal chord is closely invested by the dura mater, which is thinner on the dorsal
than the ventral region of the chord. The posterior roots of the nerves perforate the
dura mater and converge to form the ganglia on the outside of that membrane. The
chord is chiefly remarkable for the extreme length of the cervical portion. In the
male Giraffe dissected at the Zoological Gardens, and which measured eight feet from

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 231

the muzzle to the vent, the length of the spinal chord from the corpora pyramidalia to
the commencement of the swelUng, giving off the brachial plexus, was three feet three
inches.

Tlie origin of the cervical nerves from this part of the chord presented an uncommon
appearance ; for, the elongation of this part during fcetal development, having pro-
ceeded by means of uniform interstitial deposition, the roots of the nerves had be-
come equally separated from each other ; and as the lowest filament of the root of one
nerve was not further removed from the highest of the next below, than this from the
succeeding filament of the same nerve, the filaments composing the root of a single
cervical nerve extended over a considerable space : thus the third cervical nerve
derived its filaments from a tract of the spinal chord measuring fully six inches. The
inferior roots on leaving the medulla ascend and the superior ones descend to the per-
foration in the dura mater at a very acute angle with the spinal chord, and they may be
traced for a short distance in a direction corresponding with their course externally, the
upper filaments upwards, or towards the brain, the lower ones downwards, within the
substance of the spinal chord. In the posterior roots of the cervical nerves, one and
sometimes two of the lowermost filaments of one nerve are continued uninterruptedly '
into the uppermost filaments of the succeeding nen^e of the same side. These com-
municating chords are of conspicuous size, and He rather loosely in the subarach-
noid tissue, on the surface of the spinal chord : there appear to be in some places
very minute nervous filaments passing from the substance of the chord to the anasto-
motic loop. In one place I traced a corresponding superficial connecting loop between
the anterior or motor roots of contiguous nerves. (PI. XLIII. fig. 2.)

The brachial plexus is formed principally by the first two dorsal nerves ; from these
to the large nerves forming the lumber plexus there intervene seventeen pairs of nerves •
the four following nerves, or those of the eighteenth to the twenty-first pair inclusive,'
are principally enlarged to form the plexus supplying the hinder extremities.'

From the remarkable length of the neck of the Giraffe the condition of the recurrent
nerves became naturally a subject of interest: these nerves are readily distinguishable
at the superior third of the trachea, but when sought for at their origin it is not easy '
to detect them or to obtain satisfactory^ proof of their existence. Each nerve is not due
as in the short-necked Mammalia, to a single branch given off from the nervus vagus'
which winds round the great vessels, and is continued of uniform diameter throughout
their recurrent course, but it is formed by the reunion of several smaU filaments derived
from the nervus vagus at different parts of its course. The following is the result of a

'In the male Giraffe ^vlnch died at the Society's Gardens, the lameness and subsequent paralysis of the
hmder extremities were caused by an exostosis from the inner surface of the superior arch of the la.t lumbar
verlebraM pressed upon the posterior enlargement of the spinal chord, and had occasioned inflammation
a^d th.cken:ng of the dura mater. The exostosis was a consequence of a wound of the spine received when
the animal was captured.

2 h2

232 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

careful dissection of the left recurrent nerve. The nervus vagus as it passes down in
front of the arch of the aorta sends oft" four small branches, which bend round the arch of
the aorta on the left side of the ductus arteriosus ; the two small branches on the left side
pass to the a;sophagus and are lost in the oesophageal plexus ; the remaining two branches
continue their recurrent course, and ascend upon the side of the trachea, giving off fila-
ments wliich communicate with branches from the neighbouring oesophageal nerves:
these recurrent filaments also receive twigs from the oesophageal nerves, and thus in-
crease in size, and ultimately coalesce into a single nerve of a flattened form, which
enters the larynx above the cricoid cartilage and behind the margin of the thyroid
cartilage. I may observe, that hitherto the Giraffes have not been heard to utter any
vocalized sound, except once in the case of the male during the coitus.

The sympathetic nerve in the neck presents five ganglionic enlargements, — the two
lowest are moderately large, the next above is smaller, the fourth, counting from below,
still less, and the fifth is again large and elongated.

Muscles.

No peculiarity of importance was noticed in the dissection of the abdominal muscles ;
the aponeurosis of the external oblique was thick and elastic, as in many other Ruminants
and Pachyderms, which, from the nature of their food, require support for large accu-
mulations of it, and proportionally developed alimentary sacs.

The mylo-hyoideus is a thick and strong muscle ; it arises from the whole of the in-
ternal surface of the lower jaw, and is inserted principally into the raphe, or longitu-
dinal commissure dividing it from its fellow of the opposite side. It adheres firmly to
the genio-hyoideus : this arises by a well-marked tendon from the posterior rugous sur-
face of the symphysis menti, and has the usual insertion. The genio-glossus arises by a
tendon close to the inner side of the tendon of the genio-hyoideus ; its fleshy belly has
a considerable antero-posterior extent, and diminishes to a very thin edge at its anterior
margin. The digastricus has the usual origin, and is inserted broad and thick into the
under side of the lower jaw. The stylo -hyoideus is external to the digastricus, and is
remarkable for the slenderness and length of its carneous part. The disposition of its
fibres and of those of the other muscles which combine to form the fleshy substance of
the tongue, have already been described. The most interesting modifications in the
muscles of the os hyoides were found in those which retract that bone. The muscle
which, as in some other Ruminants, combines the ofiices of sterno-thyroideus and sterno-
hyoideus, arises in the Giraffe by a single long and slender carneous portion from the
anterior extremity of the sternum ; this single fleshy origin is nine inches long, and ter-
minates in a single round tendon, wliich is six inches long; the tendon then divides into
two, and each division soon becomes fleshy, and so continues for about sixteen inches :
then each division again becomes tendinous for the extent of two inches, and ultimately
carneous again, when it is inserted into the side of the thyroid cartilage, and is thence

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 233

continued in the form of a fascia into the os hyoides. We have in this alternation of a
contractile with a non-contractile tissue a striking example of the use of tendon in
limiting the length of the carneous or contractile part of a muscle to the extent of
motion required to be produced in the part to which the muscle is attached. Had the
sterno-thyroideus been continued fleshy as usual from its origin through the whole
length of the neck to its insertion, it is obvious that a great proportion of the muscu-
lar fibres would have been useless ; for as these have the power of shortening themselves
by their contractility only one-third of their own length, if they had been continued
from end to end in the sterno-thyroidei, they would have been able to draw down the
larynx and os hyoides one-third of the way down the neck; such displacement, however,
is neither required nor indeed compatible with the mechanical connexions of the
parts ; but by the intervention of long and slender tendons, the quantity of the con-
tractile fibre is duly apportioned to the extent of motion required for the larynx and
OS hyoides.

The muscle analogous to the omo-hyoideus of other animals is adjusted to its oflice by
a diff'erent and more simple modification : instead of having a remote origin from the
shoulder-blade, its fixed point of attachment is brought forward to the nearest bone
(the third cervical vertebra) from which it could act upon the os hyoides with due power
and extent of contraction. Its insertion is by a small round tendon.

The analogue of the sterno-mastoideus should be called sterno-maxillaris. The pair
arises by a single origin which soon divides, and each division forms a flat muscle, pre-
serving an uniform breadth of one inch and a half: it continues fleshy the whole way
to within one foot of the angle of the jaw, where it terminates in a small round tendon,
which expands to be inserted into the inner side of the angle of the jaw. From the
freedom of the inflection of the neck, the head can be brought as near to the chest as
the contraction of these long muscles is designed to eff-ect ; the necessity, therefore, for
mtervening tendons does not exist, and the sterno-maxillares continue fleshy to their
terminal tendons of insertion.

The scaleni muscles are most powerfully developed ; they consist of four distinct
masses on each side, arising from the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh cervical vertebra,
and are inserted into the manubrium sterni and first rib.

The trapezius consists of two pretty distinct portions : one arises from the transverse
processes of the fifth and sixth cervical vertebra ; its fleshy part is thick and strong,
but expands as it passes downwards and backwards, and finally is lost in a strong
fascia overspreading the large shoulder-joint. The second portion is thin and broad ;
It arises from the ligamentum nucha, and is inserted into the fascia covering the sea-
pula.

The levator scapula arises from the fifth, sixth, and seventh cervical vertebra; and
these three bulky origins, of which the lowest is the thickest, converge, unite, and are
inserted into the outer margin of the scapula near its superior angle.

234 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

The rhomboideus is single, and is chiefly remarkable for its shortness ; like the
serratus 7najor, it is inserted into the broad elastic cartilage, which is continued up-
wards from the base of the scapula. With reference to these scapular cartilages I may
observe, that as the fore part of the trunk is, as it were, slung upon the two great ser-
rati muscles which principally support the weight of the remarkably deep chest of the
Giraffe, the interposition of the elastic cartilages between the upper attachments of the
muscles and the capitals of the bony columns of the two fore-legs, must be attended
with the same advantage as is obtained by slinging the body of a coach upon elastic
springs.

The pectoralis major arises from the whole length of the sternum, and is composed
of two portions, one superficial, the other deep-seated ; the former is inserted into the
fascia covering the extensor muscles of the fore-leg ; the latter into the fascia covering
the flexors.

The other muscles and tendons acting upon the distal joints of the extremities did
not materially differ, otherwise than in their greater length from the corresponding
parts in other bisulcate Mammals.

The development of elastic Ugament is truly extraordinary in the Giraffe, as exem-
plified in the pax-wax or ligamentum nuchw. This mechanical stay and support of the
long neck and of the head commences from the sacral vertebra, and receives fresh
accessions from each lumbar and dorsal vertebra as it advances forwards ; the spines
of the anterior dorsal vertebra becom greatly elongated to aflford additional surface
for the attachment of new portions of the ligament, which appears to be inserted, on a
superficial dissection, in one continuous sheet into the longitudinally extended but not
elevated spinous processes of the cervical vertebra, as far as the axis : the atlas, as
usual, is left free for the rotatory movements of the head ; the termination of the liga-
ment passes over that vertebra to terminate by an expanded insertion into the occi-
pital crest. It consists throughout of two bilateral moieties.

Osseous System.

The osteology of the Giraffe has been illustrated and briefly noticed in the fasciculus
relating to the Osteology of the Ruminants (Die Skelete der Wiederkaiier, fol. 1823) in
the beautiful work of Pander and D'Alton. Some observations on the cranium of the
Nubian Giraffe, with figures of the skull of the male and female, are contained in the
" Atlas zu der Reise in Nordlichen Afrika, von Riippell, pi. 9. The skeleton of the
Giraffe has been described with more detail in the second edition of Cuvier's " Lecons
d' Anatomic Compar^e," and especially as regards the cranium, which is considered with
reference to its general form (p. 234.), its external depressions (p. 278.), its internal de-
pressions (p. 303.), the connexions of the component bones (pp. 365 and 439.), and the
foramina and fissures (p. 494.).

After a comparison of these excellent descriptions with the skulls of the adult male

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 235

and female Cape Giraffe, and of the skeletons and skulls of a male and female Nubian
Giraffe, rather more than half-grown, I have only a few additional observations to offer,
chiefly in relation to the alleged existence of a third distinct bony nucleus, forming the
anterior mesial protuberance or horn.

The part of the skull to which the elastic ligament is attached, is raised considerably
above the roof of the cranial cavity by the extension backwards of large sinuses, or air-
cells as far as the occiput. The sinuses commence above the middle of the nasal
cavity, and increase in depth and width to beneath the base of the horns, where their
vertical extent equals that of the cerebral cavity itself. The exterior table of the skull,
thus widely separated from the vitreous table, is supported by stout bony partitions,
extended chiefly in the transverse direction, and with an obhque and wavy course.
Two of the most remarkable of these bony walls are placed at the front and back part
of the base of the horns, intercepting a large sinus immediately over the middle of the
cranial cavity, and dividing it from a smaller sinus which covers the anterior part of
the cranial cavity, and from a third and larger one behind. The sphenoidal sinuses are
of a large size. (PI. XL.)

The nasal cavity occupies the two anterior thirds of the skull, and the ossa spongiosa
are proportionally developed. The condyles of the occiput are remarkable for their
extent in the vertical direction ; it is this structure which enables the Giraffe to raise
the head into a line with the neck, and even to bend it a little way back upon the
neck. This action I have often witnessed in the living animal.

In the adult male Cape Giraffe the only appearance of the distinctness of the anterior
protuberance is due to some irregular vascular grooves at the circumference of its
base ; but similar grooves are also visible in the skull of the female ; and a section of the
skull, taken through the middle of the frontal protuberance in the male, shows that it
is formed by the thickening and elevation of the anterior extremities of the frontal
and the contiguous extremities of the nasal bones.

In the male Nubian Giraffes, which had attained nearly two-thirds of their full stature,
the posterior horns, like other bony epiphyses, were less firmly attached to the skull
than they were in the full-grown Cape Giraffes, and they became detached from the
frontal and parietal bones after a short maceration. Now if the anterior protuberance
had been formed by a similar separate ossification, this would undoubtedly have been
demonstrated in a similar manner ; it, however, consisted only of a partial elevation of
the frontal and nasal bones, as in the adult Cape Giraffe.

The two posterior or true horns are not supported exclusively by an enlarged frontal
bone, but rest each upon the coronal suture which traverses precisely the middle of the
expanded base of the horn-shaped epiphyses. I have noticed the same position of the
horns in the skull of an adult female Cape Giraffe, in which the two frontals are
distinct, and joined by a well-marked suture continued along the posterior two-tliirds
of the frontal protuberance, or as far as the nasal bones. The sagittal suture is also

•236 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

persistent on both sides, external to the horns, and on the left side extends from beneath
the middle of the base of the horn to the posterior extremity of the interfrontal suture.

There is a well-marked sexual difference in the horns of the Cape Giraffe. In the
male they are nearly double the size of those of the female, and their expanded bases
meet in the middle line of the skull, so that they would entirely conceal the coro-
nal suture, even if it were not early obliterated in this sex. In the female, the bases of
the horns are at least two inches apart, and in one instance the remains of the coronal
suture on the left side are visible in the adult. The Nubian Giraffe exhibits the same
sexual difference in regard to the proportional development of the horns.

The parietal bone is single, and is anchylosed with the occipital and interparietal
bones. The persistence of the sutures in the temporal fossa shows that the sphenoid
ala articulates with the angle of both the parietal and frontal. The zygomatic process
of the temporal bone unites with the malar by a rectangular suture.

In all the crania of the Giraffe that I have examined there is a vacant space left in
the side of the face, between the lachrymal, frontal, nasal, and superior maxillary bone :
but this in some individuals is less conspicuous from the outward protrusion of the
superior spongy bone. The figures of the cranium of the Giraffe by Pander and D'Alton
snow the same structure. In those of the Nubian Giraffe by Riippel, the vacant space
is relatively smaller than in skulls of the Cape Giraffe.

With respect to the extent of the malar bone upon the face, I find it proportionally
less m the Giraffe than in the Sheep. The remarkable development of the lachrymal
bone within the orbit, described in detail by Cuvier, seems to have relation to the pecu-
liarly large size of the eye.

The nasal bone is bifurcate at its anterior extremity, as in the Deer, not simply
pointed, as in most of the Antelopes.

The cervical vertebres of the Giraffe are not only remarkable for their great length,
but also, as Prof. De Blainville has recently shown, for the ball and socket form of the
articulations of their bodies ; the convexity being on the anterior extremity and the
concavity posterior : in this respect they resemble the vertebra of the Camel, but in
both these species the vertehree are united by the concentric layers of intervertebral
ligament, and not by synovial capsules as in most of the Reptilia.

The superior ring of the atlas is perforated by the vertebral artery, near its anterior
exti-emity.

The vertebra dentata is characterized by the absence of transverse processes ; but a
thick ridge on each side of the posterior part of the body represents the superior trans-
verse process. The perforation for the vertebral artery is near the anterior extremity
of the superior arch, and leads obliquely into the spinal canal. There are no anterior
oblique processes, the axis being joined to the atlas by the anterior extremity of its body
and by ih^ processus dentatus, which latter are blended together into one common articu-
lation, and inclosed in one capsular Hgament. The spinous process of the axis is deve-

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 237

loped from the whole longitudinal extent of the superior arch, but has a very slight
elevation. In the rest of the cervical rer<e6r« the spinous processes are thin triangular
lamina, in eacli of which the apex rises about an inch and a half from a longitudinally
extended base resting upon the middle of the superior arch ; the seventh spine is thicker,
higher, and of less longitudinal extent than the preceding ones. Processes analogous to
the inferior transverse processes in the Crocodile, extend downwards and outwards from
the lower part of the anterior extremity of each of the cervical vertebra, except the atlas
and dentata ; they are, however, of much smaller size than the corresponding processes
in the Camel : the superior transverse processes are represented by longitudinal ridges
developed from the middle of the side of the posterior part of the body of the vertebra.
The perforations for the vertebral artery are large, and are present in the seventh, as
well as the rest of the cervical vertebra; they are situated above the transverse processes,
in the side of the body of the vertebra at the base of the superior lamina. Although in
this position of the arterial foramina, owing to thie feeble development of the trans-
verse processes, the Giraffe differs somewhat from the other horned Ruminants, yet the
structure of the cervical segment of the vertebral column is essentially the same as in
them, and is very different from that in the long-necked Camelida.

In the cervical vertebra of the Camel and Llama the transverse processes are more
developed than in the Giraffe, but, as in that animal, are not situated in the same per-
pendicular plane on the sides of the vertebra, and do not intercept a space, as in most
other Mammalia, for the protection of the vertebral arteries. These important vessels,
however, instead of perforating the sides of the body of the vertebra, as in the Giraffe,
pass through canals in the superior lamina, of which the orifices are entirely concealed
from external view. From the seventh or sixth to the second cervical vertebra inclusive,
both in the Auchenia and Cameli, the vertebral arteries enter the vertebral canal itself
along with the spinal chord at the posterior aperture in each vertebra ; they run forwards
on the outside of the dura mater of the chord, between it and the vertebral arch, and
when they have thus traversed about two-thirds of the spinal canal, they perforate sepa-
rately the base of the superior vertebral lamina, and emerge directly beneath the ante-
rior oblique or articulating processes, whence they are continued along with the spinal
chord into the vertebral canal of the succeeding vertebra, perforating the sides of the
anterior part of the superior arch in like manner, and so on through all the cervical
vertebra till they reach the atlas. In a very remarkable extinct Pachydermatous animal,
(Macrauchenia) , whose fossil remains were discovered by Mr. Darw-in at Port St. Julian,
Patagonia, and which had cervical vertebra as long as those of the Giraffe, I found the
same peculiar disposition of the canals for the vertebral arteries as in the Auchenia and
Cameli.

In viewing the vertebral column of the Giraffe from above, we perceive that the cer-
vical vertebra present the broadest as well as the longest bodies ; of these the third and
fourth are the narrowest and longest, the rest gradually increase in breadth and diminish

VOL. 11. PART III. 2 I

238 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

in length to the seventh : the dorsal vertebra thence grow narrower to the ninth, after
which the vertebra increase in breadth chiefly by the progressive development of the
transverse processes. The fourth dorsal spine is the longest ; the second is the strong-
est. Their great development relates to the length of the neck, the head and its ap-
pendages being, in consequence of that length, rendered remarkably light. The spines
of the dorsal and lumbar vertebra all slightly incline backwards.

The sacrum consists of four vertebra anchylosed together, but of these only the first
is articulated with the ileum-. I counted twenty vertebra in the tail of the Nubian
Giraffe. The vertebral formula in this species is therefore as follows : Cervical 7,
Dorsal 14, Lumbar 5, Sacral 4, Caudal 20. In the greater development of the tail the
Giraffe presents a marked deviation froth the Deer, agreeing in this respect with the
other Ruminants which have small and persistent horns.

There are fourteen pairs of ribs, seven true and seven false. The first pair is straight,
the rest become gradually more and more curved to the last. They increase in length
to the eighth, and thence gradually become shorter : they increase in breadth to the
fifth, and thence gradually become narrower.

The sternum consists of a single series of six bones and an ensiform cartilage ; it is
chiefly remarkable for its great curvature. The first sternal bone is the nari'owest and
longest ; the succeeding ones progressively diminish in length and increase in thickness.
Little remains to be said of the bones of the extremities after the illustrations which
have been given by Pander and D'Alton. The Giraffe presents, perhaps, the relatively
longest and narrowest scapula of all Mammalia. The apparent superiority in the length
of the anterior extremities depends upon the nearly vertical position of this bone upon
the anterior part of the side of the deep and narrow chest.

In the humerus the medullary artery enters the bone at its inner side, about the
junction of the upper and middle third (in the skeleton of the Giraffe in the Museum
of Comparative Anatomy at Paris the artery enters at the junction of the middle and
lower third in the left humerus) ; the course of the canal is obliquely towards the distal
extremity, as in almost all Mammalia' .

The bones of the fore-arm, though anchylosed together, are well defined. The ulna
forms the olecranon and the posterior third of the trochlea for the humerus ; it then sends
down the posterior and outer side of the radius a slender splint-like process, which
becomes confluent with the radius at its lower end, and disappears about two-thirds of
the way down the bone. Three inches below this extremity the ulna again reappears,
and swells out into a process which presents an articular surface which glides upon the
concavity of the cuneiform bone. In the Parisian skeleton the ulna is continued without
interruption from end to end. The medullary canal commences at the posterior side

' The only exception I have as yet found is in the Tamanduu, where the medullary canal of the humervs
runs rather proximad.

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 239

of the radius, one-sixth of the length from the head of the bone, and its course is
obliquely distad, both in the skeleton of the Nubian Giraffe in the College of Surgeons,
and in the skeleton of the Giraffe in the Parisian Museum.

The first row of carpal bones includes the scaphoides, lunare, cuneiforme, and pi^i-
forme ; the last is of large size, and represents the os calcis. The second row consists
of three bones. The metacarpal bone is remarkable for its great length : a pair of
sesamoid bones are articulated to the posterior part of each of its distal articular sur-
faces. A large sesamoid bone is also placed between the second and third phalanges.

The femur of the Giraffe may be distinguished from that of any other mammiferous
animal by the large proportional size of its distal extremity. In the situation and
course of its medullary artery it differs from Man and the unguiculate Mammalia, and
resembles the horned Ruminants generally: the artery, for example, enters the/em«r
at its anterior surface, about one-fifth from the proximal extremity, and runs obliquely
downwards or distad, and backwards': in the Camel, however, as in the Horse and
Tapir, the medullary artery penetrates the/emwr at its posterior surface near the middle
of the bone and runs distad. The tibia has the same disposition of the medullary canal
as in other Mammalia. In the tarsus the two cuneiform bones which are separate in
the Camel, and in most true Ruminants, are anchylosed in the Giraffe : but the rudiment-
ary bones of the two posterior pendent or spurious digits, which are present in many
of the Deer and Antelope tribe, are entirely wanting in the Giraffe, as in the Camel.

Generative System.
Male Organs.

The testes are situated in a short scrotum in the situation usual in the Ruminant
tribe ; on each side of the base of the scrotum are the rudiments of two mammm.

The testes themselves are elongate, oval : the tunica vaginalis, as usual, communicates
with the peritoneal cavity. It is reflected from the tunica alhuginea upon the outer
side of the epididymis, covers that body, and is then continued from a longitudinal line
traversing the middle of the concavity of the epididymis, which is apphed to the testi.i,
upon and over that gland. The globus major forms a rounded protuberance projecting
below the testis. The corpus highmorianum, or line of condensed cellular tissue from
which the tubuli testis diverge, is situated nearly in the longitudinal axis of the testis.
This position is most favourable for the periodical enlargement of the testis, which takes
place in the Giraffe, as in the Deer and Antelopes ; for the development proceeding from
this central line, as a fixed point, the tubuli testis can expand and become extended in
every direction.

The vasa deferentia pursue the same course as in the Deer ; they become sHghtly en-
larged at the terminal two inches of their course, and the secreting surface of their
lining membrane is augmented by various irregular folds and sinuses.

' This is the case in the Buffalo, the Aurochs, the Goat, the Sheep, and the Stag.

2 I 2

240 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

The prostate consists, as in other true Ruminants, of two separate, elongated, glan-
dular bodies, placed on the outside of the vasa deferentia, and sending each a single
duct to terminate with the vas deferens of the same side in one of the two deep lateral
fossfc which are seen upon the verumontamtm. In the Camel the prostate forms one
transversel}' elongated body, placed entirely behind the beginning of the urethra, and
presenting in a slight degree only, the bilobed character. The Giraffe in this part of
its structure agrees with the typical Ruminants : but in these the divided prostate offers
several modifications of form. In the Bull, e. g., each lobe is an elongated body, dis-
posed in a wavy figure, with irregular rounded projections from its sides. In the Goat
the same part is simply elongated, and tapers somewhat towards the distal or free ex-
tremity. In the Giraffe the prostate corresponds rather with the modifications which
this gland presents in the Deer-tribe ; the distal extremity of each separate lobe forms
a large round bulbous body, and the rest of the lobe diminishes towards the urethra.
In the young males which I dissected these accessory generative glands were very small,
the parenchyma dense, and the central cavity hardly perceptible. The lower extremities
of these glands and the terminations of the vasa deferentia were included with the urethra
in the commencement of the strong transverse muscle which surrounds the membranous
part of the urethra. The length of this part was four inches, the thickness of the mus-
cular stratum one-third of an inch.

At the base of the bulb of the urethra are situated two Cowperian glands, each as
large as a nutmeg, and surrounded by a special and dense capsule of muscular fibres.
The parenchyma of these glands is less compact than in the prostate glands ; they have
not a single cavity in the centre, but three or four sinuses convey the secretion to
the duct, which terminates in the bulbous part of the urethra. A well-developed semi-
lunar fold of membrane separates the dilated canal of the urethra occupying the bulb
from the preceding membranous part. The length of the compressores or acceleratores
muscles surrounding the bulb, is three inches and a half: anterior to the large and
normal acceleratores there is a smaller accelerator half an inch in length. The erectores
muscles present the usual structure. The penis, when retracted, is bent, as in other
Ruminants, into a sigmoid form, and the two retractores muscles associated with and
producing this sigmoid retraction offer the ordinary position and attachments ; they
expand to be inserted upon the sides of the corpora cavernosa near the base of the glans.

The cavernous texture of the penis is not divided by a middle septum. The glans
begins by a somewhat sudden expansion, and continues to enlarge to its distal extre-
mity, which is smooth and rounded. The prepuce is reflected upon this extremity, and
not upon the root of the glans, so that only a small portion of the glans is exposed
by laying open the prepuce. The urethral canal does not open upon the extremity of
the glans, but is continued forwards for an inch and a half attached to the inside of the
prepuce, its parietesheing merely membranous, and its extremity projecting freely like a
membranous bilabiate tube, about a line beyond the inner surface of the prepuce.

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 241

Female Organs.

The Ovaria are irregularly oval subcompressed bodies, one inch and a half in length,
by one inch in breadth, and a third of an inch in thickness.

I give these dimensions, because they show that the ovaria, when in an unexcited
state, are larger than those of the Camel in a similar condition, in which animal the
ovaria are relatively smaller than in the horned Ruminants. But a more striking
difference obtains between the Camel and the horned Ruminants in the relations of the
ovarium to the pavilion and the broad ligaments. In the Camel the greater part of the
capsula ovarii is formed by the expanded fimbriated aperture of the oviduct itself, which
is of very large size ; and which incloses the ovarium ; in Deer, Antelopes, and Cows,
the ovarium is lodged in a depression or sacculus of the broad ligament which is more
or less deep, and has its apertures more or less contracted in different species. In the
Giraffe ihe peritoneal sacculus of the ovary, formed by an expansion of the broad ligament
of the uterus, is wide and deep and encloses almost the whole of the ovary. The fim-
briated extremity of each oviduct, or fallopian tube, is expanded upon the outer margin
of the ovarian capsule ; the inner surface of the pavilion is beset with very numerous and
fine oblique striw, and is further increased by narrow folds of laminas converging towards
the contracted opening duct. The oviduct forms three or four wavy folds, and is then
continued along the walls of the wide ovarian capsule to the extremity of the uterine horn,
which makes an abrupt curve to meet it. The ovaria presented a smooth exterior,
slightly broken by a few linear impressions ; the ovisacs were of a subspherical form,
and varied in diameter from half a Une to three lines ; they were imbedded in and closely
adhered to a very dense stroma. The ovum was of a spherical figure, -rVth of a line in
diameter, immediately inclosed by a transparent gelatinous chorion, — the zona pellucida
of Baer, — and imbedded in a mass of elhptic granules of the same size as in the ovisac
of the Cow.

The external orifice of the common vagina resembles that of the Deer, and the other
horned Ruminants, in coming to a point below, within which is the clitoris. In the
Camel, on the contrary, the apex of the clitoris and its preputium form together a
conical projection externally to the margin of the common vaginal, or urethro-sexual
canal. From this orifice to the communication of the urethra with the vagina the
length in the Giraffe is five inches : the proper vagina is about six inches long. It is
lined with a smooth and polished membrane, which is disposed in numerous fine and
small longitudinal rugw. The os tincce is a large transversely oval prominence, having
the orifice of the uterus in the centre, and marked by numerous fine ruga, which radiate
from this orifice.

The length of the common uterus is two inches. The cervix is occupied by two circu-
lar series of close-set, short, longitudinal lamellar processes, about two lines in breadth,
which project from the parietes of the uterus, and have their free margins converging to

242 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

the centre of the canal. Above these the inner membrane of the uterus sends off several
thicker processes similarly arranged.

Each cornuoi the uterus is about eight inches in length, and became bent in a spiral
form when distended with fluid : four longitudinal rows of short flattened processes pro-
ject from the inner surface, showing that the fwtus is developed in the Giraffe by means
of a cotyledonous subdivided placenta, as in other Horned Ruminants, and not, as in
the Camel, by a uniform vascular villosity of the chorion.

Concluding Remarks.
The nature and zoological aSinities of the Giraffe, so far as they are illustrated by its
internal structure, may be expressed by terming it simply "amodifiedDeer". It is in fact
a Deer in all the essential parts of its organization : but the structure by which so large a
Ruminant is enabled to subsist in the tropical regions of Africa, by browsing on the tops
of trees, disqualifies it for wielding antlers of sufficient strength and size to serve as
weapons of offence ; and were it not that some species of Cervus, as C. rufus, have at all
])eriods of life short and simple horns, it might be allowable to speculate on the influ-
ence which was due to the mechanical obstacles to the flow of blood up the singularly
long and slender carotids in retarding in the Giraffe the development of the antlers
beyond the point at which they characterize the pricket age of the Deer. Tliis at
least is certain, that the Elk, which amongst the Ruminants with hair-clad antlers
presents the opposite extreme to the Giraffe in the magnitude of those appendages, has
also the shortest neck. Why the diminutive antlers of the Giraffe should never lose
their hairy and vascular integument, and why they are not shed, like those of the Deer-
tribe, simultaneously with the shedding of the hair from the rest of the body, which takes
place annually in the Giraffe as in the Deer, is not so obvious. We well know, how-
ever, the remarkable change of disposition which accompanies the full development of
his formidable antlers in the full-grown Buck ; and some physiologists have conjectured
that both the disposition and power to injure the feebler individuals of his own race are
intentionally suppressed by the annual shedding of the horns at a period when the young
would be most liable to be injured by them. Now as the horns of the Giraffe never
acquire the requisite development to serve as weapons of deadly attack, his disposition
undergoes no change, and their temporary removal is not needed on that account.
The integument originally developed with the horns is similar in structure to the ordi-
nary skin, like that which invests the frontal processes or peduncles of the horns of
the muntjak (Cervus Muntjak), and diflfers from the temporary integument or velvet of
deciduous antlers.

Zoologists, guided by external characters only, have differed in their views of the
natural position of the Giraffe in the Ruminant series. Illiger places it in the Cameline
group, and Mr. Swainson between the Musk Deer and the Camels. The long neck, hnear
nostrils, and the absence of spurious hoofs are however the only outward indications of

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 243

this supposed affinity of tlie Giraffe ; for the callosities on the sternum and knees which
have been ascribed to the Giraffe have no existence in nature. Now, as to the neck
he value of .ts longitude as a mark of affinity to the Camel disappears when we come
to mvestigate its structure. The long and singularly inflected neck of the Camel offers
a peculiar and remarkable modification in its vertebral column, and the long-necked ex
met quadruped iMacraucJ,enia,) which has been discovered to participate in that struc-
ture thus manifests a real affinity to the Camelida- ; but we find no such correspondence
m the structure of the jointed pillar of the neck of the Giraffe ; it is in all respects a
mere adaptive modification of the vertebral structure of the neck of the Deer There re
mains then, only the want of spurious hoofs as an indicationof the affinity of the G,>«/e
wi h the Camel. But in how many important particulars of internal organization might we
not have expected to have met with evidences of this relationship if it had truly existed
in nature . the pharyngeal sacculus,~the congeries of water-cells in the rumen -the
depth and comphcation of those of the recticulum, -the suppression of the psalterium as
a third distinct cavity of the stomach,-the marked difference in the structure and dis-
position of the hmng membrane of the cardiac and pyloric portions of the abomasu. -
the subdivision of the under surface of the lobes of the liver, observed by Hunter and
Mecke in the Camel,-.nd lastly, the modifications of the generative apparatus, as the
undivided prostate, in the male, the conformation of the ovarian capsule and the Absence
of cotyledonal processes in the uter^^ of the female ;-all these are pecuharities in the
organization of the Camelid. among the Ruminants, to which some shght approxima-
tion should have been presented in the corresponding parts of the Giraffe Jts natural
position were really between the Camelid. and any of the groups of the true Ruminantia
But the truth is, that many of the true Ruminants approximate more nearly to the
Camel m their internal structure than does the Giraffe ; the 0., for example, in the
depth of the cells of its retrculum, and the smaller Musk-deer, as will be shown in another
communication, in a more important and more characteristic modification of the
stomach. The Revndeer and some other species of Cervus deviate in the structure of
the stomach perhaps the widest from the Cameline organization, and the Giraffe parti-
cipates with them in this deviation. AVith regard to the affinity of the Giraffe to the
diflerent groups of horned Ruminants, the length of the tail and the persistencv of the
horns point out a resemblance to the Antelopes; their existence in the two s;xes on
the other hand, is a rare condition, which the Giraffe possesses in common with'the
Reindeer Perhaps the occasional presence of a gall-bladder, as observed in the first
Giraffe dissected by me, is the best evidence of the affinity of the Giraffe to the Ante
lope tribe.

244 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

ADDENDUM.

In the year 1836 there were seven living Giraffes in England ; three in the Surrey
Zoological Gardens and four in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park. The
latter were similar in age and size — one was a female, the other three were males. Three
of these Giraffes were captured in the spring of the year 1835, in the deserts of Kordofan,
at which time they were probably not more than one year old. I witnessed their arrival
at the Gardens early on the morning of the 25th of May, 1836. They had to walk a
distance of some miles from the place of their disembarkation to the Gardens ; two
keepers, each with a long rein attached to the head of the Giraffe, led it between them.
They walked along at a rapid pace, generally in advance of their conductors. At first
sight they seem to move forward simultaneously the two legs of the same side, and these
are undoubtedly both oif the ground at the same time through the greater part of the
step, but upon a close inspection the hind-leg is always seen to be first lifted from
the ground, and after a very brief interval the fore-leg of the same side. When they
entered the Park and first caught sight of the green trees, they became excited, and
hauled upon the reins, waving the head and neck from side to side, with an occasional
caracole and kick-out with the hind-legs. M. Thibaud, their captor and chief con-
ductor, contrived, however, to coax them along with pieces of sugar, of which they are
very fond. In the sanded paddock appropriated to them at their present abode they
enjoy ample space for exercise, and in the warm days of summer they often exhibit all
their various and singular paces. In the simple walk, the neck, which is then stretched
out in a line with the back, gives them a stiff and awkward appearance ; but this is
entirely lost when they commence their graceful, undulating canter : to judge by the
movement of the legs, this pace appears not so rapid as it actually proves to be when
the extent of ground is observed over which it has carried them in a given time. The
motions of the legs are now very peculiar and uncommon : the hind-pair are lifted alter-
nately with the fore, and are carried outside of, and beyond them by a kind of swinging
movement : when excited to a swifter pace they often kick out their hind-legs during the
course, and their nostrils are then actively and unwontedly dilated.

I have observed all the movements of the tongue which have been described by pre-
vious authors. The Giraffe being endowed with an organ so exquisitely formed for pre-
hension, instinctively puts it to use in a variety of ways while in a state of confinement :
the female in the Garden of Plants at Paris, for example, may frequently be observed to
amuse itself by stretching upwards its neck and head, and with the slender tongue pull-
ing out the straws which are platted into the partition separating it from the contiguous
compartment of its inclosure. In our own menagerie many a fair lady has been robbed
of the artificial flower which adorned her bonnet by the nimble, filching tongue of the
object of her admiration. The Giraffe seems, indeed, to be guided more by the eye
than the nose in the selection of objects of food ; and if we may judge of the apparent

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 245

satisfaction with which the mock leaves and flowers so obtained are masticated, the
tongue would seem by no means to enjoy the sensitive in the same degree as the motive
powers : the difference in the size of the nerves of sense and motion of that organ
already mentioned accords with these habits of the living animal. The Giraffes have a
habit, in captivity at least, of plucking the hairs out of each other's manes and tails,
and swallowing them. I know not whether we must attribute to a fondness for epider-
mic productions, or to the tempting green colour of the parts, the following ludicrous
circumstance which happened to a fine peacock which was kept in the Giraffes paddock.
As the bird was spreading his tail in the sunbeams and curveting in presence of his
mate, one of the Giraffes stooped his long neck, and entwining his flexile tongue round
a bunch of the gaudy plumes, suddenly lifted the bird into the air, then giving him a
shake, disengaged five or six of the tail-feathers, when down fluttered the astonished
peacock and scuffled off" with the remains of his train draggUng humbly after him.

When the Giraffe ruminates, he masticates the holus for about fifty seconds, applying
to it from forty to fifty rotatory movements of the lower jaw, and then swallows it :
after an interval of three or four seconds a second holus is regurgitated ; the rapid
passage of this mass through the long cervical part of the (esophagus is readily visible ;
and the physiologist cannot fail to be struck with this instance of the surprising swift-
ness with which the contractions of the muscular fibres of the gullet succeed each other.
By attentively watching, we may perceive a slight contraction of the abdominal parietes
accompanying the action of the stomach by which the regurgitation is commenced.
This action of the abdominal parietes in rumination is much stronger in the Camel.
It is a singular fact, and one which has not hitherto been noticed, that the Cameline
Ruminants differ from the true Ruminants in the mode in which the cud is chewed : in
the Camels it is ground alternately in opposite directions from side to side : in the
Oxen, Sheep, Antelopes, and Deer, the lower jaw is ground against the upper in the
same direction by a rotatory motion : the movements may be successively from right
to left, or from left to right, but they are never regularly alternate throughout the mas-
ticatory process, as in the Camels : and here, again, in the rotatory motion of the jaws
of the Giraffe while masticating the cud, we have evidence of its affinity to the horned
Ruminants.

Each of the Giraffes eats daily eighteen pounds of clover-hay, and eighteen pounds
of a mixed vegetable diet, consisting of carrots, mangle-wurzel, barley, split beans and
onions ; and drinks about four gallons of water.

When the Giraffes arrived at the Zoological Gardens, I perceived, by comparing
the incisors and anterior molars with those in the skull of an adult animal, that they
belonged to the deciduous series. The two middle incisors were shed in the month of
March, 1838, when the animals were little more than three years old ; the two adjoin-
ing incisors were shed in the month of July ; the first deciduous molares in October,
and the second deciduous molares in November and December of the same vear. At

VOL. II. PART III.

•2

246

MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

the present time, December 1 838, the two middle permanent incisors are far advanced
beyond the rest, and the two adjoining ones are risen into place.

The following table shows the rate of growth of the Giraffe, and the relative sizes of
a male and female of the same age, which in May, 1836, was about one year and a
half.

May, 1836
May, 1837
May, 1838

Guib-allah {male).

Height as

far as reach.

Wither.

Rump.

Feet.

Inches.

Feet. Inches.

7 9

6 9

8 6

7 6

Zaida {female).

12 9

13 5

May, 1836 . . .
May, 1837 . . .
May, 1838 . . .

Notwithstanding, however, the evidences of immaturity afforded by stature and den-
tition, copulation took place seven times in the course of March, 1838, the first occa-
sion being on the 18th of that month ; the manner and peculiar rapidity of the act were
precisely as in the Deer. At the present time, December, 1838, there is evidence of
the pregnancy of the female in the expansion of the abdomen, the swelling of the
superficial abdominal veins, and the enlargement of the external parts of generation :
and I have been able to discern the motions of the fatus through the abdominal parietes.
This female is in excellent health ; and it may be confidently expected that the period
of gestation and the condition of the new-born animal, — facts which are of essential
importance in the natural history of every species, — may soon be recorded in the Pro-
ceedings of the Zoological Society, in addition to those particulars with which the
spirited and successful endeavours to import the Giraffe into this country have already
afforded the means of enriching its scientific history.

OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 247

PLATE XL.

Section of the skull of the Cape Giraffe, showing the great size and extent of the
cranial sinuses or air-cells. One-third of the natural size.

PLATE XLL

Fig. 1 . The upper surface of the tongue of the Nubian Giraffe, with a portion of the
integument removed, to show the superficial longitudinal and deep-seated
transverse muscular fibres of the anterior prehensile part of the tongue ; the
perpendicular fibres are principally situated at the sides.

2. The under surface of the same tongue dissected and injected, to show : aa. The

stylo-glossi muscles, b b. The hyo-glossi. c c. The lingualis inferior, d. The
genio-glossi. e. The transverse fibres of the muscular tissue. //. The thin
layer of transverse muscular fibres reflected from the siylo-glossus muscle,
the lingual vessels and nerve, which it embraces, g. The nerve, hh. The
venous plexus, i. The lingual artery, k. The principal anastomosis, with
the artery of the opposite side. I. The continuation of the left lingual artery,
which alone supplies the muscular and prehensile anterior part of the tongue.
This figure was drawn on the stone without the use of the mirror.

3. The anterior extremity of the same tongue, showing the retroverted, pointed,

horny papilla on its dorsum, and the spherical gustatory papilla at the sides.
Natural size.

4. A portion of the rumen or first cavity of the stomach of the Nubian Giraffe,

showing the size and form of the papillw. Natural size.
.5. A portion of the reticulum, or second cavity of the same stomach, showing the
small size of the divisions of the cells. Natural size.

PLATE XLIL

Fig. 1 . A posterior view of the fauces of the Nubian Giraffe -. with the velum palati d
raised to bring into view a, the base of the epiglottis, and b b, its two lateral
deflected processes. The letters cc are placed upon the apices of the aryte-
noid cartilages : e, levator palati ; ff, tensor palati ; gg, the tonsils. Natural
size.

2. The glottis and epiglottis of the Nubian Giraffe. Natural size. The letters indi-

cate the same parts as in fig. 1.

3. An anterior view of the fauces of the Nubian Giraffe ; a, the free margin of the

epiglottis projecting into the mouth below the velum palati, d: g g, outline of
the tonsils : hh, their excretory outlets.

248 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE.

Fig. 4. The double gall-bladder of a Nubian Giraffe. A probe is represented as pass-
ing through the communication of the right compartment with the common
cystic duct.

PLATE XLIII.

Fig. 1. Upper surface of the brain of the Nubian Giraffe. Natural size.

2. A portion of the spinal chord including the origins of the third cervical nerve.
a a. The filaments of the posterior fasciculus or root which are continued
into corresponding filaments of the adjoining nerves. Natural size.

PLATE XLIV.

Fig. 1. Lateral view of the brain of the Nubian Giraffe. Natural size.
2. Basal view of the same.

PLATE XLV.

Fig. 1 . The female organs of generation of the Nubian Giraffe. Natural size. The
corpus uteri and one of the cornua are laid open to show the cotyledonal
processes.
2. The cervix uteri laid open to show the lamellar processes of that part.

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t 249 ]

XIX. On a new Genus of Insectivorous Mammalia. By W. C. L. Martin, Esq.,

F.L.S.

Communicated Febraary 13th, 1838.

A HE intrinsic value which attaches to the discovery of new modifications of form de-
pends much on the extent and abruptness of the vacuum which such modifications will
tend to fill, and on the degree to which their absence has been previously felt. The
present addition therefore to that particular group of the InsecHvora, of which Erinaceus
may be regarded as the typical genus — a group restricted to the older portions of the
globe, and more numerously distributed throughout the warmer than the colder lati-
tudes — cannot I think but be received by naturalists with a certain share of interest.

On a survey of the Insectivorous section of Mammalia (whether we regard that section
as an order ^er se, or as only part of an order), the genera of which it consists mostly
appear as if isolated from each other, or as so many disjuncta membra, the connecting
parts between which, and necessary to its harmonious perfection as a whole, having
either been lost, or having yet to be discovered.

Between the genus Erinaceus, for example, and that of Centetes, Illig., there has hi-
therto existed an unfilled interval : this interval, however, has in some measure been
recently supplied by two genera, both peculiar to Madagascar, of which one has been
lately characterized by M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, under the title Ericulus ; for the
other I now propose that of Echinops.

The genus Ericulus includes, as far as hitherto determined, only one species, Ericulus
nigrescens. Is. Geoff., and which is regarded by M. Blainville as the Tendrac of Buffon.

The skull and original specimens, from which M. Isidore St. Hilaire took his descrip-
tion, were carefully examined by me during my recent visit to Paris (the autumn of
1838).

With respect to the skull, as in Centetes, and also Echinops (but not Erinaceus), the
zygomatic arch is incomplete ; its general contour is narrow and elongated, the muzzle
being produced, almost as much as in Centetes. The dentition of Ericulus is as follows :

Incisors above 4, disposed laterally in pairs.

Molars above, on each side 7, of which the two first are false ; the true molars, 5

in number, being transversely elongated.
Incisors of the lower jaw 4, disposed laterally in pairs.
Molars, as in the upper jaw, 7 ; 2 false and 5 true.

M. Isidore St. Hilaire considers the first false molar on each side, in either jaw in

VOL. II. PART IV. 2 L

2 + 2"

Canines . . . .
. False Molars .

5 + 5

^ ■ ■ 5 + 5'

Total 36.

250 MR. C. L. MARTIN ON ECHINOPS,

the light of a canine ; but this tooth differs so Uttle from the acknowledged false molar
succeeding it, that its claim to the title of canine only rests in its situation. The dental
formula then of Ericulus stands thus :

Incisors ^ "-, .

1 + 1
False Molars . . ^^ !■ or ^ J + J'

1 + r
True Molars . " ^

The general form of the body, the character of the spiny covering, and the feet, are
as in Erinaceus ; the ears are naked ; the muzzle as in Centetes.

I am the more particular in making these observations, inasmuch as the genus Eri-
culus, Is. Geoff., closely approximates in its characters to that for which I have proposed
the name of Echinops ; but from which, nevertheless, it is sufficiently distinct.

In the Zoological Proceedings for 1833, p. 81, reference is made to a letter of Mr.
Telfair's, accompanying a very young insectivorous animal, known to the natives of
the interior of Madagascar by the name " Sohinah," and which Mr. Telfair was dis-
posed to refer to the genus Centetes.

The specimen in question (preserved in the Museum Zool. Soc. Lond.) was compared
with young specimens of the common hedgehog {Erinaceus Europaus, Linn.), and the
half-spiny tenrec {Centetes semispinosus , 111.), but being only seventeen days old, its
characters could not be satisfactorily determined ; the form, however, of the muzzle and
of the body, together with the array of short close spines, with which it was invested
above, like a young hedgehog, raised some doubt, at least in my own mind, as to its
belonging to the genus Centetes. While engaged in examining a collection of speci-
mens from Madagascar and Mauritius, presented some time since to the museum of the
Zoological Society by the same gentleman (the lateWilUam Telfair, Esq.), from whom
the " Sohinah" had been received, I discovered a specimen of an insectivorous animal,
the general form and aspect of which strongly led me to regard it as the adult of the
same species. An investigation of its dentition confirmed the views I had entertained
respecting the " Sokinah,'^ and I at once recognised it as the type of a new genus.

ECHINOPS.

Corpus supern^ spinis densis obtectum.

Rostrum breviusculum.

Rhinarium, aures, caudaque ut in Erinaceo.

Denies primores 4, superiorum duobus intermediis loiigissimis, discretis, cj'lindraceis.

Canini

A NEW GENUS OF INSECTIVOROUS MAMMALIA. 251

antrorsum versis ; proximis minoribus ; inferioribus parvulis ; intermediis duobus
inter se paululuin discretis.
1 - I

Molares ^-^ ; utrinsecus antico primo suprk, necnon primo infr^, spuriis ; reliquis, ul-
timo supra excepto, tricuspidatis, angustis, transversim elongatis ; ultimo supr^
angustissimo ; molaribus infra inter se iert sequalibus, ultimo minore.
Dentium numerus integer 32.

Pedes 5-dactyli, ambulatorii ; poUice breviore ; unguibus parvulis, compressis ; plantis
denudatis.

Dentium formula :

Incisor es ^ _ .^ ^ Canini . . yZTi-

Molares spurii . . ^ _ , . Molares . 4^74.

EcHiNOPS Telfairi,

Tab. XLVI.

Ech. auribus mediocribus, subrotundatis, intus atque extus pilis parvulis albidis obsitis ;
capite s up erne pilis f us cis ; buccis, jnystacibus, corporeque subtus sordide albis ; spinis
fuscescenti-albis ad basin, apicibus castaneis ; caudd viw apparente.

Unc. Lin.
Longitude corporis totius 5 2

ab apice rostri ad auris basin ... 1 2

tarsi cum digitis lOf

auris 5

Habitat Madagascar ?

" Sokinah," apud indigenas Madagascarienses ?

As respects the identity of the Sokinah with the Echinops Telfairi, the presumption
is founded upon a comparison of the form of the muzzle, and of the feet and the ears,
which present in both specimens the same comparative proportions. In the young
specimen the teeth have not made their appearance, and I am therefore deprived of the
aid which would be afforded, even by a partial development of the dental system, to-
wards the attainment of a positive opinion. It may be objected, that this young indi-
vidual, only seventeen days old, promises to have become, when adult, larger than tlie
Echinops Telfairi, and that its spines are darker. The growth, however, of animals be-
longing to the group of which Erinaceus is the type, as in the case of the Armadilloes, is
very rapid ; and in the young Sokinah in question, the spines have already acquired con-
siderable development and hardness. Their darker colour will arise from the apical
half only being divulged, the basal portion having as yet to be protruded. Perhaps

2l2

252 MR. C. L. MARTIN ON ECHINOPS,

they may also become paler with age. It will be observed, however, I only urge it as
a probability that the two animals are specifically identical. With regard to the affini-
ties of Echinops, I shall endeavour to illustrate them by a comparison of the characters
of the genus with those of Centetes, Erinaceus, and Ericulus.

In the form of the true molars there is a close agreement between Centetes and
Echinops, as well as in the number of these teeth ; still other characters of the dental
system clearly separate between these two genera, independently of such as are purely
external. In Centetes (at least in the species Centetes setosus) the incisors above are
four, small and pointed ; below six, minute ; in each jaw, separated by an interval from
the rest, are two long compressed pointed canines ; after a considerable interval follow
on each side, above and below, two false molars, the second the largest ; to these suc-
ceed four true molars, with triangular crowns. Still more distinct is the dental system
of Echinops from that of Erinaceus, close as is the alliance between them in all external
characters. In Echinops, for example, as in Erinaceus, the feet have five toes ; the
inner toe of the fore-feet is small and seated on the wrist, the other toes are small, and
armed with feeble, compressed, hooked claws, the last toe the smallest : the toes of the
hind-feet resemble those of the fore-feet, and the inner and outer are the smallest. The
snout, ears, tail, and spiny covering of the upper surface of the body, are also ahke in
both. In Erinaceus, however, the upper incisors are six ; there are no canines, but
three false molars on each side, and four true molars, of which the last is small and
narrow ; the others square, with two outer and two inner tubercles ; while in the lower
jaw, the incisors, two in number, are very large, followed on each side by three false
molars and four true molars.

In Echinops the teeth are thirty-two in number. In the upper jaw the incisors are
four in number, and apart ; the two middle are large, sub-cylindrical, elongated, and
placed at the apex of the jaw ; the two others are small, and seated behind the former.
Separated from these by a small space, succeeds on each side a tooth, which, from its
situation and magnitude, I am inclined to regard as a canine; it is similar in character
to the incisors, but is stouter, and has a slight posterior notch. The molars are five on
each side : of these the first is false and simple ; the three next are transversely elon-
gated, with two external tubercles in contact, and one internal ; hence their crowns as-
sume the form of an elongated triangle, the apex being internal ; the fifth molar is a
slender lamina, placed transversely, but not advancing so far laterally as the molar pre-
ceding it. The under jaw presents four incisors, the two middle being very small,
somewhat apart from each other, and directed obliquely forwards : immediately behind
the incisors below, on each side, without any interval, there follow in succession two
larger and conical teeth, of which the first, from its situation, may be regarded as a
canine ; the second is the largest, and constitutes a. false molar. The outermost incisor
on each side (below) the canine, and the false molar agree with each other in form, and
are set together without any interval, all leaning obUquely forwards. Separated from

A NEW GENUS OF INSECTIVOROUS MAMMALIA. 253

the last of these by a small space, succeed four true molars on each side, vertical and
smaller than those above, with two tubercles internally and one externally, so that the
worn surface is triangular, with the apex outwards ; the last is the smallest : the sur-
faces of all are apart, but their bases are in contact.

In all respects, however, the agreement between Echinops and Ericulus, Isid Geoff.
IS more intimate than between Echinops and either the genus Centetes or Erinaceus
Here, however, we still trace important modifications, both in the form of the skull and
in the dental system. In Ericulus the skull is very elongate, and especially the muzzle,
which bears a close resemblance to that of Centetes ; while in Echinops the muzzle is
even proportionately shorter than in the Hedgehog.

Moreover, in Ericulus not only do the teeth exceed in number by two in each jaw
those in Echinops, but they also differ somewhat in arrangement. In the upper jaw of
Ericulus the incisors are four, followed on each side by two spurious teeth, the first of
which M. Isidore Geoffroy regards as a canine ; to these succeed five true molars
Now in Echinops there are four incisors, and on each side a large canine tooth, a false
molar, and /our true molars.

The lower jaw in Ericulus has four incisors, disposed lateraUy in pairs, followed on
each side by two spurious teeth, the first of which, as on the upper jaw, M. Isidore con-
siders to be a canine. To these succeed ^ye true molars.

In Echinops there are also four incisor teeth below, succeeded without interval on each
side by a tooth corresponding in situation to a canine, which is followed by one false
and /our true molars, as above.

Of the habits and manners of Echinops Telfairi I have no information- it cannot
however, be doubted that they resemble those of the Hedgehog ; and the arrangement of
the spines, and the strong muscular panniculus beneath the skin sufficiently attest the
power of rolUng up itself into the form of a ball, after the manner of that animal • a
power with which the species of the genus Centetes are endowed in a far less degree
With respect to the internal anatomy of this animal, its decomposed condition prevented
me from doing more than ascertaining the character of the alimentary canal. The in-
dividual proved to be a female. The liver consisted of two right lobes, the innermost
of which had a furrow on its surface, near the edge, approximating to the first left lobe •
and from this furrow arose the ligamentum latum. The left lobes were two in number'
but smaller than those on the right. The gaU-bladder large, oval and empty, occupied
a situation on the under surface of the innermost of the right lobes ; and its duct, after
a course of 4ths of an inch, received a large hepatic duct : the common duct thus formed
was accompanied by a distinct hepatic tube, and both entered the duodenum together, a
little distance below the pylorus. A large epiploon spread from the stomach, over the
intestines ; and beneath the stomach, and attached to it, was the spleen, a long, slender,
flattened mass, measuring one inch iths, and about -Jths in breadth. The decomposed
state of the pancreas rendered this gland indefinite. The stomach was large, and ahnost

254 MR. C. L. MARTIN ON ECHINOPS,

globular ; but tbe cardiac portion being full of holes, its inflation was impossible. The
duodenum began dilated, and almost like a sacculus, and continued dilated for three
quarters of an inch, when it gradually narrowed, merging into a simple intestinal tube,
destitute of a ccecum, and measuring from the pylorus to the aims nine inches, being in
fact not even twice the length of the animal. The bladder was small and contracted,
the ureters entering as usual ; and both these and the ovarian tubes were imbedded in
a large fatty mass, occupying the lumbar region, and covering the kidneys, which latter
were small, but so soft and disorganized that I could not examine them.

The skull of Ecliinops Telfairi, compared with that of the European Hedgehog, though
resembling it in general form, differs from it in many important details. Among these
the most remarkable is the total absence of the zygomatic arch. In the Hedgehog the
zygomatic arch is bold, and of considerable strength ; it consists of a process of the su-
perior maxillary, and temporal bones, with an intermediate narrow malar, forming the
centre of the arch. The distance from one zygoma to the opposite is Ifths inch.

In the Mole the zygomatic arch is reduced to an almost rectilinear bony thread, and
the skull being peculiarly voluminous posterior to its temporal origin, it appears as if
brought forwards, as well as sunk and compressed ; hence the measurement from one
temporal bone to the other far exceeds that from one zygoma to its fellow. In Centetes
(the skull from which I describe being that of Centetes setosus, Desm.) the zygomatic
arch is incomplete ; a process, however, of the superior maxillary forms the lower boun-
dary of the orbit, and advances as far as the edge of the coronary process of the lower
jaw, turning, with a gentle curve, outwardly. The zygomatic process of the temporal
bone is a mere point, and the distance between it and the zygomatic process of the
maxillary bone is ^ths of an inch and a half, the total length of the skull being 2^
inches.

In Echinops the lower edge of the orbit (open of course behind, to the temporal fossa)
is formed by an elevated ridge of the superior maxillary, which ridge runs out into a
small zygomatic process, forming the outer wall of the alveolus of the two last molars.
The zygomatic process of the temporal bone is a little more distinct than in Centetes,
and the vacant interspace between this and the process of the maxillary bone is nearly
half an inch, the total length of the skull being an inch and a half. The long, slender,
conical snout of Centetes {Centetes setosus), notwithstanding the absence of zygomatic
arches, renders the aspect of its skull more remote from that of Echinops than is that
of the skull of Erinaceus. In Echinops the muzzle is even shorter in proportion than
in Erinaceus ; there is not, however, as in the latter, any elevation between the orbits,
but the skull is altogether flatter, and more level above, and proportionately narrower,
with the cranial cavity more contracted. At the same time the transverse -occipital ridge
is more elevated. The palate is proportionately narrower than in Erinaceus, and its
posterior /oramina, which in the Hedgehog are long open fissures, are reduced to minute
orifices, which is also the case in Centetes. If, however, the palate itself be narrow,

A NEW GENUS OF INSECTIVOROUS MAMMALIA. 255

the position and transverse elongation of the molar teeth give a greater proportionate
breadth to the skull of Echinops (looking on the palate) than of the Hedcjehoy ■ and this
is rendered the more remarkable by the great and sudden compression of the osseous
sides of the posterior nares, the fossa thus formed being a deep but very narrow canal
The lower jaw is very similar to that of the Hedgehog ; the coronary process, however
instead of being externally concave, is flat and smooth ; the condyloid process is neither
so elongated in proportion, nor so oblique ; nor is the process at the posterior angle
so much developed. The admeasurements of the skull of Echinops Telfairi are as
follow :

Length from apex to occipital condyles \'x

to anterior margin of orbit O-f and a half.

Interorbital space q^

Length of osseous palate qI

Breadth of ditto between last molars q\

From outside of the third upper true molar to outside of opposite O-f-
From apex of zygomatic process of maxillary bone to apex of

the opposite qj^

Breadth of cranium from petrous portion of one temporal bone

to the opposite Of and a half.

Zygomatic vacancy nearly 0^

"With respect to other parts of the osseous system of Echinops, it may be stated that
the pelvis was very narrow, and the pubic bones separate in front.
The vertebral formula is as follows : •

Cervical .7

Dorsal ]5

Lumbar 7

Sacral 2

Coccyeal 8 ?

The ribs consist on each side of eight true and seven false.

256 MR. C. L. MARTIN ON ECHINOPS.

PLATE XLVI.

EcHiNOPS Telfairi.

Fig. I . The skull, seen from above.

2. Side view of the same.

3. The same, seen from beneath.

4. The lower jaw.

5. Side view of the same.

6 & 7. Teeth of the upper jaw, magnified.
8 & 9. Teeth of the lower jaw, magnified.

J»,^ %^'^!L '^^,'^,'^i/,v ^ifi

-s^^&>

, -/^

x.tt-'^t T-^

ntMu, ij^'

^^<v'<f-

/ 9

\^^.(fMt,

Ec/iinops Te/^curi/

^ ■* a. >'-4 '^'

s.'V,

C 257 ]

XX. — On the Anatomy of the Southern Apteryx (Apteryx australis, Shaw).

By Professor Owen.

Communicated April 10, 1838.

If the Apteryx of New Zealand were to become extinct and all that remained of it
after the lapse of one or two centuries for the scrutiny of the Naturalist were a foot in
one Museum and a head in another, with a few conflicting figures of its external form, —
one representing it in the attitude of a terrestrial Bird, another, like that in Dr. Shaw's
Miscellany', portraying it erect, like a Penguin", — the real nature and aflinities of this
most remarkable species would be involved in as much obscurity, and would doubtless
become the subject of as many conflicting opinions among the Ornithologists of that
period, as are those of the Dodo at the present day.

That the opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the organization of the extinct Bird
once inhabiting the island of Mauritius should be now irrevocably past, is, I need not say,
a subject of the deepest regret to every one interested in the advancement of zoological
science : whether he be engaged as a systematic naturalist in unravelling the intricacies
of the natural system ; or as a physiologist, in determining the relations which subsist
between structure and habits ; or as a philosophical anatomist, in investigating the
principles which regulate the deviations from a typical standard of organization, and
which always receive their most striking illustrations from the aberrant forms at the
confines of a great natural group.

To prevent the recurrence of similar regrets in reference to the Apteryx Australis, by
securing a record of its organization, adequate to the several applications above-men-
tioned, is the object of the following pages.

In the year 1 833 the only part of the Apteryx which existed in Europe was the stuffed
skin in the Museum of the Earl of Derby ; this was the original specimen on which
the genus was founded by Dr. Shaw' ; but many years having elapsed without any ad-
ditional evidence of the bird having reached Europe, the very existence of the species,
as in the case of the Dodo, began to be called in question. At this time the original and
unique specimen of the Apteryx was transmitted to the Zoological Society and submitted
to the free inspection of the Members by their Noble President, and the results of a
minute and accurate examination of this precious evidence of the rarest and most sin-

' Naturalist's Miscellany, pi. 1057, lOoS, vol. xxiv. 1813.

» Whence the name of Apterous Penguin applied to the Apteryx by Dr. Latham, General History of Birds,
vol. X. p. 394. ' Loc. cit.

VOL. II. PART IV. 2 M

258 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

gular of Birds are recorded by one of our ablest Ornithologists in the first volume of the
Society's Transactions'.

Mr. Yarrell at the conclusion of his excellent description expresses " a hope, that the
£eal and hberality of the numerous friends and corresponding members of the Society
in that part of the globe inhabited by the Apteryx directed to the attainment of this ob-
ject will yet be successful, and enable us at some future period, perhaps not far distant,
to supply the deficiencies which at present exist in our knowledge of the natural history
of the Apteryx'." This hope has been fulfilled, and the appeal made by our esteemed
fellow-member has been satisfactorily responded to.

The same Noble Cultivator and Patron of zoological science, to whom Ornithologists
are indebted for the means by which the true external characteristics of the Apteryx
australis have been established, has, in the present instance, liberally contributed the
materials on which have been founded the chief part of the present account of its inter-
nal anatomy.

The trunk of a male Apteryx containing the viscera, and extremely well preserved for
anatomical investigation, was transmitted by the Earl of Derby for that purpose to the
Zoological Society in March 1838. Some months afterwards the abdominal viscera,
with the bones and tendons of the feet of a female Apteryx, were liberally presented to
me by Dr. Logan, R.N., through the friendly intercession of Sir Wm. Hooker. Subse-
quently I received the entire body of a male Apteryx, preserved in spirits, from my
esteemed friend Mr. Geo. Bennett of Sydney, N. S. Wales, a zealous and valuable Cor-
responding Member of the Zoological Society. These are the materials from which the
following descriptions have been taken.

The Apteryx presents such a singular and seemingly anomalous compound ot cha-
racters belonging to different orders of Birds, as may well make the naturalist pause
before he ventures to pronounce against tne possibiUiy ol a like coexistence ox luuon-
gruities in the historical Dodo. It seems, as it were, to have borrowed its head from
the Longirostral Grallce, its legs from the Gallinm, and its wings from the Struthious
order. It is clothed with a plumage having the characteristic looseness of that of the
terrestrial birds deprived of the power of flight ; its feathers resemble those of the
Emeu in the general uniformity of their size, structure, and colour, but they are more
simple than in any of the tridactyle Struthionida , as they want the accessory plumelet'.
The skin of the Apteryx is remarkably thick and strong as compared with that of most
other birds ; it is fully a line in thickness along the back, and gradually diminishes to
half a line along the under part of the neck and trunk. A great quantity of fat, of the

• Description, &c. of the Apteryx Australis of Shaw, by W. Yarrell, F.L.S., Zool. Trans, i. p. 71. 1S3.3.
« Loc. cit. p. 75. 3 PI. XLVII. fig. 5.

or THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 259

soft oily kind usually found in Birds, is accumulated beneath the skin along each side
of the spine, about the rump, beneath the abdomen, and more especially in front of the
xternum, where it fills up the depression below the root of the neck, which is occupied
by the crop in the Gallinaceous Birds. These pra;pectoral masses of fat are supported
by a muscle arising from the sternum and expanding over the sternal aspect of the neck :
there is no fat deposited beneath the skin covering the rest of the neck ; this thinner
integument adheres through the medium of a close cellular tissue to a cutaneous muscle
with transverse fibres, which surrounds the whole of the neck, and will be subsequently
described.

When the trunk is stript of its plumage, the body of the Apteryx presents the form of
an elongated cone gradually tapering forwards, from the broad base formed by the
haunches, to the extremity of the attenuated beak. The wings appear as two small
crooked appendages projecting about an inch and a half from the sides of the thorax,
and terminated by a curved, obtuse, horny claw, three lines long' : the antibrachium is
retained in a state of permanent flexion by the surrounding integument of the wing ;
and it cannot be brought by forcible extension beyond an angle of 45° with the humerus.
Nine quasi-quill-plumes, not exceeding in length the ordinary body-feathers, but with
somewhat thicker shafts, are arranged in a linear series along the ulnar margin of the
antibrachium ; the terminal ones are the largest, and in one specimen they presented
a structure differing from that of the ordinary plumes, consisting of a shaft, from which
radiated a series of flattened horny filaments of nearly equal length.

The podotheca commences just above the ankle-joint {snffrago) by the development in
the cuticle of small scales {squama;) ; these are smallest at the bend of the joint, where
they are arranged in transverse rows ; they increase in size as they descend, and at
the eighth, ninth, or tenth row the two middle scales begin to enlarge and assume the
character of scutulce : a row of these scutulte extends down the fore part of the tarsus ;
most of them are bipartite, but a few are entire : a double row of smaller scutulee extends
down the middle of the back part of the tarsus, as far as the base of the innermost
toe : the rest of the podotheca is formed by a reticulation of scales, somewhat larger on
the inner than on the outer side. There is a large convex plantar cushion just behind
the divergence of the three anterior toes : these differ from the toes of the typical Gal-
lincs in not being connected at their base by an intervening membrane ; they are on
the contrary quite free, as in the tridactyle StruthionidcE ; a row of entire scutula ex-
tends along the upper surface of each toe ; the sides and under part are covered with
small rounded scales, which diminish in size to the ends of the toes. The length of
the tarsus and of the toes in the largest male specimen of the Apteryx, transmitted to
me in spirits, corresponds with that of the specimen described by Mr. Yarrell ; the
tarsus being 3 inches in length, the middle toe 2 inches 4 lines, the lateral ones each
1 inch and 5 lines.

■ PI. XLVII. fig. 4.
2 h2

260 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

The head of the Apteryx is broad, slightly depressed, and very regularly convex above.
The opening of the eyelids is situated immediately behind the vertical line touching the
angle of the gape, and about three lines above that angle ; it is 4 lines in length : the
lower lid is most developed, as in other birds ; the upper one is fringed with a row of
pretty stiff black cilia. The external auditory aperture is situated half an inch behind
the eye, and is also a horizontal elliptical lissure, 4 lines in length, formed by a tumid
fold of integument, and defended by short and strong ciliiform plumelets.

The weight of the male Apteryx transmitted to me by Mr. Bennett, and which had
all the appearances of a mature bird, was, without its plumage, 3 lbs. 6 oz. 12 dr. avoir-
dupoise ; its total length, from the extremity of the beak to that of the outstretched
leg, was 28 inches and 8 Unes ; from the extremity of the beak to that of the coccyx,
19 inches ; the length of the trunk was 7 inches ; the length of the neck, head and beak
included, was 12 inches ; that of the beak, from the gape to the point, 4 inches and 8
hnes ; the breadth of the beak at the gape, I inch ; its depth or vertical diameter at the
same part, 7 lines. The different proportions of these latter dimensions to the length
of the beak, as compared with those in the specimen described by Dr. Shaw and Mr.
Yarrell, are considerable ; the length of the beak in that specimen, from the gape to the
point, being 6 inches and three quarters. This difference has led me to compare to-
gether very minutely the different specimens of the Apteryx at present in the Museum
of the Zoological Society and in that of Mr. Gould, particularly with reference to the
condition of the beak. Of these specimens, which are five in number, two present
proportions of the beak, corresponding nearly with those of the originally described
specimen' ; the other three have the shorter and weaker beak of the male Apteryx here
described^ The following are the admeasurements taken from these specimens :

LENGTH OF THE BEAK FROM THE GAPE TO THE POINT.

Dr. Shaw's. Mr. Gould's. Zool. Soc. No. 1. Mr. Bennett's Male. I Zool. Soc. No. 2. Zool. Soc. No. 3.

Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines.

6|8 6|4 6|3 4|S|4|6 4|6

Thus we have a series of three longer-billed and three shorter-billed specimens of the
Apteryx : dissection has shown one of the latter to be of the male sex ; it remains to be
proved whether the longer bill is peculiar to the female. At present it may be ques-
tionable whether this difference be dependent on a difference of age, of sex, or of spe-
cies. But I would observe that on the first hypothesis it might be expected that the
bill would have been smaller in all its dimensions, and that there would have been a
want of correspondence in the size of other parts, as of the feet'. This, however, is
not the case, but on the contrary, the very close correspondence between the short- and
long-billed specimens in all other particulars indicates the difference in the length of
the beak to be not a specific one. If, therefore, it should actually be found to be a
sexual character, it will form another anomaly in the organization of the Apteryx ; for

> PI. XLVII. Fig. 1. « PI. XLVII. Fig. 2.

' Tlie general dimensions of Dr. Shaw's specimen being taken from a dried and stuffed skin are liable'- to in-
accuracy ; Dr. Shaw assigns to it, from the tip of the bill to the extremity of the body, about 30 inches.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 261

I am not aware that in any other species of bird there is the same difference in the re-
lative length of the bill, as compared with its breadth, in the two sexes'.

The soft mtegument of the head is continued over the base of the bill, and extended
along each side, in the form of a narrow angular process, as in the larger Struthious
birds. The lateral and a greater portion of the upper part of this integument are
covered with short stiff plumes, directed forwards, with long slender black bristles in-
termixed, and projecting in various directions. The naked part of this integument or
cere' presents a peculiar form, being deeply emarginate both before and behind : the
middle portion measures I5 line in the longitudinal diameter; that of each lateral por-
tion is 9 lines : the transverse diameter of the cere is 4 lines ; from the gape to the apex
of the lateral process of plumed integument is 1 inch 8 lines. From this apex two nar-
row grooves extend along the side of the upper mandible, nearly parallel with the tomia ;
the upper groove is continued into a subcircular furrow sculptured on the deflected trun-
cate tip of the mandible ; the lower groove leads into the external nostril', which forms
the dilated termination of this groove ; the nostrils, as is well known, are most singularly
situated, within one-eighth of an inch of the extremity of the slender elongated mandible.

An angular process of plumed and bristled integument, narrower than that above,
extends forwards upon each side of the lower mandible to the distance of 8 lines from
the gape. A groove is continued forwards from the apex of this process, and expands
into a shallow depression as it proceeds. The lower mandible becomes gradually nar-
rower and flatter to its apex ; its entire length in the male was 5 inches 3 lines ; each
ramus is articulated by two trochlear cavities to two corresponding convexities on the os
quadratum ; from the posterior extremity to the point of confluence of the two rami mea-
sures 3 inches ; from this point two linear impressions extend forwards, slightly diverging
from each other, until about half a line from the tomial margin, nearly parallel with which
they are continued to the end of the mandible. This part is obtusely rounded, and is
opposed to the posterior concavity of the deflected and expanded tip of the upper man-
dible. Thus when the Apteryx rests its head upon its beak, the extremity of which then
presses upon the ground, — a not unusual posture, as I am informed, — the superincum-
bent weight is transferred by both mandibles to their proximal extremities : when, also,
the beak is thrust into the ground in quest of food, the force of both jaws is concen-
trated upon the smooth and dense wedge-shaped extremity of the upper mandible, and
the earth is less liable to be forced between the mandibles than it would have been if
tlie anterior opening had not been defended by the deflected tip of the upper one.

' In other classes we meet with examples of a considerable difference in the development of the jaws as a
sexual character ; thus, in Mammalia the jaws of the male Cachalot have more than twice the length, both re-
lative and absolute, of those of the female. In Insects the Lucani are familiar examples of a still more dispro-
portionate development of the mandibles in the male ; in the Apteryx the difference in the development of the
jaws, if sexual, is the reverse, the excess being in the female, and this would correspond with the sexual supe-
riority in size and strength in the females of the Raptorial Birds.

« PI. XLVII. a. Fig. 2. ' PI. XLVII. a. Fig. 1.

262 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

If the beak of the Apteryx be compared with that of the Ibis and Rhea, it will be found
that its plan of construction is precisely that of the Struthious Bird, and that the re-
semblance to the grallatorial beak is confined to the elongated form and slenderness of
its produced anterior part. In the Ibis, for example, the beak is compressed from its
very commencement ; in the Apteryx it is depressed at its base, as in tlie Rhea. There
is no production of integument, either plumed or naked, upon the base of the bill of
the Ibis, while in the Rhea' we find precisely the same structure, but on a magnified
scale, as that above described in the Apteryx ; the naked cere is deeply emarginate, both
before and behind ; the plumed integument has many black seta, but shorter and finer
tlian in the Apteryx, mingled with the short and stiff feathers. In the Ibis the external
nostrils are pierced in the very base of the beak ; a groove is continued from each nos-
tril to the end of the mandible ; the same grooves are seen in the Rhea, but here the
nostrils open at the anterior angle of the lateral processes of plumed integument, which
are extended along the sides of the base of the bill, as in the Apteryx. In another
Struthious genus, the Cassotvary, the nostrils ai-e situated still more forwards, and are
pierced, as in the Apteryx, in the horny sheath of the bill itself; there is no other Bird
which approaches nearer to the Apteryx in the anterior position of the nostrils than does
the Cassowary ; the peculiar modification of the base of the beak in this Bird obscures,
as it were, the resemblance which we might otherwise have been able to trace in that
part. The Emeu and Ostrich correspond with the Rhea and Apteryx in the modifications
above noticed, in the base of the upper mandible. If we examine the lower mandible
of the larger Struthionida , we perceive a modification of its inferior surface, which di-
stinguishes it from that of any Gallinaceous or Grallatorial Bird ; in the Ostrich the tip
is formed by a raised quadrate portion, separated by two lateral parallel grooves from
the rest of the gnathotheca ; in the Rhea the corresponding raised median piece is longer
and narrower than in the Ostrich, and the lateral boundary-lines converge backwards
to the angle where the symphysis menti commences. In the Apteryx, notwithstanding
the modification by which the bill is transformed from a granivorous to an insectivorous
instrument, we find a middle piece marked out, as in the Rhea, by two grooves diverging
forwards from the angle of confluence of the rami of the jaw'. The lower mandible of
the Ibis offers no trace of this character, but is traversed longitudinally by a single mesial
groove.

In the Apteryx a narrow membranous fold or ridge is continued from each angle of
the gape obliquely forwards and inwards upon the slightly convex under or palatal
surface of the upper mandible, and these ridges are gradually lost about 8 lines in front
of the posterior apertures of the nostrils' ; these apertures present the form of two linear
slits, 4 lines in length, situated close together, parallel with the axis of the beak, and
4^ inches from its extremity, in the male : the common opening of the Eustachian tubes*
is situated two lines behind the posterior nares. From the anterior part of these aper-

' PI. XLVII. Fig. 3. ^ PI. LIII. Fig. 7. ' PI. XLVIII. a. Fig. 1. ' PI. XLVIII. b. Fig. 1.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 263

tures a narrow ridge is continued forwards along the middle line of the palatal surface
of the beak to its deflected extremity : a mesial groove, corresponding with the above
ridge, runs along the flattened upper surface of the elongated myxa of the lower mandible.

There is the same structure on the inner surface of the upper and lower mandible in
the Ostrich and Rhea. In these, however, the palatal surface of the upper mandible is
slightly concave ; but in the Apteryx the opposed surfaces of the upper and lower man-
dibles produce, when pressed together, uniform and entire contact, and, as Mr. Yarrell
has observed, are well adapted for compressing or crushing such substances as may be
selected for food : the coadapted ridge and groove above described must add somewhat
to the power of retaining such substances. To judge from the feeble development of the
muscles of the jaw, and their disadvantageous place of insertion, the force of the nip of
the mandibles, however, cannot be very great ; and with this knowledge of the struc-
ture of the bill, I was the less surprised to find large soft-bodied Lepidopterous larvae
entire in the stomach of Mr. Bennett's male Apteryx.

There are two small temporal muscles, one superficial, the other deep-seated, which
cross each other obliquely : the superficial and posterior muscle is 4 hnes broad and 1
inch long : it is inserted by a round tendon into the coronoid edge, and by fleshy fibres
into the external depression beneath that edge, extending as far forwards only as two-
thirds of an inch from the joint of the jaw. The deep-seated temporal muscle sends its
fibres to be inserted more vertically into the coronoid margin. A masseter, which is
connected with a remarkably strong orbicularis palpebrarum, is inserted still nearer the
joint, below the fossa for the insertion of the temporal muscle, and external to it.
There is a fourth muscle employed in closing the bill, having a similar direction of its
tiDres to those of the masseter, but situated on the inside of the temporal muscles : it
extends from the pterygoid bone downwards, to be inserted fleshy into the inside of
the coronoid margin of the lower jaw. This bone admits of slight protraction and
retraction, the muscles performing which are the external and internal pterygoid, on
each side. The external pterygoid arises by a broad and flat tendon from the ptery-
goid plate, external to the posterior nares, and expands as it proceeds backwards and
outwards, to be inserted into the inflected posterior angle of the lower jaw. The inter-
nal pterygoid arises from the body of the sphenoid, behind the posterior nares, and con-
tracts as it proceeds more directly outwards to be inserted into the angle of the lower
jaw, above the preceding. The bill is opened by the analogue of the biventer maxilla,
which is here a stout, short, square-shaped fleshy muscle, deriving its origin from the
ex-occipital process, and descending vertically, to be attached to the broad posterior
angle of the lower jaw : from its close situation to the centre of motion this muscle can
divaricate the tips of the mandibles about two inches. The movements of the jaw are
regulated, and its joints strengthened, by several ligaments : one of these ligaments is
interarticular, and passes directly between the jaw and os quadratum, in the interspace
of the double condyle : another is external, and passes from the upper and outer angle

264 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

of the OS quadrattim obliquely forwards to the lower and posterior margin of the external
coronoid depression : a strong posterior ligament descends from the ex-occipital process
to the posterior angle of the jaw. These strong I'gaments are an essential part of the
mechanism of a beak which is destined to be forcibly thrust into the ground, and used
in a variety of ways, to overcome considerable resistance.

The posterior expanded surface of the palate is quite smooth in the Apteryx, as in
the larger Struthionida, in which the ridges and papilla, commonly present in other
birds, are altogether absent.

The tongue', as was conjectured by Mr. Yarrell, is short, much shorter indeed than the
interspace of the united rami of the lower jaw ; it nevertheless presents a greater rela-
tive development than in other Struthious birds. It presents a compressed, narrow,
elongated, triangular form, with the apex truncate and slightly notched ; the lateral and
posterior margins entire : it is 8 lines in length, 4 lines broad at the base, 1 line across the
apex. The anterior half consists of a simple plate of a white, elastic, semitransparent,
horny substance, gently concave above ; behind this part, the exterior covering, which is
lost in, or blended with, the horny plate, gradually becomes distinct, and assumes the
character of a mucous membrane, and is pitted with several very minute glandular /oro-
mina : this membrane is reflected over the posterior margin of the tongue, forming a
crescentic fold, with the concavity towards the glottis ; but here, as well as on every
other part of the tongue, it is devoid of spines or papilla;. This fold can be brought
back by the retractors of the os hyoides, so as to cover the glottis ; in which movement the
uro-hyal process plays in a cellular sheath beneath the larynx, and its office seems to be
to give steadiness to the protractile and retractile movements of the tongue. The su-
perficial and principal protractor of the tongue represents the genio-hyoideus, its two
lateral halves being separated and removed from the symphysis to within an inch of the
angle of the jaw, whence its fibres pass almost directly backwards, and converge, to be
inserted into the extremity of the bony cornu of the os hyoides. The mylo-hyoideus arises
from the inner side of the lower jaw, commencing posteriorly about an inch from the
an"-le, and extending forwards to within the same distance of the symphysis ; the fibres
become gradually fewer as they are placed more forwards ; they meet to be inserted at
a middle tendinous line posteriorly, and are separated anteriorly by a tendon about a
line in breadth : these tendons are attached to the body of the os hyoides, and retract it :
a few tendinous threads connect also the posterior margin of the muscle with the ante-
rior part of the upper larynx. On the removal of this muscle two deeper-seated pro-
tractors of the tongue are brought into view ; they arise by a very thin aponeurosis from
near the angle of the jaw, and pass directly backwards, to be inserted into the base of
the cornua. These muscles adhere closely to the membrane, fiUing up the interspace of
the rami of the lower jaw. The cartilaginous extremities of the cor7iua of the os hyoides
curve upwards, and terminate about a line behind the angles of the jaw.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 265-

The lining membrane of the pharynx, behind the glottis, forms two elongate, square-
shaped, smooth, thick, and apparently glandular folds or processes, the obtuse free
margins of which project backwards, like lappels, into the pharynx^ ; beyond which
the lining membrane is produced into close- set, narrow, somewhat wavy, longitudinal
folds.

The wsophagus is continued down the right side of the neck, behind and a little to
the right of the trachea, through the thorax and diaphragm to the proventriculus, with-
out forming any partial dilatation or crop.

The upper extremity of the wsophagus is rather wider than the rest of the tube, mea-
suring from half an inch to an inch in diameter, according to its state of contraction :
it gradually diminishes to a diameter which I found in one specimen to be 3, in another
6 lines, and continues, without variation of size, to the proventriculus. The wsophagus
is connected somewhat closely to the trachea, and by a looser cellular tissue to the
surrounding parts. The muscular coat of the wsophagus is about half a line in thick-
ness ; its external fibres are arranged circularly ; its internal ones form a longitudinal
stratum. The ultimate muscular fibres are smooth, slightly wavy, and reticularly
intermixed, but with a definite course. The internal membrane in the contracted wso-
phagus is disposed in narrow and slightly wavy longitudinal ruga, which become more
close-set and strongly marked at the lower j^art of the canal : when viewed with a mag-
nifying power the whole internal surface presents a delicate reticular structure. The
length of the gullet is 9 inches.

The proventriculus" is a narrow elongated cylindrical cavity in the axis of the wso-
phagus, of which it is an immediate continuation. In one specimen it measured 1 inch
2 lines in length and half an inch in diameter, in another it was 1^ inch in length and
1 inch wide. The gastric glands are developed around its whole circumference, and are
closely packed together ; they are narrow elongated folUcles, from 1^ to 2 lines long,
mostly bilobed, but sometimes more subdivided at their caecal or outer extremities'. The
glandular parietes of each folhcle consists of minute tubuli placed at nearly right angles
with the central cavity. The muscular coat covering the glands is somewhat thicker
than in the membranous part of the gullet, which is chiefly caused by the increase of
the outer circular stratum of fibres, by the action of which the secretion of the glands is
squeezed out into the cavity of the proventriculus. The longitudinal rugts of the lining
membrane gradually subside at the entry of the proventriculus, where they run into each
other, and so form a general reticulate surface, in the meshes of which the orifices of
the gastric glands are situated.

The epithelium lining the glandular part of the stomach is gradually condensed to-
wards its lower part into a cuticle, which, as it passes into the muscular compartment,
assumes a brown colour and a callous hardness, and forms a stratum about one-third
of a line in thickness. In the Cassowary and Emeu the proventriculus is marked ofl"
' PI. XLVni. e. Fig. 1. 8 PI. L. & LI. a. ' PI. LI. fig. 2 & 3.

VOL. II. — PART IV. 2 N

266 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

from the stomach by a circular strip of epithelium, whiter and thinner than the rest,
from one to two lines in width : the structure is well shown in Plates LI. and LII. of
the ' Comparative Anatomy ' of Sir Everard Home- The Apteryx, though resembling
these large Struthious birds in the arrangement of its gastric glands, does not participate
with them in this structure. The muscular stomach' does not present the characteristic
sub-compressed shape of a gizzard, but resembles, in its regular oval-rounded form,
the membranous stomach of carnivorous birds. In its contracted state it appears
small for the size of the bird, not exceeding I inch 10 lines in length, and 1 inch 3
lines in its greatest diameter ; but in the specimen in which I found the stomach
distended with food it measured 2^ inches in length, and 2 inches across at the widest
part. The muscular fibres are not arranged in the well-defined masses called digas-
trici and laterales in the true gizzard, but radiate from two tendinous centres of an
oval form, measuring about two-thirds of an inch in the longest diameter. The mus-
cular coat when contracted is thickest at the upper part of the cavity, where its depth
is about 3 lines : in the bulging part at the upper end of the gizzard from which the
duodenum is continued, the muscular coat is about I line thick. The inner surface of
the contracted stomach (b, PI. LI.) presented two protuberances at its posterior part,
one near the lower and the other near the upper end : the latter is so situated with re-
spect to the cardiac and pyloric openings that it would tend more or less completely
to close those openings when the circular fibres at the upper part of the gizzard were
forcibly contracted. There was no appearance of these internal projections in the di-
lated stomach of the second Apteryx dissected by me.

A narrow pyloric passage, of about 3 lines in length, leads from the left side of the
upper extremity of the muscular stomach into the duodenum^. The pylorus is defended
by a transverse crescentic ridge of the lining membrane ; there is no distinct sphincter.
The cuticle is continued into the duodenum about 3 lines beyond the pylorus, but there
is no dilatation of this part constituting a pyloric pouch as in the Erneu and Ostrich.

Before proceeding with the special description of the intestinal canal, the general
disposition of the abdominal viscera may be mentioned, as they appear upon removing
the abdominal muscles.

The peritoneum consists of an external strong fibrous and an internal serous layer.

The abdominal cavity' is divided by peritoneal partitions into three compartments,
which contain, besides the ordinary viscera, only a little fluid ; and when the thoracic
cells were inflated from the trachea no air passed into the abdominal cells or their in-
terspaces. The two upper compartments contain the right and left lobes of the liver,
which are separated from each other by a strong mediastinal process of peritoneum -.
the Ugamentum latum in Mammalia seems to be the representative of this broad process.
Each hepatic cell communicates with the single large inferior compartment of the
abdomen by a round aperture situated close to the ribs ; this lower compartment was
' PI. L. & LI. b. " PI. L. & LI. c. » PI. XLIX.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 267

partly divided into two lateral ones by the stomach, and the omental process con
tmued from U to the lower or posterior margin of the hepatic septum.

A great quantity of adipose matter was accumulated, in one specimen beneath xW
pentoneum. The two lobes of the hver occup.d as usual the anterioTpJrt o t
dommal cavUy extending from above the notches of the sternum to midway between
the sternum and the cloaca. The stomach was entirely concealed by the large omental

tions (as in Plate XLVIII. fig. 3, a, a,) as much of the stomach was exposed as projects
between and beyond the lobes of the liver. The space between the stomach anScW
was occupied by long and simple loops of intestine, extending obliquely and n ar "
parallel with each other, from the upper and right to the low^er and ft Td of the
aMomen. n one specimen these loops were concealed, like the stomach by omenta
processes, thickly charged with fat (6, !>,) ; each loop also included between UieTayer
of Its narrow mesentery one or two thick processes of fat (c, c ) except the duodln. 1
the interspace of which was occupied as usual by the two' loCf ' ^.^ZTJZ'^
Pancreas A^e pointed extremity of the anterior lobe of which extended freely be oSe
bend of the auodenum, as represented in the figure (PI. XLVIII. fig. 3, . ) ^ In oL
specimen the ^«o^.„«. formed the longest and most superficial loop ( PI XLIX )

I found that four loops of intestine, mcludingt tlt'te^re ilX^^^
by dissecting away the omental processes : on raising these loops the rectum was seen
ex ending forwards about 2 inches along the mesial line, and then receiving the fL"
and the extremities of the two cca. Only the anterior half of the rectumX^^lZ
tir investment oi per^toneum ; at its posterior or lower half that membrane le ves he

r^rTarifT:;.^" '--^ ''- -' ''- -''^-' -' °-^^-"^ ^^— s upon trite!

The lobes of the liver require to be divaricated and raised, and the stomach and
mtestinal canal. The duodenal loop, which in one specimen was about 4 inches in

Th?! "fir ^^J^"^""" "^^"'^ ^" ^ ^"^^^^ ^"-^'- ^-- ^he stomach to th
r^ht side of the aMomen, curves obliquely across the lower surface of the aMomel

o t e posterior and left side, and returns upon itself: the anterior half of this loop

closely a tached to the other coils of the intestine; the rest of the cluodemlnis

suspended freely in the aMomen. The intestine, after having formed the duoden

loop bends abruptly upon itself backwards and to the right, and then forms a

second loop, 3^ inches long, which continues straight down the right side of the abdo

oops are then formed to the left of the preceding, after which the intestine returns
to near the commencement of the duodenum, behind the stomach and close to the root

o .. o

268 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

of the mesentery, whence it descends to form a fifth long loop, situated at the left side
of the abdomen, hehind the others, and then becoming looser, after a short convolution,
terminates in the rectum. The cceca in one specimen measured each five, in another
six inches in length ; they are attached to the last folds of the ileum : their tunics are
thinner than those of the rest of the alimentary canal. The adipose processes developed
beneath the peritoneum investing the ileum and caca, are smaller and more detached
than those connected with the preceding intestinal loops, and assume the appearance of
"appendices epiploica;'."

In one Apteryx I found a very short cacum, — the remnant of the ductus vitello-intes-
tinalis, — attached to about the middle of the small intestine* ; and in the viscera of the
small female Apteryx transmitted to me by Dr. Logan, there extended from the same
relative position of the intestinal tube an obliterated duct three lines in length, which
expanded into a still persistent vitelline sac of a subglobular form, about an inch in
diameter, but collapsed and with wrinkled parietes. These presented a moderate degree
of thickness in the moiety of the sac next the duct, but became gradually thinner to
the opposite side. The interior of the sac was lined with a stratum of a yellowish sub-
stance resembling adipocere, and contained many small wavy filamentary vessels, con-
verging to the commencement of the duct, and evidently remains of the vasa lutea. A
small branch from the mesenteric artery, the remnant of the omphalo-mesenteric, and
a minute corresponding vein, accompanied the pedicle of the sac (PI. LI. fig. 1, s, t.).

In the large male Apteryx the intestinal canal measured four feet, independently of
the caca, which were each six inches in length : the rectum was four inches long.

The general diameter of the small intestines in the specimen first dissected was
three lines ; in the male Apteryx with the full stomach their diameter was five lines :
they slightly diminish in size as they approach the rectum. In the duodenum the
mucous membrane is beset with extremely fine villi, about one Une in length ; towards
the end of the duodenum these villi are converted into thin zigzag longitudinal

' These processes and the return of the small intestine, in the latter part of its course, to the duodenum and
root of the mesentery, give to the part continued thence to the rectum the characters of the colon in Mam-
malia. The learned Editor of the excellent edition of Cuvier's Lecons d'Amtomie Comparh, now in course of
publication, is disposed to consider all that part of the small intestine which intervenes between the single
vitelline cacum (in those birds which have it) and the double ordinary csca, as representing the colon : and
the analogy of the colon of the Hyrax, which is similarly bounded at its commencement by a single ctecum, and
at its termination by a double one, is undoubtedly very close. If, however, we are guided by the analogies
afforded by the other oviparous classes, with which birds present so close a conformity of general structure, and
in which the colon is always short, wide, generally straight, and in some, as Python, Testudo, Iguana, marked
off, or commencing by a single ciecum, as in Mammalia, there can be no question in that case but that the part
of the intestinal canal in Birds corresponding to the colon of Reptiles, is that which succeeds the entry of the
two ca:ca, and which, from its shortness and straightness, is usually called the rectum. In the Ostrich, how-
ever, it is long and convoluted, and is provided with transverse valvulte conniventes. A similar structure in r
less degree is present in the colon of tlie Iguana.

■* Pi. L. d.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 269

folds, which are continued, but with gradually diminished breadth, to the end of the
ileum. The cecca', at their commencement, are wider than the ileum, and go on slightly
increasing in capacity to near their blind extremities, where they suddenly taper to an
obtuse point. The diameter of each cacum, at its widest part, was five lines in the first,
and six lines in the second dissected Apteryx. To the naked eye the lining membrane
of the creca presents a smooth surface; viewed with a lens, it is disposed in very fine
longitudinal zigzag lines, which are replaced towards the extremities by very minute
points. The hning membrane of the rectum is beset with minute short villi or points,
together with glandules solitaries, which become numerous and large at the terminal half
of the rectum'^ -. the lining membrane of this intestine, when it is contracted, is thrown
into longitudinal folds ; but there is no trace of the transverse or spiral valvules conni-
ventes which so peculiarly characterize the cesca and rectum of the Ostrich and Rhea : in
this respect the Apteryx resembles the Cassoivary and Emeu. The rectum communicates
with the uro-genital dilatation by a small semilunar aperture, which, when contracted,
appears as an obUque fissure, and from the produced valvular margin of which several
short ruges radiate. The urinary compartment of the cloaca is not expanded into a large
receptacle as in the Ostrich, but offers the same proportional size as in the Emeu and
Cassowary: it measures about two-thirds of an inch in length and the same in diameter.
The ureters terminate by oblique valvular apertures' immediately beyond the above-
mentioned membranous fold, at the back part of the cavity, and about two lines apart.
The vasa deferentia terminate, as in other Struthious birds, by two elongated papillee*
nearer the anterior part of the uro-genital cavity. This cavity is separated from the
external compartment of the cloaca by a broader and stronger fold than that which
divides it from the rectum, and the angles of this fold are lost upon the sides of the perns',
which projects into the external compartment of the cloaca. This compartment is con-
tinued behind the uro-genital passage in the form of a large and wide bursa Fabricii^,
which, in the larger Apteryx dissected by me, was partly divided by a crescentic verti-
cal fold, extending forwards from its upper and back part.

The stomach, in Lord Derby's Apteryx, contained only a greenish-yellow pulpy sub-
stance, and numerous filamentary bodies, amongst which were some legs of insects and
a few pebbles. The small intestines were contracted and contained only a little pulpy
material like that in the gizzard, but of a darker colour. The cesca were distended with
a greater quantity of a similar but more fluid matter, in which parts of the legs of in-
sects, apparently orthopterous, were again discernible. In the male Apteryx transmitted
by Mr. Bennett, the stomach was distended with insects of various orders, which seemed
to have been recently swallowed. There were four larves, between two and three inches
in length, belonging to some species of the Lepidopterous order, probably of subterraneous
habits ; five larves of some of the Scarabeidee, perfect ; some mature Coleoptera ; parts of

' PI. L. e. e. « PI. L./. ' PI. L. g.

* H. L. A. » PI. L. i. » PI. L. k.

270 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

small species of the Locust tribe ; one Elater ; and one Spider, quite perfect ; with a few
hard seeds and sn.all pebbles'. There was also some muddy fluid loaded with the black
particles of the earth probably swallowed along with some of the insects. The small
intestines contained portions of insects floating in a larger quantity of the black fluid :
the c(eca were distended exclusively with a thin blackish-brown pulpy fluid, in which
only extremely minute portions of the legs of insects could be detected.

The liver, in the larger male Apteryx, weighed 7 drachms, 35 grains, avoirdupoise ;
it consisted, as usual, of two large lobes, connected by a narrow isthmus, with their thin
anterior edges advancing forwards on each side of the proventriculus, and meeting in
front and a little to the left of the middle line. The right lobe' is the longer, of a sub-
triangular figure ; the left' is of a subquadrate form. The two lobes are even and smooth
on their posterior and outer surfaces, but present irregular furrows and projections on
their inner surface. They are traversed here transversely by a broad portal fissure oc-
cupied by the vessels and ducts. In two of the specimens there was a gall-bladder,
as in the Emeu and Cassowary ; in the third it was wanting, as is usually the case with
the Rhea and Ostrich. In the large male the gall-bladder adhered by its whole length
to the omental process covering the stomach ; in the other Apteryx it was free, and
depended by its cervix from the inner margin of the right lobe of the liver ; in this
specimen' it was an inch and a half in length, and received two short cyst-hepatic ducts
at its cervix, each nearly a line in diameter : these ducts, with the serous membrane
reflected upon them, and the nutrient vessels of the gall-bladder, formed the only me-
dium of connexion between the gall-bladder and the liver. A cystic duct was conti-
nued, in length rather more than two inches, to half-way between the lower bend and
the termination of the duodenum. The hepatic duct is formed by two branches, one
from each principal lobe, which unite together to the left of the cystic duct ; it runs
parallel with, and terminates a few lines below the cystic : both ducts are longer than
usual. The lining membrane of the gall-bladder presents chiefly longitudinal rugce,
with smaller transverse Unes in the interspaces. In the Apteryx without a gall-bladder
there were two long ducts terminating in the same part of the duodenum ; of which the
one corresponding to the cystic (PI. LI. o, fig. 1.) was very slightly dilated at its origin,
where it was formed by the confluence of two ducts.

The pancreas (PI. L. & LI. q, fig. 1.) consisted, as usual, of two elongated subtrihe-
dral lobes, lodged chiefly in the anterior part of the duodenal interspace. One of the
lobes extended upwards and to the right as far as the spleen. The secretion was carried
by two short and thick ducts, which terminated, close to the hepatic and cystic, and
alternating with them upon a small longitudinal ridge of the duodenal Hning membrane.
The spleen in one Apteryx was about the size and form of a hazel-nut (PI. L. r,) : in
the large male with the full stomach it was smaller and flatter : it was round, and an

' I am indebted to Mr. Waterliouse for the determination of the above insects.

» PI. L. /. ' PI. L. m. ■• PI. L. n.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 271

inch in diameter in the specimen without the gall-bladder. In the larger Struthionidee
the organ generally presents a longer and more compressed figure.

In considering the physiological relations of the structures which have just been de-
scribed, we shall be able to trace the same interesting correlation between their different
modifications and the nature of the organic substances which it is their office to assi-
milate, as is illustrated in other known and more striking peculiarities in the digestive
organs of birds. Animals which are destined to subsist exclusively on insects usually
present the chief prehensile and preparatoryparts of the digestive system, whether it be the
beak, as in the Ibis, or the tongue, as in the Ant-eaters and Woodpecker, of a long and
slender shape ; in the present species we find a pair of Struthious mandibles lengthened
out and made slender for this purpose. The beak, thus organized to seize and transmit
to the gullet objects of small size, is succeeded by a muscular canal of moderate and
uniform width ; and the food being of an animal nature and swallowed in small quantities,
with successive intervals, as it is caught, the oesophagus is not required to be modified
to serve as a reservoir, either by a general width or partial dilatation. The proven-
triculus of the Apteryx is of a small relative size as compared with that of the Ostrich ;
its glands are also more simple in their structure, and are not aggregated into a circum-
sci'ibed mass as in the Rhea. The stomach has its muscular coat more equally but
less strongly developed than in any of the vegetable-feeding Struthionidee ; and the
small size of the cavity, as well as the moderate strength of its parietes, bespeaks a
structure adapted for the bruising and chymification of animal substances presenting,
as do worms and the larvae of insects, a moderate resistance.

The length of the intestines and the size of the caca, both of which somewhat exceed
those in the slender-billed Insectivorous Waders, indicate that the Apteryx — which, by
being denied the power of flight, is confined to a more restricted range in quest of food
— is designed to possess every needful and practicable advantage in extracting from its
low-organized animal diet all the nutriment that it can yield.

The lacteal absorbents in the Apteryx in which the digestive system before death had
been actively engaged in the assimilation of a full meal of insects, were plainly visible,
and in many parts of the mesentery presented an opake white colour.

There was an absorbent gland, about the size of a hazel-nut, in the mass of fat below
the root of the neck.

Circulatory and Respiratory Systems.
The heart is surrounded by a wide and thin pericardium, which is attached to the
concave side of the sternum and to the margins of the anterior wide fissure of the dia-
phragm, through which the ventricular portion of the heart protrudes into the abdomen,
in the posterior concave interspace of the two great lobes of the liver. (Pl.LIL, fig. 1 ,a.)
It requires only that a central aponeurosis should have been continued from the anterior

272 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

margins of the dinphragm between the heart and liver, to have completely separated
from the thorax the proper abdominal viscera, as in the Mammalia ; for, as will be pre-
sently described, the respiratory organs are confined entirely to the thorax.

The heart presents the usual ornithic form of a somewhat elongated cone, terminated
by an obtuse rounded apex, produced beyond the projection formed by the right ven-
tricle. The pericardium, after being reflected upon the origins of the great vessels,
passes directly from the peripheral surface of the auricles upon the ventricles, so that
there are no freely projecting auricular appendages. In one Apteryx I found much fat
developed in the angle between the auricles and ventricles, beneath the pericardium.
The right auricle appeared, when distended, of an uncommon size. The three veins
terminated in it in the usual manner, but the inferior cava has a much greater relative
capacity than either of the superior cava, in consequence of these having to return to
the heart little more than the proportion of venous blood brought back by the jugular
and internal thoracic veins in other birds.

The auricles of the heart do not present any peculiarity of structure which is not met
with in other birds ; the resemblance to the Emeu in the disposition of the valves of the
right auricle is very close. The great inferior cava, (PI. LII. 6, fig. 3,) the trunk of which
is extremely short, opens into the sinus venosus close to the termination of the left superior
cava (c, fig. 3.) ; the intervening membrane is slightly produced in a valvular form : the
coronary vein of the heart terminates in the left superior cava, just before it opens into
the auricle. The right superior cava {d, fig. 3.) opens as usual into the upper part of the
sinus. The tunics of the superior cavte are remarkably strong. The sinus is divided,
as in other birds, from the proper auricle by two semilunar valves, one large and an-
terior, the other smaller and posterior (e and/, fig. 3.). The lower horn of each valve
is fixed to the floor of the auricle, the upper or anterior horn of the anterior valve is
attached to a strong muscular column, which traverses the upper and anterior wall of
the auricle ; the extremity of the posterior valve is in like manner continued into a
muscular band fi'om the back part of the auricle. Fi'om these attachments it is obvious
that the valves, during the action of the muscular parietes of the auricle, will be drawn
together, and their power to resist regurgitation into the sinus will be increased, as
the action of the muscles to overcome the resistance of the contents of the auricle is
greater.

The posterior valve which forms part of the boundary of the foramen ovale seems to
be represented in Mammalia by the muscular ridge called the annulus ovalis ; the ante-
rior valve is obviously the analogue of that called Eustachian in Man and Mammalia.

The principal deviation from the ornithic type of the structure of the heart is pre-
sented in the valve at the entry into the right ventricle (PI. LII. g, fig. 3,). This is
characterized in birds by its muscularity and its free semilunar margin. In the Apteryx
it is relatively thinner, and in some parts semitransparent and nearly membranous : a
process moreover extends from the middle of its free margin, which process is attached

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 273

by two or three short chorda tendinea to the angle between the free and fixed parietes
of the ventricle. We perceive in this mode of connection an approach in the present
bird to the mammalian type of structure analogous to that which the Ornithorhynchus,
among Mammalia, offers, in the structure of the same part, to the class of birds ; for
the right auricular ventricular valve in the Ornithorhynchus is partly fleshy and partly
membranous. The dilatable or free parietes of the right ventricle were about ,vth of
an inch in thickness, those of the left were -i-th of an inch thick.

There was nothing worthy of note in the left auricle (fig. 2 and 3 h,) or in the valves
interposed between it and the left ventricle : the two membranous flaps presented the
usual inequality of size characteristic of the mitral valve in birds.

The aorta divides as usual, immediately after its origin, into the ascending and de-
scending aortcE : the ascending aorta as quickly branches into the arteries innominatce
{ii, fig. 2.), which diverge as they ascend and give off the subclavians in the form of
very small branches ; they are then continued, very little diminished in size, as the
carotids ; each carotid divides or gives off a large vertebral artery before passing out of
the thorax; they then mount upon the neck, converge and enter the inferior vascular
canal of the thirteenth cervical vertebra, and are continued in the interspace of the
hamapophyses to the fourth cervical vertebra : here they emerge from the subvertebral
canal, and passing through the interspace of the recti capitis antici, they again diverge,
and when opposite the angle of the jaw, give off occipital, internal carotid, large pala-
tine, and other branches, as in the Emeu. The principal difference observed in the
Apteryx was the equality of size in the carotids : in the Emeu I found the right carotid
larger than the left.

The descending or third primary division of the aorta (fc, fig. 2.) presents in the
Apteryx, as in the Emeu and other Struthionida, more of the character of the conti-
nuation of the main-trunk than in the rest of the class, in consequence of its greater
size and thicker tunics, which relate of course to the diminished supply of blood
transmitted to the rudimental anterior extremities ; and the increased quantity re-
quired to be sent to the powerfully developed legs. The aorta arches over the right
bronchus as usual, and is continued down the thorax to the interspace of the crura of
the diaphragm, through which it passes into the abdomen in a manner remarkably ana-
logous to that which characterizes the course of the aorta in the Mammalia (PI. LII.
n, fig. 1). The Apteryx, in fact, seems to be the only bird in which the limits of
thoracic and abdominal aorta can be accurately defined. But, in thus establishing this
distinction, we observe a remarkable difference from the mammalian arterial system, in
the fact, that some large and important branches, which in the latter are given off from
the abdominal aorta, arise in the present bird above the diaphragm, through which
thej'^ pass by distinct and proper apertures to the abdominal viscera which they are des-
tined to supply. These branches are the caliac axis (PI. LII. /, fig. 1.), and the great
or superior mesenteric artery (m, fig. 1.). Besides these branches, the thoracic aorta

VOL. II. — PART IV. 2 o

274 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

gives off the bronchial and intercostal arteries above the diaphragm. The latter are
three or four in number, which divide and form the usual plexiforra anastoinoses round
the heads of the ribs, with branch.es of the vertebral arteries ; from which plexuses the
proper intercostal branches are continued. The ctcliac axis, having perforated the dia-
phragm, divides and supplies the stomach, liver, and spleen in the usual manner. The
mesenteric artery offers nothing unusual in its mode of distribution. The diaphragm
is itself supplied by branches from the intercostal plexuses, and there are no proper
phrenic arteries.

The first branch which the aorta sends off, after having entered the abdomen, is the
spermatic artery (PI. LII. o, fig. 1.) ; this was of moderate size in the large male
Apteryx, and soon divided into two branches, which were distributed respectively to
the corresponding testis and supra-renal gland.

The aorta having reached the first lumbar or sacral vertebra, sends off the femoral
arteries (.p,p, fig. 1.), which are of equal size with the ischiadic arteries afterwards given
off. The femoral is continued outwards on each side at right angles with the aorta,
sends a small branch to the upper lobe of the kidney and passes out of the pelvis, not
through a notch or foramen, as in most other birds, but simply over the margin of the
iUac bone. It is continued upon the thigh, covered by the wide and strong sartorius,
where it divides into two principal branches, of which one is distributed to the sartorius,
gracilis, vasti, and other muscles at the anterior and upper part of the thigh ; and the
second branch is continued to the knee-joint, where it ends by forming anastomoses
with the ischiadic. The aorta next sends off a pair of renal arteries (q, q, fig. I.) of
moderate size, beyond which it may be said to resolve itself into the ischiadic (r, r,)
and sacro-median arteries {s, fig. 1.). The ischiadic branches are not here, as in most
other birds, the main arteries of the hinder extremities ; they do not exceed the femo-
rals in size, and are principally expended upon the muscles of the leg : they escape
from the pelvis as usual by the ischiadic /oramiwa, and are continued down the back
part of the thigh external to the adductor magnus, covered at first by the broad biceps
cruris, and afterwards continued between the biceps and the vastus externus to the
outer side of the popliteal space : here the artery accompanies the ischiadic nerve and
the strong tendon of the biceps between the two heads of the gastrocnemius externus,
and through the tendinous trochlear loop connected with that muscle, where it divides,
and is finally distributed as in other birds.

The sacro-median artery, after sending off a small branch to the rectum, divides into
the genital or hypogastric and the coccygeal arteries.

I did not observe any modification of that condition of the venous system which
usually characterizes the class of birds.

The inferior cava does not perforate the diaphragm, but enters the posterior part of
ihz pericardium just above the anterior fissure of the diaphragm: it receives, close to
its termination, the two large hepatic veins. There exists the same disposition of the

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 275

renal veins which regulates the quantity of blood transmitted to the lungs or to the liver
respectively, as in other birds. This disposition has been erroneously supposed to in-
dicate that the urine was secreted from the venous blood in birds, as in reptiles and
fishes ; but the end attained by the venous anastomoses in question bears a much closer
relation to the peculiar necessities and habit of life of the bird, and, so far as I know,
has not hitherto been explained. There is no class of animals in which there may be,
at any two brief and consecutive periods of existence, a greater difference in the degree
of energy and rapidity with which the respiratory functions are performed, than in birds.
When the bird of prey, for example, stimulated by a hungry and an empty stomach,
soars aloft and sweeps the air in quest of food, the muscular energies are then
strained to the utmost, the heart beats with the most forcible and rapid contractions to
propel the current of blood along the systemic arteries, and the pulmonary vessels
require the greatest possible supply of blood to serve the heart with the due quantity
of arterialized fluid : the digestive system, on the other hand, is in a state of repose,
and we may conceive the portal circulation to be at its lowest ebb.

Suppose the Eagle to be glutted with his quarry and reduced to a state of stupor ; the
animal functions are now at rest, but the organic powers concerned in the assimilation
of the food are in full play, and the portal or hepatic circulation is as active as was the
pulmonary a short time before.

The venous system of the kidneys is so arranged in birds that it can be distributed
either to the portal system by the mesenteric vein, or to the pulmonary system by the
vena cava and right side of the heart, according to the degree of rapidity with which
the pulmonary or portal systems of veins are respectively emptied, or in other words,
according to the activity with which the circulation in each of these systems may be
going on at two different periods. The arrangement is as follows : the venous blood of
the kidneys is collected from all parts of the gland into a venous reservoir or trunk
extending longitudinally through the substance of the kidney, and more or less sub-
divided at the anterior or thick part of the gland in most birds ; here it communicates
by one or more large anastomoses with the iliac vein, which, after a short course, unites
with its fellow to form the trunk of the vena cava ; at the posterior or lower end of the
kidney the renal vein emerges, and after receiving some small veins from the cloaca,
joins the vein from the opposite kidney, and the common trunk, thus formed, then
bends forwards, enters the folds of the mesentery of the rectum, and becomes, in fact,
the commencement of the mesenteric veins, receiving the blood from the rectum and
caeca. Thus, when the circulation of the portal system is unusually active, the current
of the venous blood of the kidneys will naturally tend towards the lower outlet into
the mesenteric vein ; but when, on the other hand, those causes are in operation which
accelerate the current of venous blood through the vena cava, we may reasonably sup-
pose that a greater quantity of the renal blood will flow by the anterior outlets into that
great channel.

2 o 2

276 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

In the extreme case of the raptorial bird above-quoted, the advantage of such an
arrangement appears sufficiently obvious to justify tne teleological hypothesis here pro-
posed ; and in the rest of the class the like benefit may result from this arrangement of
the renal veins to a degree corresponding with the necessity for it which may exist.

In the Apteryx the great renal vein (s, PI. L.) is not imbedded in the substance, but is
continued along the anterior or under-surface of the kidney, receiving the blood from
the lobules of the gland by many oblique but wide openings ; the venous trunks of the
two kidneys anastomose, as in other birds, posteriorly, to form the commencement of
the mesenteric vein {t, PI. L.) ; and, anteriorly, after receiving the iliac veins, they unite
to form the vena cava, and thus complete the great cir cuius venosus renalis. The modi-
fications of this part of the venous system were less important than I had been led
to anticipate in a bird whose comparatively limited powers of locomotion must be at-
tended with less partial and excessive action of the respiratory system than in birds of
flight.

The organs of respiration in birds are so eminently characteristic of that class, and
so obviously framed with especial reference to the faculty of aerial progression, that
in the Apteryx — a bird of nocturnal and burrowing habits, and of which the wings
are reduced to the most rudimental condition, — the examination of the associated
modifications of the respiratory system promised to be replete with peculiar in-
terest. It was, in fact, the first point to which I directed my attention, and having
made a preparatory inflation of the pulmonary organs by the trachea, I proceeded to
open the abdomen, and displaced the viscera with great care ; but, as has been already
stated, there was not any trace of the extension of air-cells in the interspaces of the ab-
dominal viscera ; and the whole of them having been removed, I was not less gratified
than surprised to find a complete and well-developed diaphragm separating the abdo-
minal from the respiratory cavity. This septum did not present any large openings
corresponding to those by which the air is continued into the abdomen in the other Stru-
thious birds, but was here perforated only for the transmission of the (Esophagus and
large blood-vessels.

The diaphragm of the Apteryx diflfers from that which characterizes the class Mammalia
in the following points ; first, in the greater relative extent of the anterior or post-
sternal interspace ; secondly, in the greater proportion of tendinous or aponeurotic tissue
which enters into its composition ; thirdly, in being perforated by three different large
arteries, and not by the vena cava or splanchnic nerves ; and lastly, in the difl"erent rela-
tive positions of the oesophageal and aortic openings. The plane of the diaphragm is
more horizontal, or rather more parallel with the axis of the trunk, than in the Mam-
malia generally ; but some of the aquatic species, as the Dugong, present a position of
the diaphragm almost similar to that of the Apteryx.

The origins of the vertebral or lumbar portion of the diaphragm are by two well-
developed crura (PI. LII. u, fig. 1.), which are attached to slight prominences on the

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 277

sides of the last costal vertebra : these crura are almost entirely tendinous ; they expand
as they advance forwards, and distribute their aponeurotic fibres in a manner remarkably
analogous to the disposition of the fleshy fibres of the lesser muscle of tlie diaphragm in
Mammrilia. The mesial fibres decussate in front of the aorta : the lateral ones arch
outwards ; the rest diverge, to constitute the great central tendon. Here they cross
each other in various directions, and form distinct and regular decussations around the
orifices through which the cceliac artery, with the anterior splanchnic nerve, (PI. LII. /,)
and the mesenteric artery and nerves (PI. LII. m,), pass into the abdomen: the most
notable decussation is formed by two broad bands, immediately behind the large oeso-
phageal aperture, which is separated only by a very narrow transverse chord from the
anterior fissure through which the pericardium protrudes, and the inferior vena cava
passes : the two broad decussating bands expand, to form the anterior boundary of the
diaphragm, and are inserted into the lateral processes of the sternum.

The muscular or costal part of the diaphragm is formed, as in the Ostrich, by a num-
ber of separate, broad, and thin fasciculi, which come off from the third, fourth, fifth,
sixth, and seventh vertebral ribs, near their junction with the sternal ones : these fas-
ciculi expand, and are gradually lost upon the dorsal surface of the aponeurotic part of
the diaphragm, but do not form a continuous expanse of muscle, nor constitute the en-
tire thickness or substance of the diaphragm at any point : they are, consequently, in-
visible on the abdominal side of the diaphragm ; and the aponeurosis of the diaphragm,
together with the almost aponeurotic cellular layer of the peritoneum, with which it is
continuous, requires to be reflected inwards, as at PI. LII. |3. (3. fig. 1., to bring the digi-
tations representing the great muscle of the diaphragm into view.

The existence of a diaphragm in a rudimental condition in birds has long been recog-
nized : Hunter left a beautiful figure of the costal portion of the diaphragm in the Ostrich,
which has been published in the second volume of the Catalogue of his Physiological
Collection, PI. XXVI. In this, as well as in the other large Struthious birds, there is
also a pars vertebralis or analogue of the lesser muscle of the diaphragm, which rises by
two tendinous crura from the last dorsal vertebra, and in the Emeu by a double origin
on each side. Nevertheless their diaphragm is incomplete ; first, by reason of an arrest
of its centripetal development, which leaves a permanent defect of union in the mesial
plane ; and secondly, by the large perforations for the abdominal air-cells.

The mechanism of respiration in the Apteryx is essentially the same as in other birds ;
and a more muscular diaphragm than it possesses would be unnecessary as a part of that
mechanism. The abdominal surface of the diaphragm, as in the Mammalia, is princi-
pally in contact with the liver, spleen, and stomach ; but its thoracic surface, as we have
already seen, does not support the heart, and it is separated from the lungs by the in-
terposition of a series of small but well-marked air-cells. There is no thoracic serous
sac or pleura.

Thus, although the respiratory organs are confined to the chest, and the Apteryx oflfers

278 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

tlie only known instance in the feathered race of a species in which the receptacular
part of the lungs is not continued into the abdomen ; yet the Struthious type is strictly
preserved, and the march of development has only been restricted, not changed.

The lungs, in fact, present all the peculiarities which characterize the class of Birds.
They are fixed to the posterior part of the chest, and imbedded in the interspaces of the
ribs, presenting a free anterior surface, slightly concave, extended on a plane nearly
parallel with the axis of the trunk, and perforated by large apertures, through which the
air passes from the bronchial tubes into the air-cells.

Each lung (PI. LI. figg. 4. & 5.) presents an irregular sub-compressed trihedral figure,
broader anteriorly, and gradually contracted towards the posterior extremity, which is
thin and rounded off: it is smooth and concave below ; smooth and convex above, and
outwardly ; deeply indented along the upper or dorsal angle with six notches ; the inter-
mediate portions occupying the interspaces included between the second and the ninth
ribs, and each sending off a small process. In the number of these posterior processes
or lobes the Apteryx resembles the Emeu ; in the Cassowary there are eight lobes ; in the
Ostrich and Rhea there are only five lobes in each lung.

The bronchial divisions of the trachea enter the lungs about one-fifth of their length
from the anterior end, and almost immediately divide into four principal branches ; one,
a small branch (a, fig. 5.}, is lost in the substance of the anterior part of the lung ; a
second, the largest branch {b, fig. 5.), runs down the concave surface, near to and par-
allel with the dorsal margin, and supplies the rest of the respiratory portion of the lung ;
the third branch, which is small, perforates the anterior part of the lung, and opens
into the anterior air-cell ; the fourth branch (c, fig. .').) runs down the middle of the
concave surface of the lung, and terminates by three successive orifices in the three in-
ferior air-cells. The inner surface of this bronchial tube presents a great contrast with
that of the second, which runs parallel with it, in the paucity of the foramina which it
presents for the passage of air into the substance of the lung ; these being extremely
numerous in the second, as shown in the figure.

The pulmonary tissue is as compact, as vascular, and presents the same peculiar spongy
texture as in other Birds. A stratum of fat was developed under the pleura, along the
anterior margin of each lung. The first or most anterior of the air-cells interposed be-
tween the lung and diaphragm is the smallest ; the second the largest ; this and the
third present a cuboid figure : the parietes of these cells consist of an extension of the
delicate mucous membrane of the air-passages, and an external thin layer of cellular
tissue, by which they adhere to the diaphragm : the anterior air-cell on each side pro-
trudes a little way through the anterior aperture of the thorax. (See PI. LI. fig. 4.)

The larynx and trachea resemble, in the simplicity of their structure, those of the
other Struthious birds. The upper larynx is not defended by any rudimental epiglottis,
nor provided with retroverted spines or papilla. The glottis (PI. XLVIII. d, fig. 1 .) is
a long and moderately wide aperture : below the external or superior lips of the glottis,

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 279

and within the larynx, there are two thinner membranous folds : a small but elongated
process projects from the middle line of the under or anterior part of the upper larynx
towards the rima glottidis. Behind the glottis there are two square-shaped tumid mo-
cesses, with their free margins directed backwards into the pharynx; their texture is
more glandular than the surrounding mucous membrane. The trachea corresponds in
length with the neck, and preserves a nearly uniform diameter throughout its course •
It consists of small and entire cartilaginous rings,-in one specimen, 120,-in another'
130 in number,— alternately overlapping and being overlapped at the sides when the tube
IS relaxed : they are also alternately narrower on one side and the other, but in a shght
degree : they become gradually smaller to the last twenty rings, which are not connected
so closely and rigidly together as in the Ostrich and Emeu. Remembering the cervical
air-sac which projects through the ovate aperture discovered by Fremery ' in the anterior
part of the trachea of the Emeu, and situated, as that accurate observer describes, between
the fifty-third and sixty-second cartilaginous rings, I examined with care the trachea of
the Apteryx, but without detecting any trace of an analogous structure in either sex

There is no lower larynx. The last two tracheal rings increase in breadth, and the
bronchial rings are continued from them with only a slight diminution of thickness-
a membrane closes the trachea below, and completes the bronchial rings at their under
part : near the termination of the hronckicB the cartilaginous hoops are incomplete above
as weU as below. Both circular and longitudinal muscular fibres enter into the struc-
ture of the short bronchial tubes.

The sterno-tracheales muscles (PI. LI. a, fig. 4. ; PI. XLVIII. g, fig. 3.) arise, one from
the inner surface of each coracoid bone.

It is plain, from the fixed condition of the lungs, and from the space between the lungs
and diaphragm being occupied by air-cells, that inspiration could not be effectually per-
formed by the action of the diaphragm alone : but the structure and mobility of the an-
terior panetes of the thorax indicate that it takes place in the Apteryx, as in other birds
by the sternum being depressed, and the angle between the vertebral and sternal ribs'
being increased.

All the triangular muscles which converge to be inserted into the costal processes
thus become muscles of inspiration, and more especiaUy those which represent the ser-
ratus macjnus anticus, and which act from the true ribs as a fixed point below, upon the
scapula above ; for by drawing down that bone they bear upon the sternum, through the
medium of the coracoid ; and hence the necessity of strong and well-developed coracoid
bones m a bird that otherwise could derive no particular advantage from the fixation
of the scapula. The adherence to the ornithic type in the characteristic part of the os-
seous structure due to the sternum, coracoids, and scapula, is thus not merely explicable

' De Casuario Novae Hollandiie. Svo. 1819.

280 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

on the theory of unity of plan, but relates in the Apteryx to the exigences of respiration
with fixed lungs and large air-cells.

Renal and Genital Organs.
The kidneys' of the Apteryx are situated symmetrically, and lodged, as in other birds,
in the irregular hollows of the back part of the cavity of the pelvis ; their posterior sur-
face presents corresponding projections ; the anterior surface is smooth and almost flat :
the mesial edges of the kidneys are nearly straight and parallel, and very close to each
other, but do not coalesce at any part ; the outer edges are notched. Each kidney mea-
sures 3 inches in length, 1 1 lines across the broadest part, which is one-fourth from the
anterior extremity, and 4 lines at the thickest part. It is divided into five lobes by ob-
lique fissures, extending into the posterior surface of the gland : the middle lobe is the
largest. These lobes appear to have a compact and even surface, but their cerebriform
convolutions can be readily unravelled. The weight of both kidneys is 2 drs. 36 grs.
avoirdupoise. The tortuous ureter {w, PI. L.) emerges from the inner side of the posterior
extremity of the kidney, and after a course of an inch and a half, terminates, as above
described, in the upper and back part of the uro-genital cavity.

The supra-renal bodies (x, x, PI. L.) were of an oval form, and yellow colour; of a
homogeneous texture ; each 3 lines in length, and adhering closely to the vena cava (m).
The male organs of generation consist of two pretty, equally developed testes (y, y,
PI. L.) situated on the sternal aspect of the atlantal extremities of the kidneys, and on
each side of the crura of the diaphragm. They were of a subcompressed oval figure,
■with a somewhat angular external margin, about 1 inch in length and 8 lines in breadth
in the largest male Apteryx ; but the dimensions of these glands are of course liable to
vary according to the season or state of sexual excitement. Thus in the younger male
Apteryx they were subcompressed, subtriangular bodies, imbedded in the sternal and
lateral aspects of the supra-renal bodies, and not exceeding 5 lines in length. The vasa
deferentia {z, z, PI. L.) are formed by the union of numerous most minute efferent tu-
bules, which pass from the testes, without forming an epididymis, into a soft amorphous
substance, of a gray colour, which lies between the testes and the bright yellow supra-
renal body. Some of the efferent tubules are lost in the gray substance, which seems to
be the remnant of the corpus Wolffianum ; but the greater part perforate that body, and
proceed to form the vas deferens. This tube is continued in the usual transversely
undulated course, along the sternal aspect of the kidneys, and towards their mesial mar-
gins, to the urethro-sexual compartment, and terminate each on a prominent papilla
(_h, h, PI. L.), situated in the uro-genital cavity, four lines below, and to the outer side
of the urethral outlets, and three lines above the sides of the crescentic fold which sepa-
rates the uro-genital from the vestibular compartment of the cloaca. The cresses or

' PI. L. V, V.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 284

angles of the fold are continued into the margins of the penis, which projects from be-
low the external orifice of the urethro-sexual cavity into the vestibular or outer com-
partment of the cloaca. The penis rapidly diminishes to a point, and its extremity is
spirally retracted ; when stretched out, the whole length of the intromittent organ is
1 inch and a half in length ; but this, doubtless, falls short of the dimensions of the penis
in the recent and erect condition. An urethral groove traverses the upper, or what, if
the penis were drawn out of the cloaca and bent forwards along the abdomen, would be
its under surface, by an urethral or rather seminal groove, which is continued to the end
of its spiral extremity : the margins of this groove are not beset with papilla, but simply
wrinkled transversely, as in the Emeu and Ostrich. The two lateral cavernous crura of
the penis are attached to the membranous parietes of the uro-genital cavitv, and to a re-
tractor or erector muscle which comes oft' from the inner surface of the lower edge of the
ischium: one of these muscles is represented at PI. XL VIII. n, Fig. 3. The base of
the penis is drawn towards the coccyx, and the veins quitting the corpora cavernosa are
compressed by a second pair of muscles (o), narrower but thicker than the erectors,
which arise from the fascia at the sides of the coccyx, pass downwards along the sides
of the vestibule, and meet at a tendinous raphe' on the dorsum penis. Immediately above
the base of the penis, on each side, there is a considerable plexus (p) of both arteries
and veins, with which also many filaments of nerves are intermingled. The last-
described muscles cross over the base of this plexus in their course to the penis, and
would doubtless impede, if not arrest the current of blood in the veins ; they might be
termed, therefore, " compressor es venarum penis," as they fulfil the same office as the
compressores described by Douglas in the Dog. In this ofiice of maintaining the ei-ect
and turgid state of the intromittent organ, the compressores are aided by two broad
sphincters : the internal one (PI. XL VIII. q, fig. 3.) rises from the sides of the coccyx,
and more immediately suiTounds the cloaca, meeting its fellow at the middle hne of the
inferior surface : the external sphincter (r) closes principally the external compartment
of the cloaca.

The female organs in the specimen dissected presented their full functional develop-
ment. The left ovarium was, however, too much decomposed to admit of any accurate
observation of its structure being made : it consisted of an irregular and obscurely di-
vided mass, of about three inches in length by two in thickness : the largest yelks ap-
peared to have been about one inch in diameter. There was a perfectly distinct right
ovarium situated in front of the corresponding supra-renal gland ; it consisted of an ir-
regularly oval flattened body, with a slightly granulate surface, nine lines long, six lines
wide, and about one line in thickness. The part of the cloaca where a rudimental right
oviduct, supposing one to have been present, might have terminated, was cut away.

The left oviduct was of large size, and from the condition of the lining membrane of
the calcifying segment or uterus, seemed to have been exercising its function a brief pe-
riod before death. The whole length of the oviduct was thirteen inches ; it was disposed

VOL. II. PART IV. 2 p

282 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

in three principal convolutions, and its connexions were as usual in birds. It com-
mences with a thin sUt-hke mouth, with entire margins, two inches in width, but soon
contracts to a diameter of ten hues ; it thence proceeds to expand very gradually to the
width of an inch, and is thus continued to the uterine or terminal segment : this portion
is two inches and a half in length, and one inch and a half in diameter : its inner sur-
face was studded with sUghtly arborescent calcifying follicles, arranged in transverse
rows. The lining membrane of the principal part of the oviduct was thrown into longi-
tudinal rug(E ; the tube communicated with the cloaca by a short, contracted, and ob-
lique canal and orifice, with tumid margins. Both the upper and lower mesometries
presented the usual radiated muscular structure.

Osseous System.

The skeleton (PI. LIV.) of the Apteryx offers the same general form as the entire bird ;
but while it exhibits the Struthious disproportion between the anterior and posterior
extremities, it shows that all the ordinary bones of the wing exist, though in their
feebleft state of development.

With the exception of the parts of the skeleton concerned in the formation of the
nasal and auditory cavities, none of the other bones of the Apteryx are perforated for
the admission of air, nor do they exhibit the pure white colour which characterizes the
skeleton in other birds. In their tough and compact texture they resemble the bones
of the Lizard tribe.

The skull (PI. LIII.) of the Apteryx is chiefly remarkable for its smooth, expanded,
elevated, pyriform cranial portion, the total absence of supra-orbital ridges, the com-
pleteness and the thickness of the inter-orbital septum, the great development of the
ethmoid, the small size of the lachrymal bones, and the expansion of the nasal cavity
behind these bones : the combination of the depressed with the elongated and slender
form of the beak is of course as well marked in the skull as in the entire head already
described.

The occipital region of the cranium has a pretty regular semicircular contour, and dif-
fers from that of other Struthious birds in the greater relative extent of its base, and in
the comparatively slight lateral sinuosities due to the temporal depressions. The single
hemispherical tubercle in the basi-occipital, for the articulation with the atlas, has not
the vertical notch at the upper part observable in the Ostrich and Emeu, but is entire
as in the Rhea ; and the plane of the occipital foramen has the same aspect as in that
bird, in which it is more nearly horizontal than in the Ostrich. The supra-occipital plate
forms a somewhat angular projection, corresponding with the small cerebellum within,
and is bounded on each side by a vertical vascular groove, terminated by a foramen above
and below : external to these grooves the ex-occipitals extend outwards and downwards,
in the form of obtuse processes, compressed in the antero-posterior direction, slightly

or THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 283

convex behind and concave in front, where they form the back part of the wide meatus
auditorius externus. All the parts of the occipital bone were anchylosed together, and
also to the surrounding bones.

The angle between the posterior and superior regions of the cranium is scarcely
produced into a ridge. The superior region is smooth and regularly convex ; it is
separated from the temporal depressions by a narrow ridge, a little more marked than
the occipital one. The sagittal suture runs across a little behind the middle of the upper
part of the cranium : the left half of this suture, with the frontal suture, was persistent
in one cranium of the Apteryx, which I extracted from a dried skin in Mr. Gould's Mu-
seum ; but all the sutures were obliterated in the skull of Mr. Bennett's male specimen.
The persistent sutures were more denticulated than those in the skull of a young Ostrich
with which I have compared them.

The superior is continued into the lateral regions of the cranium by a continuous cur-
vature, so that the upper part of the small orbital cavity is convex, and its limits unde-
finable, there being no trace of supraorbital ridge or antorbital or postorbital processes :
this structure is quite pecuhar to the Apteryx among birds, but produces a very inter-
esting resemblance between it and the monotrematous Echidna. The temporal bone
sends forwards a short and slender zygomatic process, which in its small relative deve-
lopment resembles most that of the Rhea among the larger Struthionidce.

The frontal bones gradually contract to their junction with the nasal bones, between
which there is the trace of a small part of the ethmoid bone. The narrow frontal region
of the skull is traversed by a mesial longitudinal depression.

The ethmoid bone is remarkably expanded in the Apteryx, and its cells, instead of
being restricted to a narrow vertical septum of the orbits, as in the diurnal Struthionidw,
occupy not only the ordinary orbital space, but extend outwards for more than two hnes
beyond the lateral boundaries of the anterior part of the fro7itals. A small process ex-
tends from the frontal to the side of the expanded ethmoid, anterior to the orbital fora-
mina which are distinct, and remarkably wide apart, and the expanded ethmoid is also
supported anteriorly by a similar anchylosed conjunction with the lachrymal bone.
The entire breadth of the ethmoid is 9 lines. The nearest approach to this peculiar
structure of the Apteryx is made by the Ostrich, in which the interorbital septum,
though much thinner than in the Apteryx, is also occupied by ethmoidal cells, and is
thicker than in any of the other large Struthionida. The Ibis [Numeniusarcuatus, Cuv.,
PI. LIII. figg. 3 & 4.) offers a striking contrast with the Apteryx in this respect, the
interorbital osseous septum being almost entirely absent. In all the other parts of the
cranium already noticed it also differs widely from the Apteryx. In the posterior re"-ion
of the skull of the Ibis the bony covering of the cerebellum is in great part defective :
in the superior part the cranial parietes abov^e the cerebral hemispheres form two con-
vexities, separated by a middle longitudinal depression, and the narrow space between
the supraorbital ridges is occupied by the impressions corresponding to the nasal or

" 2 p2

284 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

supraorbital glands : the whole cranium also is much higher and shorter in proportion
to its breadth than in the Apteryx. The Ibis, in thus differing from the Apteryx, deviates
also from the other Struthionidce.

At the base of the skull we find in the Apteryx all the peculiarities characteristic of
the Utruthious birds. The body of the sphenoid sends outwards on each side two pro-
cesses, of which the posterior abuts against the tympanic bone, and the anterior one, by
a flattened oval articular surface against the pterygoid bone : the latter processes exist,
but are much more feebly developed, in the Ibis : in most other birds, including the
GraUte, they are wanting : they are well developed in the Lacertine Sauria. A com-
pressed vomerine process is continued forwards from the anterior part of the basi-
sphenoid, and this process is anchylosed to the under part of the expanded and cellular
ethmoid.

In the interior of the cranium the olfactory depressions are seen to be proportionally
larger than in other birds, and the olfactory nerve, instead of being continued along the
upper part of an interorbital septum by a bony canal or groove to the nasal cavity,
immediately passes, by many perforations, through a cribriform plate to the complex
and extensive pituitary surface of the ethmoid bone.

The o^\.\c foramina are distinct both internally and externally, and are half an inch
apart ; they are perforated, not in the sphenoid ala, but in the inflected margin of the
frontal bone. In these peculiarities the Apteryx differs from all the rest of its class :
each optic foramen , however, transmits not only the optic nerve and ophthalmic artery,
but also the third, fourth, first branch of the fifth, and sixth nerves, as in most other
birds. Of these nerves the fifth is the largest, and it is continued forwards to the
nasal canal, through tvfo foramina, one circumscribed externally by the process already
mentioned, which extends from the frontal to the ethmoid ; the other by the corre-
sponding process of the lachrymal. The pituitary /ossa, or sella turcica, is a very deep
semi-oval depression ; the common internal orifice of the two carotid canals commu-
nicates with its posterior part. On each side of the anterior part of the floor of the
cranium, which supports the medulla oblongata, there is au obUque slightly curved
groove, terminated at its anterior extremity by the foramen rotundum, at its posterior by
the foramen ovale. These foramina are situated between the basilar and alar elements
of the sphenoid ; they are nearly of equal size, and are relatively larger than in the di-
urnal StruthionidcE. The foramen rotundum is not only distinct, but is further apart
from the foramen opticum than in any other bird. The petrous bone projects internally in
the form of a thin semicircular plate of bone, commencing at the foramen ovale and ex-
tending backwards to the foramen auditorium internum, which it overhangs : this plate
gives attachment to the tentorium. There is not any corresponding bony ridge deve-
loped from the upper wall of the cranium in the line of origin of the falx, as in many of
the Gallinaceous birds. The anterior or cerebral division of the cranial cavity is larger
in proportion to the posterior than in most other birds.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 285

Of the bones more immediately concerned in the formation or motion of the jaws,
that element of the temporal may be first described which in birds is always moveable
and articulated at once with the cranium and both the upper and lower jaws.

The tympanic bone is of a subcompressed trihedral form, and sends forwards into the
orbit a longer and slenderer process than in the larger Struthionidce : its upper arti-
cular surface is a transversely extended convex condyle, which plays in a corresponding
cavity internal to the base of the zygomatic process. The opposite extremity is ex-
panded, and presents two distinct articular convexities for the lower jaw, the inner one
being the largest : above the external convexity there is a small but deep depression for
the reception of the deflected extremity of the jugal bone.

The posterior extremity of the pterygoid bone is securely wedged in between the or-
bital process of the tympanic and the tranverse process of the sphenoid : as it advances
forwards it expands, as in the other Struthionidce, into a thin plate of bone, which is
bent upon itself with its concavity turned inwards, and is continued by anchylosis into
the palatine bones, so that the limits between them cannot be defined.

The palatine bones are in like manner confluent with the maxillaries. They are pierced
by two narrow elliptical posterior nasal /oramma, about 3 lines in length, over which
the exterior margin of each palatine bone arches from without inwards, and these over-
arching lamincB gradually approximate, as they advance forwards, and meet about one
inch anterior to the nasal /oramiwa, from which an imperforate plate of bone, impressed
with a narrow median fissure, and composed of the confluent palatal processes of the
maxillary and intermaxillary bones, is continued to the end of the beak. The limits
between maxillary and intermaxillary bones are indicated by two fine oblique lines, com-
mencing at the outer margin of the roof of the mouth, about 2^ inches from the apex
of the beak.

The jugal style, which in the Ostrich may be separated in the full-grown bird into
a zygomatic and malar portion, consists in the Apteryx of a single slender com-
pressed twisted bone, anchylosed with the maxillary bone in front, and terminated be-
hind by an obtuse deflected extremity, which is received into a corresponding vertical
cavity in the upper part of the outer process of the t}Tnpanic bone. By this mode of
attachment the tympanic bone offers increased resistance to the pressure transferred to it
by the lower jaw, at the same time that it gives additional strength to the upper mandible.
It is continued backwards in the same line with the upper maxillary bone as in other
Struthionidce, and is not bent downwards at its junction with the maxillary as in the
Ibis and other Gralla.

The superior maxillary bone presents the singular form of a nearly perfectly flat
elongated triangular plate of bone, which is imperforate, and is continued by unin-
terrupted ossification with the intermaxillary. The Rhea among the Struthionida;
makes the nearest approach to the Apteryx in the structure of this part of the skull ;
but the maxillary plate is perforated by large foramina, and sends upwards on each

286 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

side a process to join the lachrymal. In the Ibis the superior maxillary bones are
in the form of slender round styles, having a wide interspace between them. In the
Apteryx the small lachrymal bones are represented by two compressed plates of bone
descending obliquely forwards from the anterior extremities of the frontals, and are ar-
ticulated below to a small depression in the maxillary plate. They are each pierced by
a single small foramen. The frontal, nasal, and intermaxillary bones form one conti-
nuous bony piece, too strong to admit of any elastic yielding movement between the
upper jaw and cranium. The nasal and the upper or mesial portion of the intermaxillary
bones form an elongated depressed narrow process, convex above, and with the outer
margins bent inwards beneath the long nasal passages, of which they form the outer
and part of the lower boundaries.

The lower jaw' presents all the usual ornithic characters with the Struthious modifi-
cations traceable in the individual pecuUarities. The transversely expanded angular
and articular extremities offer the inwardly extended process for the attachment of the
pterygoidei muscles : the superior transverse plate behind the articular surfaces is thin
and concave towards the meatus auditorius externus, and is lined by the mucous mem-
brane of that passage, of which it forms part of the bony parietes. There are two
distinct narrow oblique articular surfaces, concave in the longitudinal and convex in
the transverse directions ; the internal one is the largest, and behind this there is a small
excavation^ into which a small process of the air-sac lining the tympanum is continued ;
and this is the only part of the skeleton not immediately concerned in the formation of
the organs of hearing or smelhng into which air is admitted. The entry to the air-cells
in the lower jaw of the Ostrich is situated in the part corresponding to the above de-
pression or sinus in the jaw of the Apteryx. Traces of the compound structure of the
lower jaw are very evident in that of the Apteryx, and the limits of the angular, arti-
cular and coronoid pieces may be in part defined. There is a hnear vacancy, bounded
by the surangular and angular pieces behind, and by the bifurcate commencement of
the mandibular or dentary piece in front : the surangular is compressed, and sends up-
wards a very slightly elevated coronoid ridge. A second narrower fissure occurs be-
tween the thick opercular or splenial element and the upper fork of the mandibular
piece. The opercular piece reaches to the posterior part of the symphysis as in the
Ostrich, and the rest of the lower jaw in front of this part is formed by the two anchylosed
mandibulars. In the extent of this anchylosed symphysis the Rhea makes the nearest
approach to the Apteryx among the Struthionidce, and the two impressions which diverge
from the back part to the front of the symphysis are present in both the Rhea and
Emeu as in the Apteryx. The lower jaw of the Apteryx differs from that of the Ibis in
its greater posterior expanse, its more depressed form, the lower coronoid plate, the
narrower fissure between the angular and surangular pieces, and the absence of the
mesial furrow, extending in the Ibis to the end of the symphysis.

> PI. LIII. Figg. G. & 7. "■ PI. LIII. Fig. 6. a.

OP THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 287

anJtin'f orfir'" "7,'''^^^" °' ''' ^'"" "'^'^^ ^^'^'"^^ ^^^ ''« P-">'- habits
and .nd of food are well marked and very easily traced ; those which concern the

max,! ary portions have already been noticed in the account of the digestive svstem and
orafM' '"^ '"' ''' ''''''''''-' ^°"^^^^°" °^ ^'' ^'- P-'« - eTnedTn
rela es to the greater force w.th which the beak is used in obtaining the food

The nocturnal habits of the Jptery., combined with the necessity for a highly deve
loped organ of smell, which chiefly compensates for the low condition of the' r'gan
vismn. produces the most smgular modifications which the skull presents, and we may
say hat those cavities which in other birds are devoted to the lodgemen of the eZ
are nere almost exclusively occupied by the nose ^ '

The spinal column is relatively stronger, especially in the cervical region, than in the
larger Struthromd. :.t consists of fifteen cervical, nine dorsal, and twenty-t^o remaining
vertebra ,n the lumbar, sacral, and caudal regions. remaining

The dorsal .er^e6.«. are arranged in a straight line, and slightly increase in breadth
to the seventh ; the transverse processes of the eighth and ninth suddenly diminish The
bird, fourth, fifth and sixth dorsal vertebr. are slightly anchylosed togeLr by the con
iguous edges of thei,- spinous processes ; the seventh, eighth and nin^th are overlapped
by the Iliac bones ; but notwithstanding this partial anchylosis, the synovial articula
ions both between the bodies and oblique processes, are retained n all the o a

h b T' T h' f ' i' '"^'"^' ''""'^ ""^^'"^^^ ^^^ P-™'"^^ b^^— those ZteZ

he body of the last dorsal vertebra is anchylosed to the sacrum. The breadth of tie

bodies of the dorsal .ertebr. diminishes, and their length increases very g dually W

the first to the fourth; thence the bodies become broader and shorter in "!e sm

degree to the sacrum. A short obtuse process is sent ofl^ obliquely forwards from the

urface of the succeeding ones is smooth and slightly concave from side to side Thf
art culation between the bodies is by the adaptation of a surface slightly concave inlhe
vertical and convex in the transverse direction at the posterior end of one ."e'a

o opposite curves at the anterior end of the succeeding one. Close to the anter o str

r Tt;: : ^^ ^ hemispherical pit for the reception of the round h a of t e

nb. this articular pit ,s supported on a process representing the inferior transverse

ZIT, T'l " "" '"■" "^'"'^ '°^^^^ ^-^^*-- The ^transverse pL se a
bro d, flat, and square-shaped, with the anterior angle obliquely cut off to rec v the
abutment of the tubercle of the rib, except in the second and diird. in ^^i h „ ll

:o°c\^::'Virtr nT'°"'^ ^^™^^"^^°^^ '-^-^ ^^^ --^^ -'-^^ «^ the Lns:

process . the transverse processes of the three last dorsal vertebrae abut against the
uner or inner surface of the iUa, and are probably anchylosed thereto in thirds

of ;: r '"^LZ; '""^'"" of the......above the articulation of thehead;

nbs. The transverse processes are not connected together by extended long

288 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

splints, but are quite detached from each other as in Struthious birds. The oblique pro-
cesses offer no peculiarity ; a process is continued backwards from the upper part of
those belonging to the first and second dorsal vertebra. The spinous process arises from
the whole length of the arch of each vertebra ; it is truncate above, and with the excep-
tion of the first, is of the same breadth throughout : all the dorsal spines are much com-
pressed, the middle ones being the thinnest, slightly expanding at their truncate ex-
tremities, especially the three anterior ones, the first spine being notched behind to
receive the contiguous angle of the succeeding one : below this there is a considerable
interval between these two spines, but the rest of the spines are in contact throughout,
and are probably more anchylosed in the older birds than was observed in the specimen
here described. The length of the dorsal region of the spine is 4 inches.

The length of the vertebral column behind the dorsal vertehr(E included between the
ossa innominata is 3 inches. The first four sacral vertebra;^ send outwards inferior
transverse processes which abut against the ilia, and progressively increase in length
and thickness. The breadth of these vertebree also gradually increases ; but it diminishes
in the four succeeding vertebra;, in which the inferior transverse processes are wanting :
then the ninth and tenth sacral vertebra send outwards each a pair of strong inferior
transverse processes to abut against the inner surface of the ossa innominata immediately
behind the acetabulum • the anchylosis of the bodies is continued through the four suc-
ceeding vertebra, which are of a very simple structure, devoid of transverse or oblique
processes, becoming gradually more compi-essed and more extended vertically, so as to
appear like mere bony lamina ; the line of the articulation between the bodies of these
posterior sacral vertebra is obvious, but their spines coalesce to form a continuous bony
ridge, which is closely embraced by the posterior extremities of the innominata. The
foramina for the nerves are pierced in the sides of the bodies of the sacral vertebra ;
they are double in the anterior ones, but single in the posterior compressed vertebra,
where they are seen close to the posterior margin.

There are nine caudal vertebra, which are deeper, and project farther below the pos-
terior portions of the iUac bones than in the other Struthious birds : these vertebra, as
they descend, progressively increase in lateral and diminish in vertical extent ; the spinal
canal is continued through the first five, and they are all moveable upon each other,
excepting the two last, which combine to form a vertebra analogous to the expanded
terminal vertebra in other birds, but which here exceeds the rest only in its greater
length, and gradually diminishes to an obtuse point. In the Ostrich the corresponding
vertebra is expanded for the support of the caudal plumes, but in the Apteryx it offers
the same inconspicuous development as in the Rhea and Emeu.

The cervical vertebra present all the usual ornithic peculiarities. Their general form
and proportions are shown in the figure (PI. LIV.). The single inferior process for the
attachment of the complicated longus colli anticus is present in the three last vertebra.

< SeePl. LV.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 289

The inverted bony arch for the protection of the carotid arteries is first seen to be de-
veloped from the inner side of the inferior transverse processes of the twelfth cervical
vertebra, but the two sides of the arch are not anchylosed together ; the interspace pro-
gressively increases in the eleventh, tenth, and ninth vertebra, and the groove widens and
is lost at the fifth vertebra. The spinous process is thick and strong in the vertebra dentata,
but progressively diminishes to the seventh cervical vertebra, where it is reduced to a mere
tubercle ; from the eleventh it progressively increases to the last cervical, in which it pre-
sents the strong quadrate figure which characterizes the same process in the dorsal vertebra.

The large canal on each side for the vertebral artery and sympathetic nerve is formed
by the anchylosis of a rudimental rib to the extremities of an upper and lower transverse
process ; the costal process diminishes in size in the anterior cervical vertebra : it is
wanting in the dentata, though an arterial canal of very small size is present on each side
of that vertebra. In the atlas there are two small inferior transverse processes, but no
canal. The superior or neurapophysial bony arch increases in extent as the cervical
vertebrce approach the head, and in the third, fourth, and fifth vertebra this part is per-
forated by a small /o?-amen on each side. The spinal chord is least protected by the
vertebra in the middle of the neck, where there is the greatest extent of motion : there
is a depression on the anterior and posterior parts of the spine in the second, third,
fourth, and in the last six cervical vertebra.

The length of the cervical region of the spine is 7 inches.

The close resemblance of the Bird to the Reptile in its skeleton is well exemplified in
the young Ostrich, in which even when half-grown the costal appendages of the cervical
region of the vertebral column continue separate and moveable, as in the Crocodile. I
have already observed that they were anchylosed to the first fifteen vertebra in the
Apteryx. The first dorsal rib is a slender style about an inch in length ; the rest are re-
markable for their breadth, which is relatively greater than in any other bird ; the Casso-
wary in this respect approaches nearest to the Apteryx. The second, third, fourth, and fifth
ribs articulate with the sternum through the medium of slender sternal portions ; that of
the sixth also reaches the sternum, but is attached only to the sternal rib anterior to it,
and a considerable interspace exists between its unattached extremity and that of its cor-
responding vertebral rib. In the first simple and floating rib, the part corresponding to
the head and neck, as usual, is not developed, and it is attached to the transverse pro-
cess by the part analogous to the tubercle. In the second rib a short and strong cervix,
terminated by a hemispherical head, is given off below and in front of the tubercle, and
works in a corresponding socket at the anterior margin of the vertebra. The head and
tubercle, with the points of the vertebra to which they are attached, intercept large
foramina corresponding to the vertebral foramina in the cervical region. Immediately
below the tubercle the rib suddenly expands, and then gradually narrows to its lower
end : the neck of the rib increases in length in the third and fourth pairs and dimi-
nishes in the last two ; the sixth rib begins to lose its breadth, and the rest become nar-

VOL II. PART IV. 2 Q

290 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

rower to the last. The bony appendages to the vertebral ribs are developed in the
second to the eighth inclusive : they are articulated by a broad base to a fissure in the
posterior margin of these vertebral ribs a little below their middle part; those belonging
to the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs are the longest, and overlap the succeeding rib :
these processes are not anchylosed in the specimen described. The Rhea comes nearest
to the Apteryx in the size of these costal appendages. Tlie first four sternal ribs arc
transversely expanded at their sternal extremities, which severally present a concave
surface lined with smooth cartilage and synovial membrane, and playing upon a corre-
sponding smooth convexity in the costal margin of the sternum, which thus presents
four true enarthrodial joints with capsular ligaments on each side. This elaborate struc-
ture is not, however, peculiar to \\\e Apteryx among birds, but relates to the importance
of the movements of the sternal ribs, which are the centres upon which the respiratory
motions hinge, — the angles between the vertebral and sternal ribs, and between these
and the sternum, becoming more open in inspiration when the sternum is depressed, and
the contrary when the sternum is approximated to the dorsal region in expiration.

The sternum — the main characteristic of the skeleton of the bird — is reduced to its
lowest grade of development in the Apteryx. In its small size, and in the total absence
of a keel, it resembles that of the Struthious birds, but differs in the presence of two
subcircular perforations on each side of the middle line, in the wide anterior emargina-
tions, and in the much greater extent of the two posterior fissures.

The anterior margin presents no trace of a manubrial process as in the Ostrich : on
the contrary, the wide interspace between the articular cavities of the coracoid is deeply
concave : in the extent of this interspace the Rhea most resembles the Apteryx, but its
contour is almost straight ; in the Cassowary the space is narrov/erbut is deeply notched.
The articular surface for the coracoid is an open groove, which in the fresh state is co-
vered with articular cartilage : external to this groove the anterior angles of the sternum
are produced into two strong triangular processes with the apex obtuse. The costal
margin is thickened, and when viewed anteriorly, presents an undulating contour, from
the presence of the four articular convexities for the sternal ribs and the intermediate
excavations. The sternum of the Emeu presents a similar appearance. The breadth of
each sternal perforation is nearly equal to that of the intervening osseous space ; in the
specimen described they were not quite symmetrical in position. The extent of the
posterior notches is equal to one half the entire length of the sternum : the external
boundaries of these notches curve towards each other : there is also a shght want of
symmetry in the form, position, and extent of these notches, as may be seen in the
figures (PI. LV. Fig. 2 & 3.)

The scapula and coracoid are anchylosed ' : a small perforation anterior to the articular
surface of the humerus indicates the separation between the coracoid and rudimental
clavicle, of which there is otherwise not the least trace.

' PI. LV. fig. 4.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 291

The coracoid is the strongest bone : its inferior expanded extremity presents an arti-
cular convexity, adapted to the sternal groove before described.

The scapula reaches to the third rib : it is a simple narrow plate of bone, slightly
curved and expanded at both ends, but chiefly at the humeral articulation. Its length
is one inch.

The humerus is a slender, cylindrical, styliform bone, sUghtly bent, 1 inch 5 lines in
length ; slightly expanded at the two extremities, most so at the proximal end, which
supports a transverse oval articular convexity, covered with smooth cartilage, and
joined by a synovial and capsular membrane to the scapulo-coracoid articulation. A
small tuberosity projects beyond each end of the humeral articular surface. The distal
end of the humerus is articulated by a true but shallow ginglymoid joint with the rudi-
mental bones of the antibrachium, and both the external and internal condyles are
slightly developed.

The radius and ulna are almost straight cylindrical slender bones, each 9 lines in
length. A feebly developed olecranon projects above the articular surface of the ulna.
There is a minute carpal bone, two metacarpals, and a single phalanx, which supports
the long curved obtuse alar claw. The whole length of this rudimental hand is 7 lines,
including the claw, which measures 3 lines and a half. A few strong and short quill-
feathers are attached by ligament to the ulna and metacarpus.

The iliac bones in size and shape resemble those of the Struthious tribe : the length
is 4 inches and 3 lines. The outer surface presents a slight concavity anteriorly, which
gradually passes into a convexity posteriorly, the two surfaces not being separated by
the transverse elevation observable above the acetabulum in the four large Struthious
birds. A distinct epiphyseal piece of bone, of a compressed and triangular form,
is wedged in between the posterior extremity of the ilia and the first three caudal
vertebr(B.

The ischium extends backwards, parallel with the sacrum, in the form of a thin plate
of bone which slightly expands to its free extremity, which is truncated.

The pubic element is a slender bony style, connected by ligament to the end of the
ischium, but attached by bone at its acetabular extremity only. A short pointed process
extends from the anterior margin of the origin of the pubis. In comparing the pelvis
of the Apteryx with that of the large Struthious birds, we find that the ischia do not meet
below the sacrum as in the Rhea, but are more distant from that and the iliac bones than
in any of the Struthious birds ; the pubic bones are not joined together at their distal
extremities as in the Ostrich ; the extremities of the ischia are not anchylosed to the
superincumbent ilia as in the Cassoivary. It is the Emeu which comes nearest to the
Apteryx in the structure of the pelvis, but it also differs in the complete bony boundary
of i\\e foramen which transmits the tendon of the obturator internus, and which is com-
pleted posteriorly by ligament in the Apteryx.

The acetabulum communicates, as usual, by a wide opening with the pelvis : a surface

2q2

292 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

covered with a cushion of thick cartilage is continued from its posterior and upper

part.

The fibrous capsule of the hip-joint is very strong ; the synovial membrane is reflected
from it upon the upper margin of the trochanter and upper part of the short neck of the
femur ; and also upon the ligamentous bridge continued from the upper and extended
margin of the acetabulum, to its anterior part. The Ugamentum teres is very large, but
short ; it consists of an infundibular process of synovial membrane, reflected from the
circumference of the acetabular perforation to that of the depression on the head of the
femur ; and this synovial sheath incloses two distinct ligaments, which are twisted about
each other like the crucial ligaments of the knee-joint. One of the ligamentous bands
passes from the upper margin of the acetabular perforation to the lower edge of the fe-
moral depression ; the other comes off from the under part of the acetabular perforation,
and winds round the back part of the preceding, to be inserted into the upper part of
the femoral depression.

The femur has the usual characters of that bone in the class of birds. Its small round
head is supported on a very short and thick neck, placed at right angles to the great
and single trochanter : it presents at its superior part a large depression for the strong
and complex Ugamentum teres. The shaft of the femur is slightly bent, with the con-
vexity forv/ards, which is increased by a thickening at the anterior part of the middle
of the shaft. The condyles are separated by a wide and deep groove anteriorly, and by a
triangular depression behind. The outer one is the largest, and is grooved externally,
for the articulation of the head of the fibula : the inferior compressed border of the con-
dyle is wedged in between the tibia and fibula. The length of the femur is 3 inches 9
lines. The tibia is five inches in length. Two angular and strong ridges are developed
from the anterior part of the sxpanded head of the tibia ; the external one affords attach-
ment to fascia, and to the expanded tendon of the rectus femoris latissimns : the internal
ridge has affixed to it the ligament of the small cartilaginous patella. The knee-joint
is remarkably complicated. The internal lateral ligament is broad and thin ; it gives
origin to part of the soleus, and is attached to the internal semilunar cartilage. This
fibro-cartilage divides at its anterior extremity into three ligaments : of these one is
broad and thick, and goes to the posterior surface of the rotular cartilage ; it represents
the Ugamentum mucosum ; the other two ligaments are inserted at the interspace of the
condyles. Beneath the internal semilunar cartilage a very strong ligament arises from
the inner edge of the tibia, and is also attached to the interspace of the condyles. A
strong external lateral ligament extends between the outer condyle and the head of the
fibula : beneath or within this there is a second ligament, which passes from the outer
condyle to the external semilunar cartilage. A thick Ugament extends from the anterior
parts of this cartilage to the back part of the Ugamentum patellae. From the back part
of the external semilunar cartilage a posterior crucial hgament extends to the condyloid
interspace ; lastly, a strong ligament arises from the fore part of the head of the tibia,

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX.

293

and passes upwards and backwards to be inserted, with the preceding ligament into the
back part of the interspace of the condyles. The head of the tibia sends down an an-
gular ridge posteriorly : the shaft of the bone is rounded, shghtly compressed, converging
to a ndge externaUy, to which ridge the fibula is attached in two places, beginning half
an xnch below the head of the fibula, and continuing attached for 10 lines ; then again
becommg anchybsed, after an interspace of 9 lines. In one specimen I found the fibula
also anchylosed to the t^b^a by its expanded and thick proximal extremity : it quickly
dummshes m size as it descends, and gradually disappears towards the lower fourth of
the t^b^a The distal end of the tibia presents the usual trochlea form, but the anterior
concavity above the articular surface is in great part occupied by an irregular bony

There is a small cuneiform tarsal bone wedged into the outer and back part of the
ankle-joint. The anchylosed tarso-metatarsal is a strong bone, 2 inches 3 hues in length •
the upper articular surface is formed by a single broad piece. The original separation
of the metatarsal bone below into three pieces is plainly indicated by two deep grooves
on the anterior and posterior part of the proximal extremity : the intermediate portion
of bone IS very narrow anteriorly, but broad and prominent on the opposite side The
bone becomes flattened from before backwards, and expanded laterally as it descends,
and divides at its distal extremity into three parts, with the articular pulleys for the
three principal toes. r j

The surface for the articulation of the fourth, or smaU internal toe, is about half an
inch above the distal end, on the internal and posterior aspect of the bone. A small
oss^cle, attached by strong ligaments to this surface, gives support to a short phalan.,
which articulates with the longer ungueal phalanx.

The number of phalanges in the other toes follows the ordinary law, the adjoining toe
having three the next four, and the outermost five phalanges. The relative size and
the forms of these bones are shown in the figures of the skeleton (PI. LIV.).

Organs of Sense.

The requisite particulars regarding the nervous system of the Apteryx will be given at
a subsequent period. The cavity of the cranium indicates the brain to have been pro-
portionally larger than in the diurnal StruthionidcB. ^

Of the organs of special sense, the ear, as we have already seen, resembles that of the
larger Struthromd. in the development of the external passage : the structure of the in
ternal organ was conformable to the typical condition of this part in Birds

The eye, on the contrary, presented a remarkable deviation from the construction
w^uch characterizes the feathered class, in the total absence of the pecten or marsupiu,n
We may conceive that this modification relates to the nocturnal habits and restrkted
locomotion of the present singular species. The eye-baU is relatively much smaller

294 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

than in other birds ; its antero-posterior diameter is three lines ; its transverse diameter
four lines. The cornea transparens is very convex, and two hnes in diameter. The
sclerotic is thin, but the margin supporting the cornea is strengthened by a circle of small
osseous plates. The choroid is a delicate membrane ; its pigment is of a light brown
colour. The ciliary processes commence at the ciliary ring, each process having at its
origin a slight linear rising, which becomes gradually wavy and tortuous as it approaches
the lens, anterior to the circumference of which it projects freely to a small extent.
The iris in the specimen examined was one-third of a line in breadth. The optic nerve
terminates by a small round aperture. The lens is two lines in breadth, and nearly
one line at the thickest part, being thus more convex than in other birds. The ex-
ternal appendages of the eye presented no peculiarities, except the very great strength
of the orbicularis palpebrarum ; the membrana nictitans had the usual trochlear muscles :
its free margin was black.

The singulai'ly long and narrow nasal passages are closed and defended externally by
the inflected outer margins of the nasal and upper process of the long intermaxillary
bones. The relative extent and complexity of the turbinated bones, and the capacity
of the posterior part of the nasal cavity exceed those of any other bird ; and the sense
of smell must be proportionally acute and important in the economy of the Apteryx.

Concluding Observations.
On a review of the preceding details of the organization of the Apteryx, it will be
seen that, commencing with the skeleton, all the leading modifications of that basis of
its structure connect it closely with the Struthious group. In the diminutive and
keel-less sternum it agrees with all the known Struthious species, and with these alone.
The two posterior emarginations which we observe in the sternum of the Ostrich are
present in a still greater degree in the Apteryx ; but the feeble development of the ante-
rior extremities, to the muscles of which the sternum is mainly subservient as a basis of
attachment, is the condition of a pecuUarly incomplete state of the ossification of that
bone of the Apteryx ; and the two subcircular perforations which intervene between the
origins of the pectoral muscle on the one side, and those of a large inferior dermo-
cervical muscle on the other, form one of several unique structures in the anatomy of
this bird. We have again the Struthious characters repeated in the atrophy of the
bones of the wing, and the absence of the clavicles, as in the Rhea'. Like testimony
is borne by the expansively developed iliac and sacral bones, by the broad ischium and
slender pubis, and by the long and narrow form of the pelvis. We begin to observe a

• In the Ostrich the clavicles are undoubtedly present though anchylosed with the scapula and coracoids.
and separate from each other. In the Cassowary and Emeu they exist as separate short styliform bones.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 295

deviation from the Struthious t3'pe in the length of the femur, and a tendency to the
gaUinaceous type in the shortness of the metatarsal segment : the development of the
fourth or inner toe may be regarded as another deviation ; but it should be remembered
that in the size and position of the latter the Apteryx closely corresponds with the ex-
tinct Struthious Bodo. The claw on the inner toe of the Apteryx has been erroneously
compared with the spur of certain Gallinas, but it scarcely differs in form from the claws
of the anterior toes.

In the broad ribs (see the Cassowary), in the general freedom of anchylosis in the
dorsal region of the vertebral column, and the numerous vertebra of the neck, we again
meet with Struthious characters ; and should it be objected to the latter particular, that
some Palmipeds surpass the Ostrich in the number of cervical vertehrcs, yet these stand
out rather as exceptions in their particular order ; while an excess over the average
number of cervical vertebra in birds is constant in the Struthious or Brevipennate group.
Thus in the Cassowary 19 vertebra; precede that which supports a rib connected with
the sternum, and of these 19 we may fairly reckon 16 as analogous to the cervical ver-
tebra in other birds. In the Rhea there are also 16 cervical vertebra, and not 14, as
Cuvier states. In the Ostrich there are 18, in the Emeu 19 cervical vertebra. In the
Apteryx we should reckon 1 6 cervical vertebra if we included that which supports the
short rudimental but moveable pair of ribs. Of the 22 true grallatorial birds cited in
Cuvier's Table of the number of Vertebrae, only 9 have more than 14 cervical vertebra ;
while the Apteryx with 15 cervical vertebra, considered as a Struthious bird, has the
fewest of its order. Its neck is relatively shorter, in correspondence with the shorter
legs ; the Cassowary, among the Struthionida, comes nearest to the Apteryx in these
proportions.

The free bony appendages of the ribs, and the universal absence of air-cells in the
skeleton, are conditions in which the Apteryx resembles the Aptenodytes, but here all
resemblance ceases : the position in which the Apteryx was originally figured ' is incom-
patible with its organization.

The modifications of the skull of the Apteryx, in conformity with the structure of
the beak requisite for obtaining its appropriate food, are undoubtedly extreme ; yet we
perceive in the cere which covers the base of the bill in the entire Apteryx a structure
which exists in all the Struthious birds ; and the anterior position of the nostrils in the
subattenuated beak of the Cassowary is an evident approach to that very singular one
which peculiarly characterizes the Apteryx. With regard to the digestive organs, it is
interesting to remark, that, with the exception of the Ostrich, the thickened muscular
parietes of the stomach of the granivorous Struthious birds do not exhibit that apparatus
of distinct musculi digastrici and laterales which forms the characteristic structure of the
gizzard of the gallinaceous order : thus the Apteryx, in the form and structure of its sto-
mach, adheres to the Struthious type. It differs again in a marked degree from the

' Shaw's Miscellany, xxiv. pi. 1075.

296 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

Gall'mm in the absence of a crop. With respect to the ccecal appendages of the intestine,
though generally long in the Gallince, they are subject to great variety in both the Stru-
thious and GraUatorial orders : their extreme length and complicated structure in the
Ostrich and Rhea form a pecuUarity only met with in these birds. In the Cassowary, on
the other hand, the ccEca are described by the French academicians as entirely absent.
Cuvier' speaks of" un caecum unique " in the Emeu. In my dissections of these Struthious
birds I have always found the two normal ceeca present, but small ; in the Emeu measuring
from three to five inches long, and half an inch in diameter' ; in the Cassowary measuring
about four inches in length. The presence of two moderately developed ceeca in the
Apteryx aifords therefore no indication of its recession from the Struthious type : these
cesca correspond in their condition, as they do in the other Struthious birds, with the
nature of the nutriment of the species. It is dependent on this circumstance also, that
in the grallatorial bird {Ibis), which the Apteryx most resembles in the structure of its
beak, and consequently in the nature of its food, the caca have nearly the same relative
size ; but as regards the Grallce, taken as an order, no one condition of the ceeca can be
predicated as characteristic of them. In most they are very small ; in many single.

What evidence, it may next be asked, does the generative system afford of the affi-
nities of the Apteryx ? A single, well-developed, inferiorly grooved, subspiral intromittent
organ attests unequivocally its relations to the Struthious group ; and this structure, with
the modifications of the plumage of the respiratoiy organs and of the skeleton, lead to
the same conclusion as that at which Mr. YarrelP and myself had arrived', from a study
of the external organization of the Apteryx, viz. that it must rank as a genus of the
cursorial or Struthious order. In deviating from the type of this order the Apteryx ma-
nifests a tendency in the structure of the feet to the Gallines, and in the form of the
beak, to the Grallm ; but it cannot, without violation of its natural affinities, be classed
with either.

' Lecons d'Anat. Comp. 1836. iv. p. 291.

- The accurate Fremery speaks of " ccecu intestina duos pollices tantum longa, dimidium lata," in the Emeu
dissected by him, loc. cit. p. 76.

' Loc. cit., p. 72. < Art. Aves, Cycl. of Anat. and Phys., i. 1836, p. 269,

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 297

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE XLVII.

Fig. 1. HeSid of Si female Apt€ryx\
a. The external nostril.

2. Head of a male Apteryx.

a. The cere.
h. The ear.

3. Head of a Rhea Americana.

a. The cere,
h. The ear.

4. The external appearance of the wing when the feathers are removed : it ex-

hibits the form of one of the abnormal small quill-feathers described at
p. 259.

5. One of the neck-feathers of the Apteryx.

PLATE XLVIII.

Fig. 1 . Under surface of the head of the Apteryx, with the tongue and palate exposed.
a. The posterior nasal apertures.
h. The common opening of the Eustachian tubes.

c. The tongue.

d. The glottis.

e. The glandular processes of the pharyngeal membrane.

2. The inferior surface of the tongue and hyoid-bone, with the commencement

of the wsophagus and trachea.

3. Abdominal viscera in situ.

a. Gastric processes of omentum.

b. Omental processes covering the intestines.
c,c. Omental processes in the intestinal loops.

d. The pancreas, in

e. The duodenal loop.

/. The first loop of jejunum,
g. The rectum.

' Since the preceding pages were printed Mr. Cunningham has transmitted to the Zoological Society the
»kin and the trunk of an Apteryx, which proves to be a female, aud has a beak measuring from the gape to the
tip six inches four lines, thus verifying the conjecture put forth at p. 260, that the difference in the length of the
beak is sexual, and that the longer one characterizes the female.
VOL. II. PART IV. 2 R

298 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

h. The (esophagus,

i. The sterno-tracheales muscles.

j. The carotid arteries.

k, k. The right and left lobes of the liver.

n. Erector penis.

0. Compressor venarum penis,

p. Vascular and nervous plexus.

q. Internal sphincter of cloaca,

r. External sphincter.

s. Penis : a probe is passed beneath it into the cloaca

t. Coccygeal gland.

PLATE XLIX.
Abdominal sacs.

a. The right hepatic sac, with a style passing through the aperture of com-
munication with
h. The right enteric sac.
b'. Another style, passing by the side of the stomach, into the left hepatic sac.

c. Omentum.

d. The pancreas.

e. Tlie duodenum.

f. The fold oi jejunum.

g. The rectum.

r. The external sphincter.

s. The penis.

a. The two portions of the pectoralis major.

^. Pectoralis medius.

y. Pectoralis minor, seu internus.

PLATE L.
Digestive, Urinary, and Male Generative Organs.

a. The proventriculus.

b. The stomach.

c. The duodenum.

d. The vitelline cecum.
e,e. The two ceeca.

f. The rectum laid open, showing the large glandula solitaries.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 299

cj. Bristles inserted into the ureters.
h, h. The papillce, on which the vasa defer entia terminate.

i. The penis.

k. The bursa Fabricii.

I. The right, — and m, the left lobe of the liver.

n. The gall-bladder : two cyst-hepatic ducts are seen entering its cervix.

0. The cystic duct.

p. The hepatic duct.

q. The pancreas.

r. The spleen,
s, s. The renal veins ;

t. Their posterior anastomosis, forming the commencement of the portal
system of veins ; and u, their anterior anastomosis, forming the com-
mencement of the inferior vena cava, and completing the circulus venosus
renalis.

V. The kidneys.

w. The ureters.
w, X. The supra-renal glands.
y, y. The testes.
z, z. The vasa deferentia.

PLATE LI.

Fig. 1 . Part of the digestive system of Dr. Logan's female Apteryx.

a. The proventriculus laid open, showing the thickness of the glandular coat

and the internal surface.

b. The gizzard, showing the internal projections produced by the state of

contraction of the cavity.

c. The commencement of the duodenum, lined with thick epithelium.
I. The liver.

0. The duct corresponding with the cystic.

p. The hepatic duct.

q. The pancreas.

r. The orifices of the pancreatic ducts.

s. The pedicle or obhterated canal of t, the persistent vitelline sac.

«. The twig representing the omphalo-mesenteric artery.
2.]^A section of one of the ordinary bilobate proventricular glands. 3. A qua-

drilobate proventricular gland. Both twice the natural size.
4. Section of the right lung and air-sacs.

2r2

300 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY

a. The sterno-trachealis muscle: bristles are seen passing from the external
branch of the bronchus into the three anterior air-sacs.
5. Front view of both lungs.

a. The anterior or short pulmonic bronchial tube.

b. The posterior or long pulmonic bronchial tube.

c. The bronchial tube of the air-sacs.

PLATE LII,

Fig. 1. A dissection, showing the diaphragm of the Apteryx. ,

«. The two crura of the vertebral portion or lesser muscle of the diaphragm.
j3, (3. Fasciculi of the costal portions of the diaphragm..

a. The pericardium covering the apex of the heart, and protruding through

the anterior fissure of the diaphragm.

b. The oesophagus.

I. The trunk of the cceliac axis protruding through a foramen in the ex-
panded central tendon of the diaphragm,
m. The mesenteric artery,
n. The abdominal aorta.
0. The spermatic artery.
p, p. The femoral arteries.
q, q. The renal arteries,
r, r. The ischiadic arteries.
s. The sacro-median artery.
Fig. 2. Front view of the heart.

a. The right ventricle.

b. The right auricle.

c. The pulmonary artery.

d. The arteries innominate.

e, e. The internal thoracic arteries.
/,/. The brachial arteries.
g. The carotids.
3. The heart, dissected, to show the interior of the right auricle and ventricle.

b. The inferior vena cava.

c. The left superior cava.

d. The right superior cava.

e &/. The semilunar valves, between the sinus and auricle.
g. The right auriculo-ventricular valve.
h. The left auricle.

OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 30}

PLATE LIII.
Skulls oiApteryx Australis and Numenius arcuatus.
Fig. 1. Upper surface of the skull of the Apteryx Australis, male.

2. Under surface of the same.

3. Upper surface of the skull of the Ibis, {Numenius arcuatus.)

4. Under surface of the same.

5. Posterior surface of the skull of the Apteryx.

G. Upper surface of the lower jaw of the male Apteryx.

7. Under surface of the same.

8. Os hyoides.

PLATE LIV.
Skeleton of the male Apteryx, one half the natural size.

PLATE LV.

Fig. 1. Under surface of the bony compages of the thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic
cavities, with the sternum and sternal ribs removed.
2. Under or external surface of the sternum.

a. The perforations.

b. The posterior fissures.

c. The broad anterior emargination.

d. The articular notch for the coracoid.

e. The coracoid.

/. The rudiment of an acromial clavicle.
g. The scapula.
h, h. The sternal ribs.

3. The upper or internal surface of the sternum.

h. The articular cavities for the sternal ribs.

4. Posterior or internal surface of the anchylosed scapula and coracoid.

^l.i„u. „Jn,^. ,yac: it,^'Z^^:^7.A, 302.

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[ 303 ]

XXI. Observations upon Pelagic Serpents. By Dr. Theodore Cantor, Bengal
Medical Service, C.M.Z.S., M.A.S., ^'c.

Communicated July 10, 1838.

XHE Pelagic Serpents have, by several naturalists, been divided into numerous genera,
all of which are entirely founded upon external characters. In habits and general ap-
pearance, however, nature has characterized this group so markedly, that it may easily
be distinguished from all others ; and the arrangement proposed by M. Schlegel' is such,
as to make this family, no less than the beautiful sub-family of Mr. Bell's" Leptophina,
the two best-defined natural groups of the whole order.

The reason why their habits, like those of all the Pelagic animals, are but imperfectly
ascertained, is obvious ; their geographical distribution is entirely limited to the tropical
seas, and the danger attending the study of these highly-venomous serpents is a con-
sideration of no small weight. While I discharged the medical duties on the Hon.
Company's Marine Survey of the sea-face of the Gangetic Delta, our fishing-nets, kept
overboard during many months, procured a considerable number of these serpents.
Although the flood-tide carries them as high up the rivers as the brackish water, yet
they are purely pelagic, and are no more found in fresh water than on dry ground ; they
form, par excellence, the natatorial type of the order.

A comparison with the terrestrial serpents will easily point out how nature has ac-
complished her end by the most simple and beautiful modification of the general plan
upon which the order is constructed.

The skull is very small, and its bones but little developed ; and although the head is
formed, like that of the other serpents, with venomous fangs and maxillary teeth, it
presents some slight deviations. The rostrum, instead of being arched, to allow a free
passage for the tongue, as in the terrestrial serpents, is elongated into a downward-bent,
pointed shield, which, closing the mouth, prevents the water from entering. The tongue,
covered by a scabbard opening closely to the chin, is much less developed in these than
in the terrestrial serpents. As long as the pelagic serpents are below the surface of the
water, they never make use of this organ ; but when out of water, and the animal is
blinded by the light, it appears of material use as a feeler'.

• Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens, Partie Descriptive, p. 488.

' Bell, Leptophina : Zoological Journal, vol. ii. p. 324.

' This is the use generally attributed to the tongue. In a number of Indian terrestrial serpents I have ob-
served anotlier, perhaps more important function, viz. that of bringing into the mouth various small bodies, such
as stones, sand, tu-igs, Sic, which they swallow, in order to stimulate digestion.

304 DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS.

The nostrils are small, horizontally situated, as in the genera Homalopsis and Cerbe-
rus, and furnished with a membranous valve', which is opened to admit the air, and
closed to prevent the entrance of the water.

The venomous gland is a narrow pyriform sac, divided into numerous little cells,
which pour the venom into a common straight duct, communicating with the superior
opening in a remarkably small venomous fang, the structure of which is described by
T. Smith, Esq.'

The fresh poison is a pellucid, tasteless fluid, like that of the Cophias viridis, Merrem ;
Vipera elegans, Daudin ; Naja tripudians, Merrem ; Hamadryas ophiophagus, Cantor ;
Bimgarus annidaris and cwruleus, Daudin. It possesses the property of turning litmus
paper red'.

The general shape of the body is much compressed, particularly towards the abdo-
men, so that the vertical diameter is much larger than the transverse ; the short, strong
tail is flattened, like the blade of a two-edged sword, thus at once serving as a propel-
ling organ, and also as a rudder to direct the movements.

The highly-compressed form, which proves the animal to be aquatic, is calculated
for the element in which it lives, and also for the form of the prey, consisting of fishes,
the dimensions of which will be found exactly to correspond to those of the serpents.
Of all serpents, these are provided with the longest, most slender, and least arched ribs,
which articulate by an oblique oval socket, with a corresponding ball on the lower sur-
face of the corpus vertebrarurn, while the abdominal extremity of the one rib lies in con-
tact with the same part of the opposite rib. The ribs are more freely moveable in a
lateral than in a backward direction, the progress in the water being produced by a
quick succession of lateral curvatures of the tail and body. The functions of the ribs,
as organs of motion, are therefore less complicated than in those serpents, which have
to move over, and support their bodies^ on a solid surface : in the latter, as observed
by Sir Joseph Banks^ the abdominal scuta form a number of moveable broad surfaces,
brought into action and moved as hoofs, by the corresponding pair of ribs. Tiiis kind
of progressive motion is not required by animals who never leave the water, the progress
in which is accelerated by the sharp keeled form of the abdomen.

While in all other serpents the anterior set of ribs only is subservient to respiration,
in the pelagic, whose lung extends to the anus, the entire number assists in the per-
formance of this function. In a specimen of Hijdrophis schistosa, Schlegel, measuring
3' 10" in length, I counted 168 pair of ribs, and 224 vertebree.

' One of the Indian vipers, the Vipera elegans, Daudin, is provided with a similar valve, to guard against dust
and other foreign bodies entering the spacious nostrils.

« Vide the excellent memoir In Philosophical Transactions, 181S, p. 471.

3 The same fact with the venom of the Crotalus has been noticed by Dr. Harlan, Med. and Phys. Researches,
p. 501, et seg.

* Philosophical Transactions, 1812, p. 163.

DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS. 3O5

The spinous processes of the dorsal column are small, whereas those of ti,e caudal

of u'^tir """'^ '''^' '"'^ compressed, gradually diminishing m size towards the point

The greater number of terrestrial serpents are covered with scales, the points of which
aie free, actmg hke stoppers, which, by catching the nearest objects, prevent retrograde
mofon ; the water offers no such obstacles, and we find the pelagic serpents in " ner^
covered wUh small broad scales, with their whole circumferenie attached'to heLh Td
eUher shght y keeled, or having an elevation in the centre, like the umbo of a sh^id

Of the nuernal organs, the respiratory offer the most striking differences from those
o the errestnal serpents The trackea consists of a long gradLlly-w.dening cyli "r
w h numerous short cartdagn.ous rings, which extend as far backwards as the live '

^u : M Z;? 'T' ^^ ^°'"^ t^^"^^ '^^^•-•^ ^'- '--^ ^'- ^-^- becomes
cellular, .nd from this place commences the single lung, which is a long narrow cylin-
der, „. several places widened into spacious sacs, which aga,n assume the contracted

fT 1 " '"?"" "'"™'^ "''" '^^^' '''^'^''^ ^'-^ ^'--S'^ ^he entire leng h
of the abdommal cavity, and is fixed by a short round ligament near the anus The

cancellated structure of the parietes is continued throughout, although the ZcelU^

crease m s.e m the posterior part of the lung. The great developement of the 1 tt

organ bespeaks Us high importance, and it has two distinct functions to perfo m t^L

one o which IS to serve as the organ of respiration, or as a reservoir for atn^^spher c

blood to be carried on a considerable time under the surface of the water, by the vibra
tion f the c.. which ine the whole interior of this cavity, and thus enab es the -
pent to go to great depths in search of food. Secondly, the lung filled with air floats
he body particularly when the food is swallowed, and the specific gravity in reased by
IIs1u'V.:::T ''''''' "^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^-^^ the^tomadibeLes yt'

The <r.o,,/.«,u. is funnel-shaped, widening into a large bulb, communicating by a
shoit cylinder with the pyriform stomach. The intestines, after forming a number of
circumvolutions, terminate by a short straight portion, entering the spacious eZ
The l.ver IS short divi ed by a longitudinal furrow into two lobes, the iLrior of wWch
IS gam divided by a short transverse furrow. I„ the pelagic serpents the situat on
of t IS organ is remarkable, as being in immediate contact with the hear Tn h
HydropJus stnata and .racilis, Schlegel. the hepatic, cystic, and pancreatic ducts enter
jom ty t,.duodernu., but in the H. sCistosa, Schlegel, the hepatL duct divides „to a
number of little branches, which terminate in the cystic duct to form the ductus coZ

structure, closely allied to the pelagic serpents. -nnocuous, are. m habits and anatomical

VOL. II. — PART IV. 2 S

30G DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS.

munis coledochus, which enters the duodenum a little behind the pancreatic duct ; the
latter has an entrance separated from that of the former ' .

The glands, generally speaking, are remarkably little developed in the Hydrophis
schistom, striata, nigrocincta, and gracilis, Schlegel. The lachrymal is entirely hidden
in the orbits ; the nasal is very minute, crescent-shaped, surrounding the posterior mar-
gin of the nostrils ; the upper salivary appears like a short thread, bordering the venom-
ous gland ; the inferior is larger, of a flat pyriform shape. The gland situated before
the heart, and by some physiologists considered analogous to the thymus, by others to
the thyroid gland' of Mammalia, is reduced to a minute oval body.

Habits.

Out of the seven species into which M. Schlegel has divided the Genus Hydrophis,
the geographical distribution of which this author considers to be limited to the tropical
seas between the 90th and the 230th degrees east longitude of Ferro, six inhabit the
Bay of Bengal, viz. H. schistosa, striata, nigrocincta, gracilis, Pelamis, and pelamoides.

Out of this number I have observed the H. schistosa and striata to be the most com-
mon, and the H. gracilis comparatively rare in the northern part of the bay and the
estuaries of the Ganges.

Although fewer in species than the terrestrial serpents, the pelagic are much more nu-
merous in individuals, and, unlike the former, are always met with in numbers together,
which circumstance even serves as a sea-mark to mariners. On my approach to Bombay,
I remember the sailors looking out for this phenomenon, until shoals of these animals
{H.pelamidoides, Schlegel, Shiddil, Russell, II. No. xiii.) made their appearance, as signs
of approaching land. Another remarkable dissimilarity between the terrestrial and pe-
lagic serpents is, that all the latter are venomous, whereas by far the greater number of
the former are innocuous.

M. Schlegel has expressed the opinion' , that the pelagic serpents are of more peace-

' I have observed a similar distribution in an Indian species of Homalopsis, closely allied to the H. aer,
Sclilegel.

^ The discovery of this gland has shared the fate of many other organs, the functions of which, for want of
inductive reasoning on the part of the discoverers, have been guessed, but never proved. The acme of tliis kind
of discoveries is however afforded by an anatomist, who, on finding a vascular organ in the nasal cavity of some
Mammalia, gravely asserted this to be the seat of the sixth sense. The like assertions, unsupported by any-
thing like proof, prove at the most, a remarkable want of inductive powers in the observer, while they also tend
to show that a knife in expert hands may easily make new discoveries, the merit of which is solely due to the
philosopher who tests and proves the truth — which is beyond the keenest knife.

' " Cependant, il existe des serpens tant veuimeux qu' inoffensifs, qui ne font presque jamais usage de leurs
armes pour se defendre centre leur aggresseur : tels sont parmi les premiers, les Hydrophis," &c.— -Essai sur la
Physionomie des Serpens, Partie G^n^rale, p. 94.

" II parait que les Hydrophis ont des moeurs plus douces, que la plupart des serpens veuimeux," &c. — Partie
Descriptive, p. 493.

DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS. 307

able disposition than the greater number of terrestrial venomous serpents, and on the
authority of several naturahsts, has arrived at the erroneous conclusion, that these ani-
mals are of a nature but little ferocious. An assertion like this, in a work devoted to
the natural history of serpents, may easily mislead travellers, who, by carelessly hand-
Img animals provided with weapons of the most dangerous description, are, if wounded
certain to pay with the loss of life for their temerity. I must therefore, from my own
experience, assert that those species, which I have observed in the Bay of Bengal and
the Gangetic estuaries, are of very ferocious habits, as well in as out of water. In the
latter case they attempt to bite the nearest objects, nay, even like the vipers Najas
and Bungari, turn round and wound their own bodies, from which I often found some
difficulty in disengaging the fangs and teeth. When removed from the sea they become
blinded, by the light contracting the pupil, which, in addition to the difficulty which
they experience whilst attempting to support their sharply-keeled bodies on dry land,
render then their movements just as uncertain and maladroit as they are nimble and
swift in their own element. To corroborate the truth of my statement, I shall refer
to the record in the Asiatic Researches, of a number of accidents at Madras, caused by
the venom of pelagic serpents, and also to a later melancholy occurrence which took
place in the latter part of 1837, on board of Her Majesty's Brig Algerine, while in Ma-
dras Roads, where the unfortunate victim expired within four hours of the infliction of
the wound'.

The breeding season of the Hyclrophis schistosa and striata occurs in the months of
February and March, during which period I observed numerous pairs, with their poste-
rior extremities twisted round each other, floating near the surface of the sea, each now
and then making a slow undulating movement with the free anterior part of the body.

The female is ovo-viviparous ; in H. gracilis Dr. Russell discovered by dissection nine
young ones ; in a gravid H. schistosa I observed seven eggs, each containing a developed
foetus, while eleven such were found by a gentleman in another, thrown on shore on the
Tenasserim coast.

The time of gestation I have not been able to ascertain ; if that of the Homalopsis
might serve as a guide, I should fix upon a period of about seven months.

Dr. Russell has observed, that none of these serpents are able to live out of their ele-
ment, either when confined in sea-water or in fresh. Such as I have kept in jars filled
with salt water all died in the course of two or three days. They were in the habit of
occupying the bottom, occasionally raising their head over the surface, to breathe, and
would repeatedly throw out the tongue against the wall of the jar.

From dissections, it would appear that the young serpents exclusively feed upon

' This serpent, a si.N-feet long specimen of Hydrophis mgrocincta. Schlegel, has been deposited in the United
Serrice Museum.

2s2

308 DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS.

small pelagic Crustacea, while the adult ones prey upon fishes of the following kind, all
of which were found with their heads towards the bottom of the stomach :

Percid.e.

Polynemus quadrifilis, Cuvier.

Sillago acuta, Cuvier.
Sci.i:nid.e.

Scifena pama, Cuvier.

Corvina nigrocaudata, Cantor's MSS.

MUGILID.E.

Mugil corsula, Hamilton.

SiLURID.E.

Bagrus aor, Cuvier.

Pimelodus gulio, Hamilton.

— ■ — ■ — pangasius, Hamilton.

? Vana motta, Russell, No. CLXXI. ' Bummaloh.'

CLUPEID.E.

Clupea affinis, (Hardwicke's ' Indian Zoologj'.')

Tlie SiluridcE, which appear to be the favourite food, are all ground fish. Through
the clear water of the tanks and streamlets cut across the rice-fields, I have often ob-
served the Tropidonotus dora, Russell, H. No. V., one of the most common of the in-
nocuous serpents in Bengal, lying in ambush at the bottom, with the head against the
stream, behind some object sufficiently large to hide the animal, until chance brings a
passing fish near enough, when the enemy darts upon the prey, before it is able to resort
to flight ; from which I should conclude a similar mode is pursired by the pelagic ser-
pents, when in search of food at the bottom of the sea or estuaries.

From M. Peron's observations, the sharks appear to be the natural enemies of the
pelagic serpents : in two fishing eagles (Halitetus) which were shot in the Gangetic Delta
I found remains of these serpents in the stomach.

The process of changing the integuments appears to occur very frequently, and du-
rin°- all seasons, when the skin comes off in pieces, as in the larger kind of terrestrial
serpents ; whereas the Homalopsis and Cerberus, although aquatic, shed the integuments

entire.

The terrestrial serpents are known to be infested with parasitic insects {Ixodes').
I have observed animals attaching themselves in great numbeis to the pelagic. Unhke,
however, the former parasites, which derive their nourishment from the animals upon
which they are found, the latter derive no more nourishment from the pelagic serpents
than they would from the rocks or any other objects the sea might offer as places of

> Ixodes ophiophilus. Vide Nov. Act. Acad. L. C. Nat. Cur. Tom. xv. Pars 11"". p. 233.

DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS. 309

fixture. Unlike the Ixodes, their nature is such, that when once fixed, they have no
power to loose their hold and move from one place to another.

Of the two species of Anatifa figured, I constantly found numbers of the one (PI. LVI.
Fig. 8.) firmly adhering to the integuments of the Hydrophis schistosa, Schlegel, and the
other (Fig. 9.) to those of the H. nigrocincta, Schlegel. The serpents are freed from
these parasites as often as the integuments are changed. To Dr. Grant, who has
kindly inspected some specimens in spirits of wine, I am indebted for the following ob-
servations.— In the young state of the Cirrhipeds, they float freely in the ocean, hke the
young Monoculi of Linne, which they much resemble, and thus they come in' contact
with the pelagic serpents. The Anatifa found in this situation are, judging from their
small size, very young animals, and the constantly-changing of the serpents' integu-
ments is most probably the cause of their never being found of a larger size. The cir-
cumstance of the two distinct species accompanying two distinct species of serpents,
cannot depend upon a voluntary action of the parasite, which, as above stated, derives
no nourishment from the serpent ; but must be attributed to diff-erence of" habitat, and
thus very likely may indicate a diff-erence in the habits of the two species of serpents.
The latter remark also holds good as regards the Zoophyte (PI. LVI. Fig. 10.), great
numbers of which were attached to the Hydrophis gracilis, Schlegel. It is a Ce'uepora,
which Dr. Grant observes bears some resemblance to the Cellepora pertusa, Esper. ' The
animals are very small, and are found together in great numbers, each animal contained
in a calcareous transparent campanulate cell, dotted with dark brown. The poli/pi of
this Zoophyte appear to be highly irritable, as a slight touch either on the microscope or
the table upon which it was placed, made them instantaneously withdraw the tentacula.

Experiments.

The virulence of the venom of the pelagic serpents upon the human body is equal to
that of the most pernicious terrestrial serpents ; and the experiments of Dr. Russell and
those which I have had opportunity of instituting myself, tend to prove the deleterious
effects to be equal upon such animals as have been submitted to trial. I therefore can-
not subscribe to the opinion of M. Schlegel, that wounds inflicted by the pelagic ser-
pents are less dangerous than those of some of the terrestrial venomous species',''on ac-
count of the venomous weapons being more developed in the latter^ The following

' Esper, • Pflanzenthiere,' Cellepora, Tab. X.

« • J'ai lieu de croire que la morsure des serpens v^nimeux proprement dits est plus dangereuse que

celle des v^nimcux colubriformes et des serpens de mer. ik cause de la puissance des armes dont les premiers
sont mums." Schlegel, Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens, Partie Gen^rale, p. 36.

' Mr. Hodgson, the Hon. Company's Resident at the Court of Nipal, whose labours in the Himalayan
Zoology are weU known to all naturaUsts, speaking of the Cofihias viridis. Mcrrem, {Tngomcephalus viridh
Schlegel.) writes me, in a letter dated July 18, 1837, ....'■ We have only that one noxious species, and I have

310 DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS.

experiments were made on board the Hon. Company's surveying brig ' Meriton,' during
the latter part of 1836 and the commencement of 1837.

A Hydrophis schistosa, measuring 4' 2" in length, was made to bite a fowl on the in-
side of the left thigh. The bird immediately couched, and made several unsuccessful
attempts to rise. Four minutes after being bitten, it was seized with purging, and slight
spasms of the whole body ; the eyes were closed, the pupil immoveable, dilated, and a
quantity of saliva was discharged. The fowl expired in violent spasms eight minutes
from the time it was wounded.

Another fowl, bitten in the right thigh, immediately after the former, by the same
serpent, expired under similar symptoms in less than ten minutes after it had received
the wound.

By dissection half an hour after death, I found in both of the birds a slight extrava-
sation of blood where the fangs had penetrated, and a little bloody lymph under
the skin covering the wounds ; but besides this 1 was not able to observe anything
anormal.

A fowl wounded in the same place as the former by a Hydrophis nigrocincta, 2' 3" in
length, expired within seven minutes in violent spasms.

Of two other fowls successively bitten in the same place as the former by a Hydrophis
striata, 3' 1" long, the one was killed in eight, the other in eleven minutes, under simi-
lar symptoms.

A Hydrophis schistosa, 2' 9" in length, bit a good-sized Trionyx Gangeticus' in the lip.
Five minutes after, the Tortoise commenced rubbing the bitten part with his fore paws,
and continued this manoeuvre for some time ; about sixteen minutes from the time he
was bitten he became paralysed, and unable to make use of the legs, and remained mo-
tionless, w^ith the eyes closed. When forcibly opened, the pupils appeared immoveable
and dilated. With a few spasmodic movements the Tortoise expired, twenty-eight mi-
nutes after the wound was inflicted. With the exception of the bitten part being some-
what swollen, nothing anormal appeared by the dissection.

Another Trionyx, wounded in the same place as the former by a Hydrophis striata,
nearly three feet in length, manifested similar symptoms, and was killed in forty-six
minutes.

A Coluber catenularis, Daudin", measuring nearly 3 feet and a half in length, was
wounded in the abdomen, a little before the heart, by a Hydrophis nigrocincta of about

never heard of a fatal case from its bite, although I have seen a maa suiFer fearfully from swelling and pain.
The fangs and the venomous gland of this very species are as fully developed as they are in the Crotali, the Vi-
pers, or Indeed in any of the venomous serpents, and yet the effects are less far dreadful than those produced
by the Naja or the Hydrophis, notwithstanding the less-developed venomous organs of the latter."

' The Trionyx Gangeticus is not unfrequently found in the Bay of Bengal, entirely beyond the influence of the
fresh-water stream of the Ganges. I mention this fact, as I believe the Genus Trionyx is generally supposed to
be confined to rivers (fresh water).

5 Tar Tutta, Russell, I. No. XV.; Col. trigonata, Schneider; Dipsas trigonala, Schlegel.

DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS. 311

the same size, whose fangs remained for more than half a minute in the wounds. Three
minutes after being disengaged from the enemy the Coluber commenced showing sym-
ptoms of the venom by rolling from one side to another, which having lasted for about
four minutes, he remained motionless for a few minutes, when he tried to move with the
anterior part of the body. By this time the tail, and subsequently the posterior part
of the body, became paralysed, which parts would retain any position I might give them
with the end of a stick. Sixteen minutes from the time when the wounds were in-
flicted, the serpent commenced yawning and distorting the mouth during short inter-
vals, which ended in a protracted separation of the jaws, and within half an hour after
having been bitten, the serpent expired.

A large-sized Tetraodon potoca, Hamilton, was bitten in the under Up by a Hydrophis
schistosa, measuring about four feet in length, and immediately after set at hberty in a
tub with sea-water. The fish continued swimming lively, and, as usual, on the back,
the abdomen being inflated for about three minutes, when the abdomen gradually com-
menced to collapse, notwithstanding the efforts of the fish to prevent it. He kept thus
floating on his back until, after a few violent movements of the tail, he expired, ten
minutes after being wounded. It ought to be observed, I have kept living specimens
of the Tetraodon for a considerable time confined in sea-water ; and besides, I found them
able to live a considerable time out of their element ; I feel convinced therefore that the
present fish, caught at the same time as the serpent, was killed by the virulence of the
venom, although the dissection showed nothing anormal, and I should not have been
able to discover where the fish had been bitten had I not previously known the place.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
PLATE LVI.

Hydrophis gracilis, Schlegel (young, nat. size), of which Russell has given an indiflTerent
figure. Ind. Serp. i. No. XLIV. ' Tatta Pam.'

Fig. 1.&2. Integuments of the head. (Magnified.)
3. Scales of the neck. (Magnified.)

4. trunk. (Magnified.)

5. Section of the neck. 1

6. trunk. > (Nat. size.)

7. tail. J

8. Young Anatifa found on Hydrophis schistosa.

8 a. The same, natural size.

9. Young Anatifa found on Hydrophis nigrocincta.

9 a. The same, natural size.

312 DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS.

10. Cellcpora found on Hydrophis gracilis.
10 a. The same, natural size.

PLATE LVII.

fig. 1. Dissection of a young Hydrophis schistosa, Schlegel (reduced one half) . The
viscera, which in the sketch are brought out of situs so as to be seen, he in
the following order. By opening the abdominal cavity, the cesophacjus, the
stomach, and the intestinal canal, cover entirely the other organs, of which
the trachea and the lung lie uppermost, in immediate contact with the ver-
tebral column.

a. CEsophagus.

b. The stomach. The total length of the wsophagus and the stomach is

about 2' 4" ; that of the intestinal canal 4' 6".

c. Duodenum.

d. Rectum.

e. The heart.
/, The liver.
g. Pancreas.

h. The gall-bladder.
i. The spleen.
k. The kidney.
I. The trachea,
m. The lung. Total length of the trachea and the lung, 3' 2" 6'".

2. (Nat. size.)

«. The hepatic duct.
6. The gall-bladder.

c. Pancreas.

d. Duodenum.

3. (Nat. size.) Internal surface of that part of the lung which receives the

trachea.

4. Hydrophis schistosa. Lateral view of the venomous organs and surrounding

parts. (Magnitied.)

a. Temporalis anterior.

b. Temporalis medius.
c. posterior.

d. Digastricus.

e. Tendo articulo-maxillaris, spreading its fibres over the sac covering the

venomous gland.

DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS. 313

/. Pterygoideus externus.
g, g. Salivary glands.
Fig. 5. The venomous gland detaclied. (Magnified.)

6. The same, longitudinally cut through.

7. Skull of Hydrophis schistosa (young) . Magnified.

8. Lateral view of the same.

9. Lateral view of the skull of Hydrophis striata (adult). Magnified.

(The straight lines denote the natural size of the skulls.)

VOL. II. PART rv. 2t

N":

■■>..„.. .. ,../,. /,.,- './,z..y^i,oXj,. j/4c

.—d

[ 315 ]

XXII. Outlines of a Classification of the Marsupialia. By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S.,
Sfc, Hunferian Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Communicated January 8th, 1839.

1 HE present essay is offered as an introduction to a series of observations tending to
establish the species of Marsupial animals on anatomical, and principally on osteological
characters.

Whoever has been led to compare an unknown or doubtful Marsupial with the brief
notices of a few external peculiarities, on which many nominal species have been
founded, must have felt the want of more detailed and surer grounds of comparison.

M. Temminck, in his Monograph of the genus Phalangista, has left nothing to desire
in this respect ; and the figures of the crania and other parts of the skeleton with which
his zoological descriptions are illustrated, have been of essential service in establishing,
and enabling subsequent naturalists to recognize, the species of that subdivision of the
genus which is distributed chiefly through the Indian Archipelago.

The philosophic use which the celebrated naturalist of Leyden has made of the rich
collections at his disposal is well worthy of imitation ; and I propose to apply the mate-
rials which I already possess, and those that may hereafter be afforded me by the en-
lightened travellers and collectors in Australia, to illustrate in a similar manner the Mar-
supial genera which are peculiar to that continent.

Before, however, pointing out the particulars by which the skeleton of one species
differs from another, some general remarks on those osteological pecuUarities which
characterize the Marsupialia as a distinct group of Mammals, seems to be called for ; and
to these general observations I here premise an outline of a classification of the Marsu-
pial animals which has had its origin in an endeavour to express in general propositions
the more important facts relative to their organization.

As the Australian continent, the great metropolis of the Marsupial quadrupeds, still
remains but very partially explored ; and since new species and even genera of Mar-
supials continue at each expedition to reward the researches of the scientific traveller ;
and as moreover the recovery of two lost but distinct genera from the ruins of a former
world makes it reasonable to suppose that other types of Marsupials remain still hidden
in the crust of the earth, it can hardly be expected that the zoologist should be able to
arrange in a natural series, with easy transitions according to the order of their affini-
ties, the few and diversified forms of tliis implacental subclass which are now known.

2t2

316 PROF. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

In the present classification the modifications of the digestive system have been taken
as the guide to the formation of the primary groups of the Marsupialia.

The continent, however, in which the Marsupials exist in greatest number and va-
riety is characterized by the paucity of organized matter upon its surface, and few of
the species, consequently, are nourished by a very well-defined diet. Any large carni-
vorous quadruped could with difficulty have found subsistence in the wilds of Australia
prior to the introduction of civilized man and his attendant herds : and we find, in fact,
that the native genera which are the most decidedly carnivorous, do not include species
larger than the dog : we can only reckon among these strictly carnivorous species the
Thylacines and the Dasyures ; and, on the other hand, not more than two or three Mar-
supial genera feed exclusively on vegetable substances. The remainder derive a pro-
miscuous nutriment from dead or decaying animal and vegetable matter, Crustacea, and
the refuse of the sea-shore, insects in their peifect and larva states, live birds, young and
succulent sprouts, leaves, fruits, &c. The terms, therefore, which will be given to the
different primary subdivisions in the present classification of the Marsupialia must not
be understood to indicate strictly or exclusively the nature of the food of the species
severally included in these groups, but rather their general tendency to select for their
support the substances implied by those designations.

Tribe I. SARCOPHAGA.

The genera in this tribe are the most decidedly carnivorous of all the Marsupialia, and
are characterized by an important anatomical condition, viz. the absence of an intesti-
num cacum.

Genus 1. Thylacinus.

Incisors |^ ; canines ^^ ; praemolars' g=g ; molars |=| : = 46.

The incisors are of equal length, and regularly arranged in the segment of a circle
with an interspace in the middle of the series of both jaws. The external incisor on
each side is the strongest.

The laniary or canine teeth are long, strong, curved, and pointed, like those of the
dog tribe.

The spurious molars are of a simple, compressed, conical form, each with two roots ;
the last with a small additional posterior cusp. The true molars in the upper jaw are
unequally triangular with three tubercles. Those in the lower jaw are compressed, tricus-
pidate, the middle cusp being the longest, especially in the two last molars, which re-
semble closely the sectorial teeth (dens carnassiers) of the Dog and Cat.

' I apply this term, for the sake of brevity, to the teeth usually called ' spurious' or ' false molars,' — the
iicuspides of human anatomy ; they are always situated anterior to the true molars.

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. 317

The fore-feet are 5-digitate, the hind feet 4-digitate. On the fore foot the middle
digit is the longest, the internal one or pollex the shortest, but the difference is slight.
On the hind foot the two middle toes are of nearly equal length, and longer than the
two lateral toes, which are equal. All the toes are armed with strong, blunt, and
almost straight claws. The only known species of this genus, the Thylacine {Thylacinus
Harrisii, Temm., Didelphys Cynocephalus, Harris), is a native of Van Diemen's Land,
and is called by the colonists the ' Hyaena.'

Genus Dasyurus.
Incisors -^ ; canines r^y ; premolars -r^ ; molars ^^ : = 42.

o — o 1 — 1 2 — 2 4 — 4

The eight incisors of the upper jaw are of the same length and simple structure, and
are arranged in a regular semicircle without any middle interval : the six incisors of
the lower jaw are similarly arranged but have thicker crowns than the upper ones. The
canines present the same or even a greater relative development than in the Thylacine -.
in an extinct species oi Dasyurus' they present the same form and relative proportions,
as in the Leopard. The spurious molars have two fangs and a pointed compressed tri-
angular crown with a rudimental tubercle at the anterior and posterior part of its base.
The grinding surface of the true molars in the upper jaw is triangular ; the first pre-
sents four sharp cusps, the second and third each five, the fourth, which is the smallest,
only three. In the lower jaw the last molar is nearly of equal size with the penultimate
one, and is bristled with four cusps, the external one being the longest ; the second and
third molars have five cusps, three on the inner and two on the outer side ; the first
molar has four cusps : these are all sharply pointed in the young animal, in which the
tubercle of the posterior molar of the lower jaw is divided into two small cusps.

The carnivorous character of the above dentition is most strongly marked in the
Dasyurus laniarius, Ursine Dasyure, or Devil of the Tasmanian colonists, the largest ex-
isting species of the genus, and a most destructive animal in the poultry yard or larder.

Genus Phascogale.
Incisors -^ ; canines r^ ; praemolars -^ ; molars z — -, : = 46.

o — o 1 — 1 o — u 4 — 4

In the present dental formula may be discerned a step in the transition from the Da-
syures to the Opossums, not only in the increased number of spurious molars, but also in
the shape and proportions of the incisors. In the upper jaw the two middle incisors are
longer than the rest, and separated from them by a brief interval ; they are more curved,
and project more forward. Tlie three lateral incisors diminish in size to the outermost.
The middle incisors of the lower jaw also exceed the lateral ones in size, and project

' Dasyurus laniarius, mihi : the fossil remains of this species were discovered with the remains of two gigantic
species of Kangaroo in the bone-caves of Wellington \'aUej', Australia, by Major, now Sir Thomas, Mitchell.

318 PROF. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

bej'ond them but not in the same degree, nor are they separated from them by an in-
ten'al as in the upper jaw. The canines are relatively smaller than in the Dasyures.
The spurious molares present a similar form, but the third is much smaller and simpler
than the two preceding ones. The true molars resemble in their structure those of the
Dasyures. The general character of the dentition of these small Marsupials approxi-
mates to the insectivorous type as exhibited in the Shrew, Hedgehog, &c., among the
placental Mammalia ; and corresponds with the food and habits of the species which thus
lead from the Zoophagous to the Entomophagoiis tribes.

Other links which once bound these tribes more closely together are now lost, and
are indicated only by the few fossil remains which have rendered the Stonesfield oolite
so celebrated. One of these extinct genera, which I have called Phascolotherium, pre-
sents the same numerical dental formula, apparently, as in the Thylacinus and Phasco-
gale ; but, if another incisor existed in each ramus of the lower jaw, as seems to be in-
dicated by the fossil, then the dentition would agree with that of the genus Didelphys.

Incisors ^^ ; canines ^^^T > premolars ^-^ ; molars ^^.

or
4—4

The incisors and canines are separated by vacant interspaces, and occupy a large

proportion of the dental series : the true molars resemble those of Thylacinus.

Tribe II. ENTOMOPHAGA.

This is the most extensive and varied of the primary groups of the Marsupial order.
In the system of Cuvier, the species of this tribe are united with those of the preceding
to form a single group characterized by the presence of long canines and small incisors
in both jaws ; but in most of the Entomophagous genera of the present classification, the
canines present a marked inferiority of development, and the species are consequently
imable to cope with animals of their own size and grade of organization, but prey, for
the most part, upon the smaller and weaker classes of invertebrate animals. Their in-
testinal canal is complicated by a moderately long and large cacum; and, while in the
Sarcophaga, the feet are constructed, as in the ordinary placental Digitigrades, they pre-
sent in the present tribe a variety of well-marked modifications, according to which the
species may be arranged into ambulatory, saltatory, and scansorial groups.

a. AmBULATORIA.

The only known existing representative of this family is the animal described by
Mr. Waterhouse, which constitutes the type of his genus Myrmecohius, of which the fol-
lowing is the remarkable dental formula :

Incisors g— ^ ; canines y^ ; prsemolars ^^ ; molars g^ : = 52.

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. 319

From this formula it will be seen, that the number of molars, sixteen in the upper
and eighteen in the lower jaw, exceeds that of any other known existing Marsupial, and
makes an approach to the dentition which characterizes some of the insectivorous
Armadillos. The resemblance to Dasypus is further carried out in the small size of the
molar teeth, their separation from each other by slight interspaces, and their implant-
ation in sockets which are not formed by a well-developed alveolar ridge. The mo-
lars, however, present a distinct tuberculate structure ; and both the true and false ones
possess two separate fangs as in their Marsupial congeners : the crowns of these teeth
are, however, less produced than in any other Marsupials ; for only the triturating tu-
bercles appear above the gum.

The false molars present the usual compressed triangular form, with the apex slightly
recurved, and the base more or less obscurely notched before and behind. The canines
are very little longer than the false molars ; the incisors are minute, sUghtly compressed
and pointed ; they are separated from each other and the canines by wide intervals.

The Myrmecohians are insectivorous, and shelter themselves in the hollows of trees,
frequenting most, it is said, those situations where the Port Jackson Willow abounds. In
the structure and proportions of its hinder feet the Myrmecobius resembles the Dasyurine
femily ; and in the slightly developed canines, the smooth external surface of the skull,
the breadth between the zygomata, and the absence of the interparietal ridges, as well
as in the general external Ibrm and bushy tail, it offers an especial approximation to
the genus Phascoyale.

Intermediate however between Myrmecobius and Phascogale would seem to be the sta-
tion held by the interesting extinct genera above alluded to. In Phascolotherium the
affinity is manifested in the simple form, small size, and straggling disposition of the
incisors and canines : in the other genus, Thylacotherium, it is displayed in the size and
number of its molares.

This, one of the most ancient mammiferous genera hitherto discovered, presents
ten molars on each side of the lower jaw, which resemble in structure and close ar-
rangement those of Phascogale and Didelphis, while they are intermediate in their pro-
portional size to the teeth of these genera and Myrmecobius. The exact condition of the
incisors and canines of the Thylacotherium has not yet been displayed in the fossil jaws
which have been discovered.

/3. Saltatoria.
Genus Perameles (Bandicoots).

Incisors ^^ ; canines r^ ; prjemolars -^ ; molars -j^ : = 48.

3_3' l_l ' 1- 3—3^

This dental formula characterizes a number of Marsupials commonly known in Au-
stralia by the name of Bandicoots ; the hind legs are longer and stronger than the
fore, and exhibit in a well-marked manner the feeble and slender condition of the se-

320 PROF. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

cond and third digits counting from the inside, and the sudden increase in length and
strength of the third and fourth digits, which are chiefly subservient to locomotion.
In consequence of the inequality of length in their extremities, the mode of progression
in the Bandicoots is by bounds ; the hind and fore-feet being moved alternately as in
the Hare and Rabbit ; and the crupper is raised higher than the fore quarter. The teeth
which offer the greatest range of variation in the present genus are the external or pos-
terior incisors and the canines : the molars, also, which originally are quinque-cuspi-
date, have their points worn away, and present a smooth and oblique grinding surface
in some species sooner than in others.

The Bandicoots which approach nearest to the Myrmecobius in the condition of the
incisive and canine teeth are the Perameles obesula and P. Gnnnii. There is a slight
interval between the first and second incisor, and the outer or fifth incisor of the upper
jaw is separated from the rest by an interspace equal to twice its own breadth, and
moreover presents the triangular, pointed, canine-like crown which characterizes all the
incisors of Myrmecobius ; but the four anterior incisors are closely arranged together and
have compressed, quadrate, true incisive crowns. From these incisors the canine is
very remote, the interspace being equally divided by the fifth pointed incisor, which
the canine very slightly exceeds in size. In Peram. nasuta the incisor presents the same
general condition, but the canines are relatively larger.

The marsupial pouch in the Bandicoots, at least in the full-grown females of Per. na-
suta, Per. obesula, and Per. Lagotis, has its orifice directed downwards or towards the
cloaca, contrariwise to its ordinary disposition in the Marsupials : this direction evidently
relates to the position of the trunk when supported on the short fore and long hind legs.
In the stomach and intestines of a Perameles nasuta Dr. Grant found only the remains
of insects ; and in the examination of the alimentary canal of a Per. obesula I obtained
the same results. Nevertheless the Perameles Lagotis now living in the Society's Me-
nagerie refuses meat and meal-worms, and subsists on vegetable food exclusively.

Genus Charopus.

The singular animal on which Mr. Ogilby has founded this genus is briefly noticed
and figured in Major Mitchell's Australia, (vol. ii. pi. 38. p. 131.) and the individual
described is preserved in the Colonial Museum, at Sydney, N. S. Wales, (No. 3.5. of Mr.
George Bennett's Catalogue). It would appear that the two outer toes of the fore foot,
which are always very small in the true Bandicoots, are entirely deficient in the Chcero-
pus, unless some rudiments should exist beneath the skin ; at all events only two toes
are apparent externally, but they are so developed and armed as to be serviceable for
burrowing or progression. The inner toe is wanting on the hind foot. Dental formula :

Incisors -^ ; canines t^t ; praemolars '-^ ; molars -^ : = 46.

All the teeth are of small size ; the canines resemble the spurious molares in size and

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. 321

Shape, and these are separated by intervals, as in Myrmecobius. The marmpium opens
downwards m the Clueropm, as in tlie true Bandicoots. The species described has no
tail, riie genus would seem by its dentition to rank between Myrmecobius and Peru-
meies. Its digital characters are anomalous and uuique among the Marsupialia.

■y. ScANSORIA.

Genus Didelphys (Opossums).
These Marsupials are now exclusively confined to the American Continents, a'though
the fossil remains of a small species attest the former existence of the genus Didelphys
in Europe contemporaneously with the Palceothere, Anoplothere, and other extinct Pa-
chyderms whose fossil remains characterize the Eocene strata of the Paris Basin The
dental formula of the genus Didelphys is,

Incisors J^ ; canines J=l ; prsmolars g ; molars \-\ -. = 50.

The Opossums resemble in their dentition the Bandicoots more than the Dasyures
except in the structure of the molares.

The two middle incisors of tlie upper jaw are more produced than the others, from
which they are separated by a short interspace. The canines are well developed the
upper being always stronger than the lowei. The false molars are simply conical but
more compressed than in the Zoophagous Marsupials. The posterior false molar is the
largest in the upper jaw ; the middle one is the largest of the three in the lower ■ the
anterior one is the smallest in both jaws : in the upper jaw it is separated from the
middle false molar by a short interspace, and the same character occurs in the lower
jaw in Didelphys Virginiana ; but in the species Cancrivora, Crassicaudata, Nudicaudata
Opossum, and others, this diastema is very slightly marked, or is wanting. A small
accessory posterior cusp, and sometimes, though rarely, a still smaller anterior cusp are
added to the base of the principal compressed cone, which forms the crown of the sou
nous molars. The sharp cusps of the true molars wear down into tubercles as the
animal advances in age.

The true molars in the upper jaw present a triangular horizontal section : in the
posterior molar the base of the triangle is directed forwards ; in the rest one side of the
.-.angle looks outwa.-ds ; another forwards, at right angles to the preceding; and the
third oblKjuely inwards and backwards. The triturating surface of the cr^wn in re-
cently for.ned teeth is bristled with several sharp tubercles, of which the largest rises
from the middle of the poste.ior side, and others at each of the angles of the crown ■
there are smaller tubercles intermediate to these. The posterior molar is smaller than
the rest, and has fewer tubei-cles. In the lower jaw the true molars are narrower of
more equal s.ze than in the upper: the.e are five tubercles on each, four in two t.a'ns.
verse pairs, the anterior being the highest, and a fifth forming the anterior and internal
angle of the tooth : the anterior and external angle seems as if it were vertically cut off.

VOL. II. PAKT IV. 2 V

322 PROF. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

In the Didelphys Yapock, — the type of the subgenus Cheironectes, — the anterior ex-
tremities, besides being web-footed, present an unusual development of the pisiform
bone, which supports a fold of the skin, like a sixth digit ; it has indeed been described,
as such, by M. Temminck ; this process has not of course any nail. The dentition of
the Yapock resembles that of the ordinary Didelphys. AH the Opossums have the inner
digit of the hind foot converted by its position and development into a thumb, but with-
out a claw. The hinder hand is associated in almost all the species with a scaly pre-
hensile tail.

In some of the smaller Opossums the subabdominal tegumentary folds are rudimental,
or merely serve to conceal the nipples, and are not developed into a pouch ; the young
in these species adhere to the mother by entwining their little prehensile tails around
hers, and cling to the fur of the back ; hence the term dorsigera applied to one of these
Opossums'.

Tribe III. CARPOPHAGA.
Stomach simple ; cacum very long.

In this family, the teeth, especially those at the anterior part of the mouth, present
considerable deviations from the previously described formulte ; the chief of which is a
predominating size of the two anterior incisors, both in the upper and lower jaws.
Hitherto we have seen that the dentition in every genus has participated more or less
of a carnivorous character ; henceforth it will manifest a tendency to the Rodent type.

The Phalangers, so called from the phalanges of the second and third digits of the
hinder extremities being inclosed in a common sheath of integument, have the innermost
digit modified, to answer the purposes of a thumb ; and the hinder hand being associated
in many of the species with a prehensile tail, they evidently, of all Frugivora, come near-
est to the arboreal species of the preceding section. In a sjstem framed on locomotive
characters they would rank in the same section with the Opossums. We have seen,
however, that they differ from those Entomophagous Marsupials greatly in the condition
of the intestinal tube. Let us examine to what extent the dental characters deviate
from those of the Opossums.

In the skull of a Phalangisia Cookii, now before me, there are both in tlie upper and
lower jaw four true molars on each side, each beset with four three-sided pyramidal
sharp-pointed cusps ; thus these essential and most constant teeth correspond in number
■with those of the Opossum : but in the upper jaw they differ in the absence of the in-
ternal cusp, which gives a triangular figure to the grinding surface of the molars in

' Few facts would b6 more interesting in the present branch of zoology than the condition of the new-born
young, and their degree and mode of uterine development in these Ojjofsiims. Since the marsupial bones serve
not, as is usually described, to support a pouch, but to aid in the function of the mammary glands and tcstea,
they of course arc present in the skeleton of these small pouchless Opossums, as in the more typical Marsupials.

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. ^3

the Opossum ; and the anterior single cusp is wanting in the true molars of the lower
jaw.

Anterior to the grinders in the Phalanrjer, there are two spurious molars, of similar
shape and proportions to those in the Opossum ■ then a third spurious molar, too small
to he of any functional importance, separated also, like the corresponding anterior false
molar in the Opossum, by a short interval from those behind.

The canine tooth but slightly exceeds in size the above false molar, and consequently
here occurs the first great difference between the Phalangers and Opossums ■ it is how-
ever only a difference in degree of development ; and in the Ursine and other Phalangers,
as well as in the Petaurists, the corresponding tooth presents more of the proportions
and form of a true canine.

The incisors, which we have seen to be most variable in number in the carnivorous
section, are here three instead of five on each side, in the upper jaw; but their size,
especially that of the first, compensates for their fewness.

In the lower jaw, there is the same number of true molars and of functional false
molars, which form a continuous and tolerably equable series, as in the Opossums, on
each side ; then two very minute and rudimental teeth on each side represent the small
spurious molar, and small canine of the upper jaw; and anterior to these, there is one
very small and one very large and procumbent incisor on each side.

The constant teeth in this group are ^ true molars, and g incisors. The
canines J=J are constant in regard to their presence, but variable in size ; they are al-
ways minute in the lower jaw. With respect to the spurious molars, J^J, they are
always in contact with the true grinders, and their crowns reach to the same grinding
level ; sometimes a second spurious molar is similarly developed on each side of both
jaws, as in the Phal. Cooldi, and as in all the flying Phalarujers, or Petaurists ; but in
other Phalangers it is absent or replaced by a very minute tooth, shaped like a'canine :
so that between the posterior spurious grinder and the incisors we may find three teeth,
of which the posterior is the largest, as in Phal. Cooldi; or the smallest, as in Phal.
cavifrons ; or there may be only two teeth, as in Phal. ursina and Phal. vulpina, and the
species, whatever that may be, which Fr. Cuvier has selected as the type of the den-
tition of this Genus.

In the lower jaw similar varieties occur in these small and unimportant teeth ; e. g.
there may be between the procumbent incisors and the posterior false molar, either four
teeth, as in Phal. Cookii; or three, as in Phal. cavifrons; or two, as in Phal. ursina,
Phal. maculata, Phal. chrysorrhoos ; or lastly, one, as in Phal. vulpina, and Phal.fuligi'-
nosa.

The most important modification is presented by the little Phal. gliriformis of Bell,
which has only three true molars on each side of each jaw.

2 u 2

324 PROF. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

Genus Pefaurus.

There are many species of Marsupials limited to Australia, and closely resembling or
identical with the true Phalangers in their dental characters and the structure of the
feet. I allude to the Petaurists or Flying Opossums ; these, however, present an exter-
nal character so easily recognizable, and influencing so materially the locomotive facul-
ties, as to claim for it more consideration than the modifications of the digits or spurious
molars, which we have just been considering in the Phalangistee. A fold of the skin
is extended on each side of the body between the fore and hind legs, which, when out-
stretched, forms a lateral wing or parachute, but which, when the legs are in the posi-
tion for ordinary support or progression, is drawn close to the side of the animal by the
elasticity of the subcutaneous cellular membrane, and then forms a tegumentary ridge.
These delicate and beautiful Marsupials have been separated generically from the other
Marsupials under the name of Petaurus' : they further differ from the Phalangers in
wanting the prehensile character of the tail, which in some species oi Petaurus has a
general clothing of long and soft hairs, whilst in others the hairs are arranged in two
lateral series.

Now in the Petaurists there is as little constancy in the exact formula of the dentition
as among the Phalangers. The largest species of Petaurus, Pet. Taguanoides, e. g., is
almost identical in this respect with the Phalangista Cookii, which M. Fr. Cuvier has
therefore classed with the Petauri. Those teeth of Pet. Taguanoides, which are suffi-
ciently developed, and so equal in length, as to exercise the function of grinders, — or in
other words, the functional series of molars, — include six teeth on each side of the upper
jaw, and five teeth on each side of the lower jaw. The four posterior molars in each
row are true, and bear four pyramidal cusps, excepting the last tooth in the upper jaw,
which, as in Phal. Cookii, has only three cusps. In the upper jaw, the space between
the functional false molars and the incisors is occupied by two simple rudimentary teeth,
the anterior representing the canine, but being relatively smaller than in Phal. Cookii.
The crowns of the two anterior incisors are relatively larger. In the lower jaw the
sloping alveolar surface between the functional molars and large procumbent incisors
is occupied, according to M. Fr. Cuvier, by two rudimentary minute teeth : I have not
found any trace of these in the two skulls of Pet. Taguanoides examined by me. In
Phal. Cookii there are three minute teeth in the corresponding space, but these differ-
ences would not be suSicient ground to separate generically the two species if they were
unaccompanied by modifications of other parts of the body. In Petaurus sciureus and
Petaurus flaviventer the dentition more nearly resembles that of Phalangista vulpina.
In the upper jaw the functional molar series consists of five teeth on each side, the four
hinder ones being, as in Pet. Taguanoides, true tuberculate molares, but diminishing

' First by Dr. Shaw in the Naturalist's Miscellany.

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. 325

more rapidly in size, as they are placed further back in the jaw : the hinder tooth has
three tubercles, the rest four ; their apices seem to be naturally blunter than in Pet. Ta-
guanoides. Between the functional false molar and the incisors there are three teeth,
of which the representative of the canine is relatively much larger than in the Pet. Ta-
guanoides ; the first false molar is also larger, and has two roots ; the second, which is
functional in Pet. Taguanoides, is here very small ; the first incisor is relatively larger
and is more produced. In the lower jaw the functional series of grinders consists of
the four true tuberculate molars only, of which the last is relatively smaller, and the
first of a more triangular form than in Pet. Taguanoides. The space between the tu-
berculate molars and the procumbent incisor is occupied by four small teeth, of which
the one immediately anterior to the molars has two roots, the remaining three are ru-
dimentary and have a single fang. Among the species exhibiting this dental formula,

viz., incisors - — '- ; canines — - ; praemolars - — - ; molars -. — : = 40 : are Pet. sciu-

reus, Pet. flaviventev, and Pet. hreviceps.

The Pigmy Petaurist differs from the preceding and larger species in having the hairs
of the tail distichous or arranged into two lateral series like tlie barbs of a feather ; and
in having the spurious molars large and sharply pointed ; and the true molars bristled
each with four acute cusps. This tendency in the dentition to the insectivorous cha-
racter, with the modification of the tail, induced M. Desmarest to separate the Pigmy
Petaurist from the rest of the species, and constitute a new subgenus under the name of
Acrobata.

In four adult specimens, two of which had young in the pouch, I find the follow-
ing dental formula to be constant ; — incisors r^ ; canines r^ ; praemolars -^ ; mo-
lars ?=^ : = 36.

o — o

The important difference in the number of the true molares was first pointed out by
Mr. Waterhouse ; it is analogous to that which obtains in the Phalangista gliriformis,
and renders the parallelism in the modifications of the dental system between the Pha-
langers and Petaurists remarkably close.

The three quadricuspidate grinders of the upper jaw of the Petaurus pygmasus are pre-
ceded by three large spurious molars, each of which has two fangs, and a compressed,
triangular, sharp-pointed crown, slightly but progressively increasing in length, as they
are placed forwards. An interspace occurs between these and the canine, which is
long, slender, sharp-pointed, and recurved. The first incisor is longer than the two
behind, but is much shorter than the canine. In the lower jaw the true molars are
prpceded by two functional false ones, similar in size and shape to the three above ; the
anterior false molar and the canine are represented by minute, rudimental, simple teeth ;
the single incisor is long and procumbent, as in the other Petaurists.

326 PROF. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

Genus Phascolarctus.

The absence of anomalous spurious molars and of inferior canines appears to be con-
stant in the only known species of this genus. The dental formula in three of this

species, [Phase, fuscus Besm.,) is: Incisors j^^ ; canines ---- ; preemolars j^^^j ; mo-
lars 1=^ : = 30.

4 — 4

The true molars are larger in proportion than in the Phalangers ; each is beset witli
lour three-sided pyramids, the cusps of which wear down in age, the outer series in the
upper teeth being the first to give way ; those of the lower jaw are narrower than those
of the upper. The spurious molars are compressed, and terminate in a cutting edge ;
in those of the upper jaw there is a small parallel ridge along the inner side of the base.
The canines slightly exceed in size the posterior incisors ; they terminate in an oblique
cutting edge rather than a point ; their fang is closed at the extremity ; they are situated,
as in the Phalangers, close to the intermaxillary suture. The lateral incisors of the up-
per jaw are small and obtuse, the two middle incisors are of twice the size, conical,
subcompressed, beveled off obliquely to an anterior cutting edge, but differing essentially
from the denies scalprarii of the Rodentia, in being closed at the extremity of the fang.
The two incisors of the lower jaw resemble those of the upper, but are longer and more
compressed : they are also formed by a temporary pulp, and its ossification is accom-
panied by a closure of the aperture of the pulp cavity, as in the upper incisors. The
Koala therefore, in regard to the number, kind, and conformation of its teeth, closely
resembles the Phalangers, with which it agrees in its long cmcxmi, but the stomach has
a cardiac gland as in the Wombat. The extremities of the Koala are organized for
prehension ; each is terminated by five digits ; the hind feet are provided with a large
thumb, and have the two contiguous digits enveloped in the same tegumentary fold ;
the anterior digits are divided into two groups, the thumb and index being opposed to
the other three fingers. The fore-paws have a similar structure in some of the small
Phalangers ; it is very conspicuous in some of the Petaurists. The Koala, however,
differs from the Phalangers and Petaurists in the extreme shortness of its tail and in its
more compact and heavy general form. It is known to feed on the buds and leaves of
the trees in which it habitually resides.

Tribe IV. POEPHAGA.

The present tribe includes the most strictly vegetable feeders ; all the species have a
complex sacculated stomach and a long simple cacum.

Guided by the modifications of the teeth we pass from the Koala to the Kangaroo

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. 327

family {Macropodidai) , — animals of widely different general form. The Potoroos, how-
ever, in this group, present absolutely the same dentition as the Koala, some slight
modifications in the form of certain teeth excepted. The spurious molars, in their
longitudinal extent, compressed form, and cutting edge, would chiefly distinguish the
dentition of the Potoroo, but the Koala evidently offers the transitional structure between
the Phalangers and Potoroos in the condition of these teeth, of which one only is re-
tained on each side of each jaw, in both Phascolarctus and Hypsiprymnus.

The dental formula of the genus Hypsiprymnus is : incisors ^f^ ; canines ~ ; prae-
molars r^ ; molars -^ : = 30.

1 — 1 4 — 4

The two anterior incisors are longer and more curved, the lateral incisors relatively
smaller than in the Koala. The pulps of the anterior incisors are persistent.

The canines are larger than in the Koala ; they always project from the line of the in-
termaxillary suture ; and while the fang is lodged in the maxillary bone, the crown
projects almost wholly from the intermaxillary. In the large Hypsiprymnus ursimts the
canines are relatively smaller than in the other Potoroos, a structure which indicates
the transition from the Potoroo to the Kangaroo genus. In the skeleton of this species
in the Leyden Museum the canines present a longitudinal groove on the outer side.

The characteristic form of the trenchant spurious molar has just been alluded to ; its
maximum of development is attained in the arboreal Potoroos of New Guinea {Hypsi-
prymnus ursinus, and Hyps, dorcocephalus) ; in the latter of which its antero-posterior ex-
tent nearly equals that of the three succeeding molar teeth.

In all the Potoroos the trenchant spurious molar is sculptured, especially on the outer
side and in young teeth, by many small vertical grooves. The true molares each pre-
sent four three-sided pyramidal cusps, but the internal angles of the two opposite cusps
are continued into each other across the tooth, forming two concave transverse ridges.
In the old animal these cusps and ridges disappear, and the grinding surface is worn
quite flat.

In the genus Macropus the normal condition of the permanent teeth may be expressed

/• II • • 3—3 . 0—0 , 1 — 1 , 4 — 4 on

as loUows :• — incisors -— - ; canines ^r— - ; praemolars - — - ; molars t— ^ : = 28.

The main difference, as compared with Hypsiprymnus, lies in the absence of the upper
canines ; yet I have seen them present, but of very small size, and concealed by the
gum, in an adult specimen' of a small species of Kangaroo {Macropus rujicenter, Ogilby.).
This, however, is a rare exception ; while the constant presence and conspicuous size of
the canines will always serve to distinguish the Potoroo from the Kangaroo. But besides
this, there are other differences in the form and proportions of certain teeth.

The upper incisors of the Macropi have their cutting margins on the same line, the

' I have found the germs of the canine teeth in the early mammary /le/u^ of the Great Kangaroo (Macropus
major) .

328 PROF. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

anterior ones not being produced beyond that line as in the Hypsiprymni ; the third or
external incisor is also broader in the Kangaroos, and is grooved and complicated by one
or two folds of the enamel continued from the outer side of the tooth obliquely forwards
and inwards, into the substance of the tooth. In most species the anterior fold is re-
presented by a simple groove ; the relative size of the outer incisor, the extent and po-
sition of the posterior fold of enamel, and consequently the proportions of the part of
the tooth in front or behind it, vary more or less in every species of Macropus : there are
two folds of enamel near the anterior part of the tooth in Macr. major ; the posterior
portion is of the greatest extent, and the entire crown of the tooth is relatively broadest
in this species. The middle incisor is here also complicated with a posterior notch and
an external groove. These modifications of the external incisors have been pointed out
in detail by M- Jourdan ; and subgeneric distinctions have been subsequently based upon
them, but they possess neither sufficient constancy nor physiological consequence, to
justify such an application. M. Fr. Cuvier has proposed a binary division of the genus
Macropus as here defined, founded on the absence of permanent spurious molars' and
a supposed difference in the mode of succession of the true molars in certain species
of Kangaroo, combined with modifications of the muzzle or upper lip, and of the tail.

The dental formula which I have assigned to the genus Macropus is restricted by that
naturalist in its application to some small species of Kangaroo, grouped together under
the term Halmaturus, originally applied by Illiger to the Kangaroos generally. The rest
of the Kangaroos , under the generic term Macropus, are characterized by the following

dental formula : — incisors - ; molars - — - : = 24.

2 4 — 4

The truth, however, is, that both the Halmaturi and Macropi of Fr. Cuvier, have their
teeth developed in precisely the same number and manner ; they only differ in the length
of time during which certain of these teeth are retained. In the great Kangaroo, for ex-
ample, the permanent spurious molar which succeeds the corresponding deciduous one
in the vertical direction, is pushed out of place and shed by the time the last true molar
has cut the gum : the succeeding true molar is soon afterwards extruded ; and I have
seen a skull of an old Macropus major in the Museum at Leyden, in which the grinders
■were reduced to two on each side of each jaw by this yielding of the anterior ones to the
vis a tergo of their successors.

' M. Fr. Cuvier was aware that a deciduous spurious molar existed in the great Kanyai-oo and other species
of his subgenus Macropus, but he believed that it was peculiar to an early period of life, and then existed only
in a rudiinental state or ' en germe,' and that instead of being displaced and succeeded in the vertical direction
by a permanent spurious molar, as in the Halmaturi. it was displaced by the true molars, which are developed
from behind forwards. I have however detected the crown of the permanent spurious molar in the jaws of the
Macropus major in a concealed alveolus, and have observed it completely formed and in place in an individual
which had nearly attained its full size. See F. Cuvier's account of the Halmaturus Thetis in the ' Histoire des
Mammiferes,' folio.

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. 329

Tribe V. RHIZOPHAGA.

The characters of this tribe are taken from the stomach, which is simple in outward
form, but complicated within by a large cardiac gland ; and from the ceecum, which is
short and wide, with a vermiform appendage.

Genus Phascolomys.
In its heavy shapeless proportions, large trunk, and short equably developed legs, the
Wombat offers as great a contrast to the Kangaroos as does the Koala, which it most
nearly resembles in its general outward form and want of tail. But in the more im-
portant characters afforded by the teeth and intestinal canal the Wombat differs more
from the Koala than this does from either the Phalangers or Kangaroos. The dental
system presents the extreme degree of that degradation of the teeth intermediate be-
tween the front incisors and true molars which we have been tracing from the Opos-
sum to the Kangaroos : not only have the functionless spurious molars and canines
now totally disappeared, but also the posterior incisors of the upper jaw, which we have
seen in the Potoroos to exhibit a feeble degree of development as compared with the
anterior pair ; these in fact are alone retained in the dentition of the present group, which
possesses the fewest teeth of any Marsupial animal. The dental formula of the Wombat
is thus reduced to that of the true Rodentia' :

Incisors '- ; canines 5 ; prsemolars ]=\ -. molars 1~1 : = 24.

d O "^ 1 — 1 4 — 4

The incisors, moreover, are true denies scalprarii, with persistent pulps, but are in-
ferior, especially in the lower jaw, in their relative length, and curvature, to those of the
placental Glires : they present a subtrihedral figure, and are traversed by a shallow
groove on their inner surfaces.

The spurious molars present no trace of that compressed structure which character-
izes them in the Koala and Kangaroos : but have a wide, oval, transverse section ; those
of the upper jaw being traversed on the inner side with a sUght longitudinal groove.
The true molars are double the size of the spurious ones : the superior ones are also
traversed by an internal longitudinal groove, but this is so deep and wide, that it divides
the whole tooth into two trihedral portions, with one of the angles of each prism di-
rected inwards. The inferior molars are in like manner divided into two trihedral
portions, but the intervening groove is here external, and one of the faces of each prism
is turned inwards. All the grinders are curved, and describe about a quarter of a
circle ; in the upper jaw the concavity of the curve is directed outwards, in the lower

' All the placental Rodents -which have more than three molars in each lateral series have the additional ones
situated at the anterior part of the series, and subject to vertical displacement and succession, and consequently
these are essentially pr:emolars : the Wombat strikingly manifests its marsupial character in having four true
molars on each side of both jaws.

VOL. II. PART IV. 2 X

330 MR. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

jaw inwards. The false and true molars, like the incisors, have persistent pulps, and
are consequently devoid of true fangs : in which respect the Wombat differs from all
other Maisupials, and resembles the extinct Toxodon, the dentigerous Bruta, and her-
bivorous Rodentia.

Although none of the Marsupialia possess teeth composed of an intermixture of layers
of ivory, cement and enamel through the body of the crown ; yet the layer of cement
which covers the enameled crown is thickest in the vegetable-feeding Marsupials, and is
remarkably distinct in the Wombat.

I may add, that the Wombat deviates from the other Marsupials in the number of its
ribs : as these are very constant in the rest of the order, the difference in the Wombat,
which has 15 pairs, instead of 13 or 12, is the more deserving of notice. The Koala,
like the Phalangers and Kangaroos, has 13 pairs of ribs.

A few words, in conclusion, as to the claims of the Marsupialia to be regarded as a
natural association. It may be admitted, that at the period when that most judicious
and learned naturalist, the then Vice-Secretary of the Zoological Society, published his
reasons for rejecting the Marsupialia as a distinct group in the ' Systema Mammalium ','
and for distributing them among different placental orders, according to their supposed
closer affinities, the contrary views set forth by M. De Blainville were defective in that
kind of evidence which could alone render them convincing. The organization of the
Marsupial animals was not at that time sufficiently elucidated to render any opinion as
to their natural affinities really valid. Subsequent dissections have, however, shown
that the hypothesis which Cuvier had sanctioned by his authority was correct. The
Marsupial animals have been proved to agree among themselves, and to differ from
the analogous placental species by several important organic modifications not suspected
when the Mammalia in the Museum of the Zoological Society were arranged according
to the Quinary System.

I have shown that in their cerebral conformation the Marsupialia manifest a close
correspondence with the Ovipara in the rudimental state of the corpus callosum : the dif-
ference which the most closely analogous placental species offer in this respect is broadly
marked^. The correspondence of the Marsupials with each other is not less constant
in the structure of the heart, of which the right auricle manifests no trace of a. fossa
ovalis and annulus ovalis, and receives the two vencB cava superiores by two separate in-

' ' Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated,' vol. i. p. 2G3.

* Mr. Bennett asks in 1831, " What is there of importance in the structure of the Wombat except this soli-
tary character of the maisupium to separate it from the Rodent Order .' " We may now suggest, in reply, the
marsupial number of true molar teeth, the transverse condyle of the lower jaw, the rotatory muscle of the hind-
foot, — important in the present question on account of its frequency in the marsupial species, to which it is
peculiar ; and, besides other characters, I would more particularly refer to the difference in the structure of the
brains of the Wombat and Beaver, described in the Phil. Trans. 1837, p. 89, pi. vi. figg. 3 and 4.

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. 331

lets. This generalization is, however, less cogent in the present question than the pre-
ceding, because the same modification, as regards the separate entry of the vencB cava
superiores, obtains in a few placental species, as tlie Elephant and some of the Rodentia.
But the cardiac characters, of which one is common and peculiar to the implacental
quadrupeds, and the other, while it is universal in them, occurs only as an exceptional
condition in the placental series, cannot be rejected in a philosophical consideration of
the affinities of the Marsupialia.

Several peculiarities of the osseous system, besides the well-known one of the osaa
marsupialia, and unconnected with the generative peculiarities, will be pointed out in the
subsequent essay on the osteology of the Marsupialia. And while on the present ques-
tion I may observe, that had the Sarcophagous Marsupials of the present system been
subjected to the scrutiny of the myologist as members of the ordinary group of Feree,
he must have noted them as presenting a very remarkable modification of the muscles
of the hind leg ; for whereas in all the placental Feres the flexor longus digitorum pedis
sends tendons to the toes, as its name implies; in the Dasyures and Phascogales it
is inserted fleshy into the fibula, and the knee- and ancle-joints are so modified as,
through the action of the muscle so inserted, to admit of rotatory movements of the
hind foot analogous to the pronation and supination which in the placental quadrupeds
are peculiar to the fore-feet. But the myologist would have been still more surprised
if in dissecting the Opossums and Phalangers, when associated with the Monkeys and
Lemurs in such a group as Illiger's ' DaumenfiJsser' {Pollicata), characterized by hinder
hands, he should have found precisely the same modification of the ^raor longus digito-
rum — the same conversion of that muscle, by corresponding modifications of the knee-
and ancle-joints, into a rotator of the hind-leg ; and that notwithstanding the difference
in the general structure and powers of the hind foot in the ferine or falculate and the
pollicate orders, the marsupial species should have differed in both groups from the pla-
cental ones by precisely the same singular modification. And if now the myologist were
to proceed to compare the Womhat with the Beaver or any other placental Rodent, and
were to discover here also precisely the same difference in the muscles and motions of
the hind legs, he could hardly avoid suspecting that some closer affinity must subsist
between the species enjoying the common properties of rotation of the hind foot than
was indicated by the classification under which I have supposed them to have been pre-
sented to his notice. It is, in fact, only in those Marsupials in which the offices of sup-
port and locomotion are devolved exclusively or in great part upon the hind-legs, as in
the Kangaroos, Potoroos, and Perameles, that the hind-feet are strengthened at the ex-
pense of the loss of the movements of rotation.

Finally, I may observe, that in the dental system itself, the varieties of which have
been chiefly appealed to as sanctioning the dispartition of the Marsupial order, we find
an important peculiarity, by which the carnivorous, omnivorous, and strictly vegetable-
feeding genera alike agree with each other, and difl^^r from tlip f>"Tosponding placental

2x2

332

PROF. OWEN ON THE CLASSIFICATION

Mammalia. In the ordinary Feree, for example, in the Quadnimana and in the Rodentia,
as likewise in the Pachyderma and Ruminantia, the number of grinders developed on
each side of each jaw, which are not subject to vertical displacement and succession, is
never more than three, while in the corresponding groups of Marsupials it is always
four'.

These coincidences in the Marsupialia, of more or less important peculiarities of struc-
ture, which cannot be connected with their reproductive ceconomy, are truly remarkable,
and their detection and generalization give peculiar interest to anatomical investigations
of the Marsupial animals.

The following is a tabular view of the subordinate groups of the Marsupialia regarded
as a distinct Order of Implacental Mammalia.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE MARSUPIALIA.

Tribes.
Sarcophaga.
Three kinds of teeth ; canines
long in both jaws; a sim-
ple stomach ; no intestinvm
cacum.

Extinct transitional forms . .

Entomophaga.
Three kinds of teeth in both
jaws ; a simple stomach ; a
moderately long intestinum
eteaim.

Carpophaga.
Anterior incisors large and
long in both jaws ; canines
inconstant ; stomach sim-
ple, or with a special gland ;
a very long intestinum ce-
cum .

Pof.phaga.

Anterior incisors large and
long in both jaws ; canines
present in the upper jaw
only, or wanting. A com-
plex stomach ; a long intes-
tinum cecum.

Rhizophaga.

Two scalpriform incisors in
both jaws; no canines. Sto-
mach with a special gland ;
cecum short, wide, with a
vermiform appendage.

Families.

Dasyuride .

Genera.

Thylacinus.

Dasyurus.

Phascogale.

Phascolotherium
Thylacotherium .

Subgenera.

Ambulatoria Myrmecobius.

Saltatoria

Chseropus.
Perameles.

Scansoria Didelphys

PhalangistidtB .

Phascolarctide
Macropodide .

(^ Petaurus . . . .

Phascolarctus.

r Hypsiprymnus.
' 1^ Macropus.

Phascolomyide

Phascolomys.
Diprotodon . .

Fossil.

{Didelphys.
Cheironectes.

{Cuscus.
Fseudocheirus.
Tapoa.
' Petaurista.
Belidia.
Acrobata.

Fossil.

' I need hardly remind the zoological reader, that the teeth which are displaced by a second set succeeding
them in the vertical direction, are, in Man, the incisors, canines, and false molars, the successors of which are

OF THE MARSUPIALIA. 333

called bicuspides; mid that the three true molars on each side are not so displaced. So also in the lower
Mammnlia, it is the canines, incisors, and false molars only which are subject to vertical disjilacement and suc-
cession. To tlie general rule, that in Marsiipialla there are four true molars developed on each side of botli
jaws, there occur the two exceptions already noticed of Phalangista gliriformis and Petaurus pygmtciis. Whether
the genera Myrmecobiiis and Thylacotherimn actually possess more than four true molars, as appears from ex-
ternal form, can be determined only by ascertaining how many of the molar series are displaced and succeeded
by others in the vertical direction. The Chrysochlore among the placental Fer<e offers a similar exception to
the rule of three true molars in that group.

[ 335 ]

XXIII. On the Genus Galeopithecus. By G. R. Waterhouse, Esq.
Communicated October 23, 1838.

AN the various works on Mammalia there is much confusion as regards the species of
Galeopithecus. M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire, in the ' Magazin Encyclop. VII.,' indicated by
imperfect descriptions what he considered three species. The Gal. rufus, which is, ac-
cording to the description, rather more than one foot (Enghsh measure) in length ; Gal.
variegatus, measuring a little more than six inches in length ; and thirdly, the G. Tema-
tensis, which is said to, be smaller than the last. The single dimension of the length of
each of these species, together with a description of their colouring, and the statement
that the head of G. variegatus is proportionately broader, and has the muzzle more
elongated than G. rufus, are all the facts relating to the distinguishing characters that I
can procure of the animals in question.

Audebert states that the size of the head and the varied colours of G. variegatus ap-
pear to indicate that this species is merely a variety of G. rufus.

After the description of G. Ternatensis, M. Desmarest has the following note. " This
species, admitted by M. Geoffroy upon the incomplete description given by Seba, is not
known to me. The fur, by which the body is covered, is adpressed, short, and soft,
resembling that of a mole." I may add that such is the character of the fur in a very
young Galeopithecus now before me.

In the ' Manuel de Mammalogie' of M. Lesson, the three species above mentioned are
admitted without comment : his account is in fact the same as that found in M. Desma-
rest's ' Mammalogie.' ^^^-^

Fisher, in his ' Synopsis Mammalium,' sinks the three species in question, and so j. K- >v>
does Cuvier in the ' R^gne Animal.'

M. Temminck, in his ' Monographies de Mammalogie,' states that there are two spe-
cies of Galeopithecus, possessing well-marked osteological characters, and that the ani-
mals named variegatus, rufus, and Ternatensis ought to be united.

Such is the state in which I find the genus Galeopithecus, and with a fine series of
specimens before me I am unable to identify either of them with any published descrip-
tion. Of all the specimens which have come under my observation, I have never seen
any adult animal so small as those described.

As M. Temminck states, there are decidedly two very distinct species ; species which
may easily be distinguished by an inspection of their skulls, or even by their external
characters. I regret that for these two species I cannot find appropriate names among

iv^»~ -

336 MR. G. R. WATERHOUSE ON THE GENUS GALEOPITHECUS.

those already published, nor can I adopt either of them without running the risk of pro-
ducing further confusion, since I cannot ascertain to what animals they refer. In
Fischer's ' Synopsis MammaUum,' it is stated that the two species distinguished by M.
Temminck bear the names variegatus and marmoratus, both of which names will apply
equally well to either of the species'. For these reasons I shall describe the species I
am acquainted with under new specific names, on,e in honour of the author of the ' Mo-
nographies de Mammalogie,' and the other to commemorate the locality in which it is
found*.
Sp. 1. Galeopithecus Temminckii.

General colour of upper parts usually deep grey or blackish, variegated with white,
and of the under parts pale greyish fulvous ; the fore and hind-feet are blackish above,
spotted with white. The flank membrane is sometimes sooty black above, and varie-
gated with white near its junction with the body and thighs ; or it is of a greyish colour,
with narrow undulating black lines. On the back there is sometimes either a yellowish
or a brown hue, and the under parts occasionally incline to rust- colour. Adult speci-
mens vary from about twenty-two to thirty inches in length, measuring from the tip of
the nose to the end of the tail. The length of the ear is 6J lines. The principal di-
mensions from a skeleton of this species are as follows :

II III

Total length 27

Length of head 2 11

tail 12 7

humerus 4 6

fore arm 5 11

fore foot (without the claws) . 3

femur ■ 5 3

tibia 5 Sg

tarsus 2 7

The skull of G. Temminckii approaches somewhat to an oval form : its greatest width
is towards the posterior part of the lower boundary of the orbit, and supposing the whole
length of the cranium to be 46, the diameter at this part is 32. A little in front of the or-
bits the skull is suddenly contracted, and from this part to the apex it gradually decreases
in width. The length of the portion anterior to the orbits is to that behind this jjart as
1 9 to 27, and the width of the hinder portion of the cranium (behind the auditory ca-
nal) is to the length as 21 to 46. The nasal bones extend backwards rather beyond

' The former of these, the G. variegatus, is said to be from Java and the islands of the Indian Archipelago,
and the latter from Sumatra and Borneo.

- In applying the name Philippinensis, it must not be understood that the species is not found elsewhere
than in the Philippine Islands, but that the Bpecimens upon which I found my descriptions are from that locality :
in this sense the name of a locality applied to a species is useful.

MR. G. R. WATERHOUSE ON THE GENUS GALEOPITHECUS. 337

the line between the anterior boundary of the orbits ; they are very narrow in front, and
expanded posteriorly, the width at the base being more than double that of the apical
portion. The intermaxillary bones are large, and approach to a quadrate form, the in-
termaxillary suture being at right angles with the nasal bones. The palatal portion of
the intermaxillary is but of small extent, being encroached upon by the maxillaries.
There are two large, oval, incisive /oramma, the posterior boundary of which is formed
by the bones last mentioned ; they are situated, however, almost wholly in the inter-
maxillaries. The palate presents an even and slightly concave surface. The palatine
portion of the palate-bone has but a small antero-posterior diameter, being deeply emar-
ginated posteriorly by two notches, in the form of two segments of a circle. The frontal
bones articulate in front with the nasal, maxillary, and lachrymal bones ; they are pro-
duced laterally, so as greatly to increase the depth of the orbits, and posteriorly into a
large post-orbital process, which in some adult skulls is separated from the correspond-
ing process of the malar bone by an interspace scarcely more than three lines in width.
The lachrymal bones are large, and constitute the chief portion of the anterior boundary
of the orbit ; they extend on to the face about 2 lines, and into the orbit about 3^ lines.
The lachrymal duct is large, and is situated within the orbit, but close to its anterior
margin.

The malar bone is of considerable extent, broad, and compressed, and forms an al-
most horizontal platform for the eye to rest upon ; it is articulated anteriorly to the
lachrymal bone, and internally to the maxillary ; posteriorly it assumes a nearly perpen-
dicular position, and is bifurcated, the upper portion forming a post-orbital process,
and the lower division being extended backwards, beneath the zygomatic process of the
temporal bone, and enters into the composition of the glenoid cavity. The glenoid ca-
vity is transverse, and very slightly concave from front to back ; the posterior descend-
ing process is proportionately larger than in other Lemuridce, whose skulls I have had
an opportunity of examining, and differs in being decidedly recurved, so as partially to
enclose the condyle of the lower jaw. The temporal ridges are well-marked ; they con-
verge as they approach the occiput, but never meet, being separated by a space of sel-
dom less than four lines. The occipito-parietal ridge is very marked ; the condyles are
extensive and project, and between these and the large mastoid processes there is a deep
depression, giving a singular irregularity to the occiput viewed posteriorly. The audi-
tory bull<B are small, but the mastoid portion of the temporal bone is inflated, and forms
a large cellular cavity. The rami of the lower jaw diverge somewhat suddenly, and
with a bold curve, from the symphysis menti ; the coronoid process is small, of a prismatic
form, pointed, and almost perpendicular : the apex, however, is directed slightly out-
wards and backwards ; this process has its origin about 2| lines behind the last molar
tooth. The articular portion of the condyle is situated a little above the plane of the
grinding surface of the molars, and about 2^ lines behind the coronoid process. The

VOL. II. PART IV. 2 Y

338 MR. G. R. WATERHOUSE ON THE GENUS GALEOPITHECUS.

descending ramus is large, approaches to a quadrate form, but the angles are rounded.
The lower posterior angle is directed outwards.

In. Lin.

Length of skull 2 ll-f

Width 2

Vertical diameter of orbit 10^

Length of palate 1 5

Width of ditto between canines 10

Width of posterior nares 6^-

Longitudinal extent of grinding surface of the five

posterior molares, upper jaw 9

Width of penultimate molar 2

Length of ramus of lower jaw 2 2

Depth of ditto beneath canine 3^

Height of ascending ramws 114-

The dentition, as it appears to me, is as follows : incisors, ^' ; canines, °j^° ; false
molares, |^^ ; true molares, |£j : = 34.

The anterior incisor on each side of the upper jaw is placed remote from the apex of
the intermaxillary bone, of a small size and compressed form, suddenly dilated above
its insertion in the jaw, serrated at the edge, and presenting three or four nearly equal
denticulations. The second incisor on either side resembles the first false molar in
form, and, like that, has two fangs. The first false molar is compressed, of a triangular
form, and has the anterior and posterior edges serrated. The second false molar is less
compressed than the first, and is divided by a transverse indentation into two nearly
equal, acutely pointed, triangular cusps ; the apex of the posterior cusp is directed in-
wards. The grinding surface of each of the true molares presents a triangular figure,
and consists of three pointed cusps, two external and one internal: on the posterior
part, and at the base of the inner cusp, there is a small pointed tubercle ; and on the
opposite side of the same cusp there is a corresponding tubercle of still smaller size.
The molares of the lower jaw resemble those of the upper, excepting that the position
of the three principal cusps is reversed, these being parallel to the inner side of the
ramus, and the other cusp is on the outer side of these. The false molares are com-
pressed ; the anterior one resembles its opponent of the upper jaw ; the posterior one
differs from the last mentioned, chiefly in having the hinder portion broader, and sepa-
rated from the anterior portion by an indentation. The small lobe thus separated has
an outer and an inner pointed tubercle. The tooth which I imagine represents the ca-
nine is comparatively small, compressed, and considerably expanded at the apex, where
it is serrated, having five or six denticulations. The incisors are almost horizontal in

MR. G. R. WATERHOUSE ON THE GENUS GALEOPITHECUS. 339

their position, compressed, narrow at the base, and suddenly expanded immediately
above the base : each incisor is deeply pectinated, or subdivided by incisions into slen-
der lamincB. These lamincB vary in number in the teeth of different individuals of the
same species. In the present species of Galeopithecus, I find, in the middle pair of in-
cisors, either seven or eight, and in the outer pair either eight, nine, or ten laminte :
each of these slender processes is dilated, and slightly recurved the apex, and on the
outer and apical portion there is a broad longitudinal groove. The lateral lamince are
broader than those intervening'. The incisors and false molares of the upper jaw are
detached : between the first and second canine there is an intervening space of nearly
half a line, and the latter is distant about one line from the first false molar on either
side : between this and the second false molar the space is about one quarter of a line,
and behind the second false molar there is a vacant space of about one third of a Une.
The canines and false molares of the lower jaw are also detached.

Sp. 2. G. Philippinensis. *■

Colour very variable ; sometimes deep blackish-brown above, and brown beneath,
with a few scattered small white spots on the upper parts ; or the upper surface is grey,
variegated with black and white, and the under surface brownish white.

This species is so variable in its colouring, that in this respect I can find no charac-
ters in common. I may observe, however, that the two males sent by Mr. Cuming
agree in being of a dark blackish brown colour, and almost uniform ; one of them has
a large white spot on the upper surface of the muzzle, and a similar patch of white is
observable in the two females, but varying in size ; in the other male, however, there is
no trace of this spot. The two females are of a much paler colour than the males ; one
is of an ashy-grey colour above, variegated with black and white, and of a very pale
brown or brownish white colour beneath. The other female is of a yellowish grey tint
above, clouded with deep brownish grey on the fore part of the arms and on the feet ;
the latter are spotted with white. A large patch of grey is observable on the upper
side of the flank membrane, near the sides of the body, in which there are two or three
small white spots ; and towards the hinder feet there is a large dirty yellowish white
patch. The under parts are brownish white, with a faint yellow tint.

' Tlie six foremost teeth in the lower jaw of the Lemur (four of wliich are incisors, and the remaining two
I agree with Geoffroy in considering as canines,) together bear a remarkable resemblance to a single incisor
of Galeopithecus. The two canines may be compared to the outer lamina of one of these incisors. Like one of
these lamince, the Lemur s canine is dilated immediately above the base, and has a longitudinal ridge on the up-
per side, whilst the incisors, like the intermediate lamince, are grooved on the outer side, near the apex. In
their almost horizontal direction there is also a resemblance. In the number of teeth the Galeopitheci agree
with the Lemurs, excepting that in the former the upper canines are wanting. In both these groups of animals
the incisors of the lower jaw arc opposed to a toothless portion of the intcrmaxillaries.

2 y2

340 MR. G. R. WATERHOUSE ON THE GENUS GALEOPITHECUS,

In. Lin.

Total length 17

Length of head 2 7

tail 11

ear . 9

humerus 4 1

fore arm . 5 4-l

fore foot (without the claws) 3

femur 4 10

tibia 5 1

tarsus (without the claws) . 2 10

This species is of a smaller size than G. Temminckii ; the limbs, however, are con-
siderably stronger, the bones being proportionately thicker' ; the hands' and feet are
larger, and the ears are also larger. Upon comparing the skull of G. Philippinensis with
that of G. Temminckii, the most striking differences consist in its smaller size, its nar-
rower and more ovate form, the shorter and more obtusely terminated muzzle. The
temporal ridges in the adult animal meet near the occiput, or are separated but by a very
narrow space. Tlie rami of the lower jaw are shorter, and proportionately deeper and
thicker. They diverge less suddenly from the symphysis menti.

In. Lin.

Length of skull 2 7

Width ] 9

Vertical diameter of orbit 84

Length of palate 1 2

Width of ditto between canines ... 94-

Width of posterior nares 5.^-

Length of raniMs of lower jaw . . . . 1 11-i-
Width of ditto beneath canines . . . 4,j-
Height of ascending ramus Oil

In the dentition there are also many marked differences. The molares of the present
animal are considerably larger than those of G. Temminckii, the longitudinal extent of
the grinding surface of the five posterior molares of the upper jaw being 10^ lines, the

' The diameter of the thigh bone of G. Philippinensis is 3 lines, whereas that of G, Temminckii (a larger ani-
mal) is only 2^ lines.

* I may observe, that although the thumb is furnished with a compressed claw, like that of the fingers, and is
enveloped in membrane, we can trace an approach to the Lemurs in the structure of this member. The thumb
is in fact semi-opposable, and separated from the fingers by a considerable interval. The metacarpal bone is,
as in the Lemurs, short, and the extremity of the thumb is nearly on a line with the ends of the metacarpal
bones of the fingers.

MR. G. R. WATERHOUSE ON THE GENUS GALEOPITHECUS. 341

width of the penultimate molar 3 lines. The anterior incisor is smaller, whereas the
posterior incisor is much larger and stronger ; its vertical extent is considerably greater :
viewed laterally this tooth presents the form of an arrow-head ; the anterior and poste-
rior edges are simple. The same differences are observable in the anterior false molar
of the upper jaw ; this, however, is less acutely pointed than the last. The anterior
false molar of the lower jaw differs from the corresponding tooth in G. Temminckii,
in the same manner as does the false molar of the upper jaw, but it is acutely pointed.
In the present animal the false and true molares of both upper and lower jaws each
form a continuous series, and are not interrupted by intervening spaces, as in G. Tem-
minckii.

Galeopithecus Temminckii is the most common species in collections, and I beUeve is
found in many of the islands of the Indian Archipelago. As regards the second species
(G. Philippinensis) the only specimens which I have examined are those from which the
foregoing description is drawn up, consisting of two males and two females, all of which
were sent from the Philippine Islands by Hugh Cuming, Esq. The paper containing
the dimensions accompanying these specimens is dated " Isle of Bohol, August 1837" ;
I presume therefore the animals were procured in that island. Mr. Cuming states that
the eyes are of a nut-brown colour, with black pupils. The principal dimensions, taken
by Mr. Cuming from the specimens when fresh, are as follows : —

Length from tip of nose to root of tail
of tail

Male.

Female.

ins. lin.

ins. lin

15 6

15 3

9 9

9 3

10 6

7 9

7 6

Circumference of the body at the chest .
of the body immediately be-
fore the bind legs 60 60 56 59

[ 342 ]

PLATE LVIII.

Figs. 1. Galeopithecus Temminckii.
Fig. 1 a. Upper side of the skull.
1 b. Under side of the same.
1 c. Under side of the lower jaw.
1 d. Side view of the same.

1 e. The three foremost teeth, on either side, of the upper jaw : the two first of
these, commencing with the smallest tooth, are situated in the intermax-
illary bone, and are therefore incisors. It is worthy of observation, how-
ever, that the posterior of these two teeth (on each side) has a double
fang.
I f. & I g. Outer and inner incisor of lower jaw.
Figs. 2. Galeopithecus Philippinensis.

(The same letters refer to corresponding parts.)

. i^^fM, ^^/^ /r-n/if/tit. /^tSii.A,, y,; V

' -^

1.6

|V?1

\ «

/.»

z.i.

^^j^sC^^^^S:^^

■^'

f.e,

^W^

il(

z.^ «y

' Mxitrlis IcCh. iKiikrAfiw i>/.'^

[ 343 ]

XXIV. On the Skull of the North American Badger, Meles Labradoria of Authors. By
George R. Waterhouse, Esq., Curator, and Assistant Secretary for Scientific Business,
to the Zoological Society.

Communicated November 13, 1839.

Although very many of the North American animals bear so great a resemblance
to those of Europe that they have often been supposed to be specifically identical, yet
upon careful examination the greater portion of them have proved to be distinct ; and
in those cases where no good characters have been found, by which certain North
American and European species can be distinguished, such species are, for the most
part, inhabitants of the arctic portions of the two continents'.

The North American Badger is one of those animals which might possibly be re-
garded as a mere variety of the European species. Cuvier, in the ' R^gne Animal,'
after briefly describing the European Badger, observes, " le Blaireau d'Amerique n'en
diff^re pas beaucoup ;" and although, previously to the publication of the last edition of
the work in which this passage occurs, Capt. Sabine had carefully described certain
points of distinction, still it would appear that Cuvier did not consider the characters
pointed out as very important.

The collection of the Zoological Society containing several specimens, both of the
Meles Labradoria and the Meles vulgaris, I was induced to examine their crania ; and
when a skull taken out of one of the skins of the former animal was brought to me, I
found it so unhke that of the Common Badger, that I thought my assistant must have
made some mistake, nor was I satisfied until I had myself seen a second skull removed
from a similar skin.

I have now before me three skulls of the American Badger, which belonged to animals
of different ages, young and adult ; their peculiarities I will endeavour to point out.

The most striking peculiarity in the skull of the Meles Labradoria consists in the
great expanse of the occipital region, which in width is equal to that of the skull mea-
sured transversely from the outer surfaces of the zygomatic arches. In the adult ani-
mal aU the sutures are obliterated.

The general form of the skull is conical, the occipital or basal portion being the
broadest ; viewed laterally, the outline of the upper surface is most elevated at, or very
near, the occiput ; thence it runs downwards, with a slightly convex curve, to the nasal

' It \a probable that North Asia and North America have at some former period been united ; and if so, the
specific identity of certain species, whose constitutions are fitted for the arctic regions, may be thus accounted for.
VOL. II. PART v. 2 Z

"344 MR. G. R. WATERHOUSE ON THE SKULL OF THE

bones ; a faint depression is observed towards tbe base of the nasal bones, and about the
middle of the frontal bones there is another depression, which, however, is indistinct.
The interorbital portion is considerably contracted, and is narrowest posteriorly ; from
between the orbits to about the middle of the frontal bones, the sides of the skull are
nearly parallel (interrupted, however, by a short, strong, post-orbital process) ; from this
part to the occiput the cranial cavity somewhat suddenly increases in width ; the sides,
when viewed from above, presenting almost straight, but diverging lines. The occipital
or lambdoidal crest is strong, considerably elevated, and directed backwards and up-
wards, and runs forward, and in the mesial line of the skull, to join the very faint longi-
tudinal ridge which represents the sagittal crest. This crest, I suspect, is never well
developed as in the Common Badger. The plane of the occipital portion of the skull is
almost vertical : a considerable concavity is observed on each side in the ex-occipitals,
and situated about midway between the foramen magnum and the outer boundary of these
bones. Theforamen magnum is of a transversely ovate form ; its upper boundary slightly
overhangs the lower one. The auditory bulla are very large and convex, and the meatus
auditorius, or bony canal leading to them (which is nearly horizontal, and directed
slightly backwards) , is proportionately large. The zygomatic process of the temporal
bone is produced at right angles from the skull, to form a broad articular surface for
the condyle q|" the lower jaw ; this glenoid cavity, like that of the Common Badger, has
its anterior and posterior processes ; these, however, merely serve to prevent the pro-
trusion or retraction of the lower jaw, and not to enclose and lock the condyle, as in
the last-mentioned animal. The zygomatic arches are moderately strong, curve up-
wards and outwards ; the outer surface is most convex near the hinder part. The malar
bone is extended backwards to within about two lines of the glenoid cavity ; its upper
surface is produced into a short and somewhat obtuse, post-orbital process, and in front
it is extended to form both the anterior boundary of the orbit and the upper boundary
of the ant-orbital foramen, articulating with the superior maxillary and lachrymal bones,
which latter appear not to extend on to the face. The almost vertical ant-orbital fora-
men is of moderate size (less than in the Badger), and is separated from the orbit
by a narrow space about one line in width. There is considerable depression in the
superior maxillary bone just above the ant-orbital foramen, and near the orbit, somewhat
resembling that observed in the Otter. The facial portion of the skull is short, broad,
and obtusely terminated. The nasal opening is rather broader and shorter than in
Meles vulgaris. The nasal bones are rather short, dilated anteriorly ; thence they gra-
dually decrease in width, and at their junction with the frontals they are suddenly con-
tracted, so that the posterior portion forms two slender, long, pointed processes. The
nasal processes of the intermaxillaries are short ; the palatal portion is also short : the
incisive foramina are ovate, and do not encroach upon the maxillaries, though their poste-
rior boundary is formed by them. The palatal process of the maxillary bones, and that
of the palatal bones, are about equal in longitudinal extent ; tbe palato-maxillary suture

NORTH AMERICAN BADGER, MELES LABRADORIA. 345

being situated opposite the interstice between the penultimate and last molars. The
palatal bones terminate about half an inch behind the posterior molars. A more clear
idea of the form of the lower jaw may be conveyed by comparing it with that of the
Common Badger, than by describing it ; I will therefore do so. Thus compared, the
most striking dift'erences consist in the form of the coronoid process, the anterior mar-
gin of which is less oblique than in that animal ; its apex is somewhat pointed, whereas
in the Common Badger it is rounded ; the posterior margin is formed of two lines, an
upper one running backwards and downwards, from the apex of the coronoid process ;
and a lower one, which is perpendicular, and forms an obtuse angle with the first. In
this form of the coronoid process the American Badger more nearly resembles the Otter
{Lutra vulgaris) than the Common Badger, where the posterior boundary of the coronoid
process forms a vertical line. The condyle of the jaw has proportionately a much
greater diameter than that of the Common Badger. The descending ramus is deeper,
and does not form so acute an angle ; the horizontal ramus, if measured beneath the
carnassiere, is less deep, but behind the carnassiere the alveolar portion rises rapidly
towards the coronoid process : the symphysis menti is less oblique, and there is a cor-
responding difference in the direction of the incisors. The lower boundary of the ho-
rizontal ramus forms a straight line beneath the dental portion of the jaw, but the part
which lies behind the line of the last molar is raised, forming an obtuse angle with the
fore part.

Dentition. — In the number of the teeth the present animal agrees with the Common
Badger, excepting that the molar corresponding to the small first false molar of the lower
jaw of that animal is here wanting. In the relative size and form of the teeth there is
much difference. The incisors of the upper jaw are arranged in an arch, but form to-
gether a segment of a larger circle than those of Meles vulgaris ; they are proportionately
smaller and shorter. In the canines there is but little difference : the posterior cutting
edge observed in the Badger is here almost obliterated. The false molars likewise
scarcely differ. In the carnassiere and true molar, however, there is much difference,
the former being of great size and equal to the last molar. It is nearly in the form of
a right-angled triangle ; the cutting edge is much raised, and there is a large tubercle on
the inner lobe of this tooth, which has no analogue in the Badger. The true molar is
also nearly triangular; the tubercles with which it is furnished are but slightly raised,
and are much less developed than in the corresponding grinding molar of the Badger.
The principal differences observable in the teeth of the lower jaw, consist in the smaller
size of the incisors, the larger size of the last false molar, and its being furnished with
two distinct tubercles at its apex ; that of the Common Badger being simply pointed :
it diflfers moreover in the smaller size of the carnassiere, which is not distinctly dilated
posteriorly, as in the Badger, and the cutting edge being higher ; the true molar is a
trifle smaller. The carnassiere of the lower jaw may be divided into two portions, that
which is opposed to the corresponding tooth in the upper jaw, and which is the cut-

2z2

346 MR. G. R. WATERHOUSE ON THE SKULL OF THE

tins; portion, having high sharp cusps ; and that which is opposed to the true molar,
which is the grinding portion. Now in the Common Badger the latter portion de-
cidedly exceeds the former in bulk, whereas in the American Badger the reverse is the
case, arising from the comparatively large size of the camassiere of the upper jaw, and
smaller size of the true molar. The two false molars of the upper jaw and the three
of the under, on either side, have each an anterior and posterior fang ; the camassiere
of the upper jaw, and the true molar, have each three fangs, two external and one in-
ternal ; the inner fang on the last-mentioned tooth is very broad, as in the Common
Badger : the camassiere of the lower jaw has two fangs, and the last molar has also two
fangs, but they are only partially divided. Such in fact is the normal or more constant
condition of the teeth in the Mammalia ; and however they may depart from this type,
we may always observe a tendency towards this disposition of the fangs ; the number,
moreover, varies less than might perhaps be supposed.

The skull from which the foregoing description is drawn, was removed from a skin
stated to be from Mexico, and is evidently that of an adult animal : the cranium from a
second specimen which belonged to the same collection exhibits all the sutures tolerably
distinct, and possesses the milk teeth ; the crowns of the permanent teeth, however, are
visible. The second false molar of the upper jaw of this young animal is compressed,
presents a high and sharp central tubercle, a small anterior cusp, and a large posterior
one, which is joined to the central tubercle by a sharp, cutting edge : within, and oppo-
site the central cusp, is a small, round lobe, which projects at a right angle from the body
of the tooth. This tooth has three fangs, and presents the normal form of the car-
nassiere in the more typical Carnivora, whilst the tooth which is afterwards replaced by
the camassiere is tuberculous, like the true molars ; it is in the form of an isosceles tri-
angle, the apex being placed outwards. The third skull is from a skin sent by Mr.
Douglas, and the animal in all probability was killed in California : it agrees with that
from which the description is taken, excepting in being rather smaller, and in having
the auditory hullee decidedly larger. The animal had at the time of its death just shed
its milk teeth.

Tlie skins here alluded to agree with each other and with a specimen in the Society's
museum, which is the one referred to by Dr. Richardson in his ' Fauna Borealis Ameri-
cana', excepting that in this specimen the fur is longer and softer, and the markings are
not quite so dark, being brownish-black, instead of black.

The dimensions of the adult skull are as follows : —

Ins. Lin.

Total length of skull 4 lOi

Width at occiput ^ ^

from outer side of zygomatic arches 3 1 2^

between orbits ^ ^4

Height of orbit ^ 9

NORTH AMERICAN BADGER, MELES LABRADORIA, 347

Ins. Lin.

Length of face in front of the zygomatic arches .... 1
of skull behind zygomatic arches (measured from

the zygomatic arch to the plane of the occiput) ... 1 2

Length of palate 2 5

Width of ditto between the first pair of molars .... 10

• last pair of molars .... 9

Total length of ramus of lower jaw 3 5

Height of ascending ramus 1 7f

Height of horizontal ramus, measured beneath the last false

molar 6^

Length of carnassi^re of upper jaw 5^

Width of ditto 5^

Length of last molar 5|-

Width of ditto 5^

Length of carnassiere of lower jaw 63-

Width of ditto 3

It will be seen from the foregoing description that the American Badger affords us a
modification of dentition differing considerably from that of the common European spe-
cies. This difference in the dentition, combined with the short, broad form of the skull,
the truncated appearance of the posterior part (owing to the comparatively short extent
of the portion behind the zygomatic arch) , the large size of the auditory bullce, and the
great extent of the occipital region, in my opinion should be regarded as indicating sub-
generic characters rather than specific. The subgeneric name Taxidea may therefore
be appUed to the American Badger, and such species as may hereeifter be discovered

with incisors -, canines -, false molars —-5 ; the posterior false molar of the lower jaw

with an anterior large tubercle, and a posterior smaller one ; molars ^^ ; the carnassiere

and the grinding molar of the upper jaw each of a triangular form, or nearly so, and
about equal in size.

As regards the external characters, I may observe, that in addition to the differences
of colouring and marking displayed by the Taxidea Labradoria and the Meles vulgaris,
the former may be distinguished by the tip of its muzzle being hairy above, it being
naked in the Common Badger, the fore limbs stouter, and the claws stronger, and also
by the short, conical form of the head.

The typical Mustelida have the true molars of the upper jaw transverse ; in the Skunks
(Mephitis) it assumes nearly a quadrate form, and in Meles it is longer than broad ; the
modification observable in the form of the molars of the upper jaw of Taxidea, therefore,
furnishes us with an interesting link between Mephitis and Meles, whilst the former of
these genera links the Badgers with Mustela and its subgenera.

[ 348 ]

PLATE LIX.

Skull of Meles Labradoria.

Fig. 1. The upper side.

2. Under side.

3. Side view.

4. of lower jaw.

5. View of the hinder portion of the lower jaw, showing the form of the con-
dyle.

c^^^^^J^ '^^ ^ S^.;.9^ .ufi.

'^'^A.^.

/i»i^ Am JftHy t JcJttaf

[ 349 ]

XXV. On the Fishes of the Dukhun. By Lieut.-Col. W. H. Sykes, F.R.S., Sfc.

Communicated November 27, 1838.

An submitting to the Society an account of the fishes of Dukhun, it will scarcely
excite surprise, that out of 46 species described, no less than 42 are new to science,
since they are from a hitherto untrodden field, and from peculiar localities, on the great
plateau of the Dukhun (Deccan) , none of them coming from a less elevation than 1 500
feet above the sea ; many from near 2000 feet, and others from yet higher situations.
The chief features in the collection are the paucity of orders to which the collection
belongs, and the remarkable prevalence of the members of the famihes of Siluridce and
Cyprinidce. There is but one apodal Malacopterygian, but four Acanthopterygii, and the
whole of the rest of the fishes belong to the order Abdominal Malacopterygians. Of
the families there are only eight : Percida, Scombrida, ' Pharyngiens Labyrinthiformes,'
Gohiada;, Silurida, Cyprinida, EsocidcB, and MuranidcB, comprising fifteen genera and
nine subgenera, including one subgenus, which I have been compelled to add to the
Cyprinidce. An attempt has been made to methodize and distinguish the multitudinous
members of the families of Silurida and Cyprinidce. The fact is, the continued inos-
culation in the character of the teeth, of the ci^ri, of the spines (serrated or not), of the
fins, of the armature of the head, and of the position of the fins, in the Siluridce ; and of
the number of cirri, and form and position of the fins in the Cyprinidce ; together with the
character of the mouth, produce such approximations in species to each other, and in
individuals of one genus to another, that not only is there infinite difficulty in deter-
mining the genera of the fishes of these families, but their identity as species is occa-
sionally not less difficult, Some of my Siluridce do not exactly correspond with the
generic characters of the genera of this family as now constituted, and I might have
added to the number of genera ; but to this I have an objection, unless as an evidently
necessary measure. In the Cyprinidce, however, I was obliged to set aside my repug-
nance, for three species were not referrible to any one even of the numerous subgenera
which Buchanan Hamilton wished to establish. It only remains to state, that the
whole of my fishes were drawn from absolute measurement, and have a scale of size
attached to each figure : they were caught in the various rivers on whose banks I en-
camped, as individuals were required ; so that my draftsman, who worked constantly
under my own eye, never had to finish his drawings from shriveled and discoloured

Note. — In spelling native names the "u" has the sound of the "u" in the English word "hut," and the
other letters have their usual English sounds.

350 *>i LIEUT.-COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

specimens. I have to a great extent adopted the names hy which the fishes are called
by the Mahrattas, as specific names, so that naturalists who travel the country can al-
ways obtain them.

Ord. ACANTHOPTERYGII.

Fam. Percid^.
Genus Ambassis, Agass.

This genus belongs to Cuvier's second subdivision of the family Percidce. Buchanan
Hamilton proposed the name Chanda for the same genus, but this name has not been
adopted.

Ambassis Barlovi.
Tab. LX. Fig. 1.

An Ambassis, with the two back fins united ; with the first ray indented on the edge, and containing 7
spines, and the second 14 spines; all the spines longer than the membrane; with 18 rays, longer
than the membrane, in the anal fin ; and with a short, vertically compressed, diaphanous body.

Form short, very compressed, and high : of a yellowish silvery colour, and diaphanous :
dorsal fin of 22 unequal bony rays ; anal fin of 18 rays ; pectoral fin of 10 rays ; ventral
with 6 rays, of which the first is bony : tail forked, and having 27 rays, including 5 mi-
nute rays on the outer side of each of the longest rays. Greatest size of the fish 3 inches.
Under jaw projecting beyond the upper : shortest dorsal rays in the centre of the fin :
rays generally bony or spiny : scales remarkably thin, and with difiiculty discoverable.

The natives say it is an ocean fish : the name given to it by them is revolting, and
it is considered unwholesome.

This species closely corresponds in its form to the Chanda Ranga of Dr. Hamilton's
drawing, but it has two rays more in the dorsal fin and three in the anal, and moreover,
has its rays mostly prickles, the membranes shorter than the prickles, and the fins not
arched : it has not the gill cover-plates at all indented, and is not greenish in colour :
it must therefore be considered a distinct species, and the difference of location justifies
the inference. Found in the Beema river, at Pairgaon. Native name, ' Gandreechree.'

I at one time thought the present species was the Ambassis Commersonii of Cuvier and
Val., but the formula of the fin-rays in that species differs, being — D. 7 — 1 | 9 ; A.
3 I 9 ; C. 17 ; P. 12 ; V. 1 1 5. I have named this fish after my friend the Secretary of
the Zoological Society.

Fam. ScoMBRiD^.

Genus Mastacembelus, Gron.

Mastacembelus armatus.

Tab. LX. Fig. 2.

A Mastacembelus, with the fins of the tail, back, and vent, united ; with thirty-nine to forty short, sharp,
bony spines along the back, and two behind the vent.

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 351

This fish is nearly cylindrical, but towards and at the tail, the body is compressed.
Head rather depressed, and acuminate from the eyes to the upper lip (which termi-
nates in a mucronate point): upper jaw ridged, like tiie roof of a house. General
colour dark olive, adorned with black blotches. The skin has a beautiful appearance, like
that of plaited work ; the gills are placed almost longitudinally, and the opening is one
inch and a quarter long ; the pectoral fins are nearly circular, and contain more than 25
rays, it being difficult to count the very minute rays. The dorsal fin commences one
inch behind a perpendicular raised from the vent, and is lost in tlie tail, which is rounded.
From the shoulder to the commencement of the dorsal fin, the back has a hue of 39 or
40 sharp, white, bony spines, without membrane between them, those on the shoulders
being very short, and gradually lengthening to the last spine, which is -j^ths of an inch
long. The vent is a little behind the middle of the fish, and close behind it are two
white bony spines, of unequal length, the longest of which is half an inch. The
anal fin commences at the same distance from the tail as the dorsal fin, and cor-
responds with it, excepting in not being quite so deep. The dorsal and abdominal
spines are usually lying along the back, but the fish has the power of erecting them ;
and the severe wounds they are capable of inflicting render it dangerous to handle the
fish when alive.

The length of the specimen described is 21 inches ; diameter at the cylindrical part
of the body one inch and x%ths. The mouth and palate are furnished with dental pro-
cesses, more nearly resembhng the roughness of a file than teeth ; the mouth is small.

This is the fish so commonly known to Europeans as the Eel ; it is highly palatable,
and in much esteem fried for breakfast. It is rather abundant in all rivers in Dukhun,
particularly in rocky pools in the beds of rivers. The usual price is four seers per
rupee,— 7 lbs. 14 oz. 2 dr. avoirdupois for 2 shilhngs.

The fish above described differs from Macrognathus armatus.oi Dr. Hamilton's ' Fishes
of the Ganges' in the palate being beset with dental processes, in the dorsal spines con-
sisting of 40 instead of 37, and in the rays of the pectoral fins exceeding 25. This fish
moreover differs from the generic characters of Macrognathus of Lacep^de, in the dorsal,
anal and ventral fins being united, and in other matters ; the fish, in fact, rather be-
longing to the genus Mastacembelus of Gronovius, figured in the ' R^gne Animal' (p. 205,
fig. 2, pi. 30 of Gue'rin's ' Iconographie du R^gne Animal'), but has the characteristic of
Notacanthus of Bloch in the union of the dorsal, anal and caudal fins ; and it is a ques-
tion whether it may not constitute a genus intermediate between Mastacembelus and
Notacanthus, not having the exact characters of either of these two genera, nor yet those
of Macrognathus.

Native name, ' Waam.'

VOL. II. — PART V. 3 a

352 LIEUT. -COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

Fam. ' Pharyngiens Labyrinthiformes,' Cuv.

Genus Ophicephalus, Bloch.

Ophicephalus leucopunctatus.

Tab. LX. Fig. 3.

An Ophicephalus, with from 51 to 53 rays in the dorsal, and 6 in each ventral fin, and with the rays of the
dorsal and anal fins undivided ; the pectoral fins ending In a central point ; and the fish covered with
white dots.

This fish is of a long and roundish form, and of a reddish or brown-black colour : the
head is very flat ; the eyes close to the snout, circular^ and having yellow irides.
The dorsal fin has from 51 to 53 rays, and extends from near the shoulders almost to
the tail ; the anal fin has from 33 to 35 rays, and, commencing at the middle of the fish,
terminates near the tail ; the pectoral fins have each from 15 to 17 rays ; the ventral
fins are situated beneath the pectoral, and near to each other, and have each six rays ;
the rays are divided ; the caudal fin has 13 rays, exclusive of two or three minute outer
rays : the tail is compressed, not forked, but oval-acuminate at the end. The scales
are numerous ; the mouth wide, and furnished with very small teeth in double rows.
The tail is speckled with white spots, and so are the dorsal and anal fins, and the body
is partially speckled with white. A faint longitudinal line is observable on each side
of the body, extending from the upper insertion of the pectoral fins to the tail. The
length of a specimen brought me at Munchar from the Goreh river was 36 inches, and
its weight was 3^: seers (6 lbs. 6 oz. 8 drs. 7 grs., avoirdupois). The fish sometimes
weighs 6 seers (11 lbs. 13 oz. 4 drs. 8 grs.). The flesh is remarkably firm and sweet,
and the bones are small and not numerous : it is much esteemed by the natives, and
sells at 4 seers (7 lbs. 14 oz. 2 drs. 18 grs.) per rupee. Found in all the rivers of the
Dukhun.

This species differs from the 0. Maulius of Dr. Hamilton, in having two rays less in
the pectoral fins, in the absence of the ocellated spots on the tail-fin, in the dorsal, anal,
and tail fins not being rounded behind, and in having numerous white spots ; neither
is it identical with any one of the species of Ophicephalus figured in Russell's ' Coroman-
del Fishes.'

I never knew this fish to crawl on shore, or in the grass, as some species of the ge-
nus are said to do.

Native name, ' Murrul.'

Fam. Gobiadj;.

Genus Gobius, Linn.

GOBIUS KURPAH.

Tab. LXI. Fig. 1.

A Gobius, with 7 rays in the first dorsal fin, 11 in the second, which is of similar size with the anal fin ;
19 in the pectoral, and 10 in the anal fin.

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 353

Subcylindrical, long, straight, greenish-white, checquered brown, semi-diaphanous.
Greatest length 7^ inches. Very delicate : eyes large, prominent, on the top of the
head, and approximating; under jaw longer than upper; head flattish, wider than any
part of the body : pectoral fins round, of ] 9 rays ; ventral fins of 6 rays, insertions of
both adjoining forming a kind of hood ; first dorsal fin of 6 strong rays, rapidly sloping
from the first ; second dorsal fin with 10 strong rays, nearly equal in length, excepting
the first ray, which is only half the length of the others ; anal fin in size, situation, and
number of rays, corresponding lo the second dorsal fin, situated far from the tail-fin:
tail oval, acuminate at the end, of 14 rays, independently of 5 conglomerate rays on
each external edge. The whole of the rays of the fins, with the exception of those of
the ventral, are barred with transverse red-brown bars, which in the tail-fin are confined
to the membrane between the rays. Lateral line not discoverable : scales imbricate.
Fish not bony, and excellent eating. In an examination of a Kitrpah 7^ inches long
(its largest size) I found the ventral fins united at both extremities, and arranged in a
circle on the thorax. The dorsal fins were distinct, but instead of the first fin consistin
of 6 rays, it had only 5, and the second dorsal fin had 11 instead of 10 rays. A third
specimen examined had 7 rays in the first dorsal fin, and 1 1 in the second. A fourth
specimen was found exactly the same. I have experienced in other genera of fishes
that the rays are not rigidly definite in number in different individuals of the same
species. Found in the Beema river, at Pairgaon. The Mahratta name is ' Kurpah.'

This fish corresponds very closely in its outline to Dr. Hamilton's drawing of the
Gohius giurus, and in its general description ; but, independently of discrepancies in the
number of the rays of the fins, all the rays of the second dorsal and anal fins of Dr.
Hamilton's fish are divided, whereas in the Kurpah they are strong undivided prickles.
The first dorsal fin also differs in form. The red-brown bars are also wanting in the
Gobius giurus, and it has a marked lateral line. This Gobius has also a general resem-
blance to Nos. 51 and 53 of ' Russell's Fishes ' Koku and Bullee Kokah, but the number
of rays and the markings are not the same.

Ord. Malacopterygii Abdominales.

Fam. Cyprinid^.

Genus Cyprinus, Linn.

Cyprinus Abramioides.

Tab. LXL Fig. 2.

A Cyprinus, with 20 rays in tlie dorsal, 8 in the ansJ, and IS in the pectoral fins; without tendrils; with
tuberculated nose ; red-edged fins ; and with a red lunule on each scale.

This is a very large, fleshy, deep fish, somewhat compressed on the sides : the back is
ridged, and the belly rounded. Scales large, of a silvery flesh-colour, and each marked
with a red lunule, the edges of all the fins being tinged with bright copper-colour : back

3a 2

354 LIEUT.-COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

much arched : belly nearly as much so : head obtuse-conic. Lateral Hne in the centre
of the body, running straight from the eye to the fork of the tail. Dorsal fin of 2( ) strong
rays, the first two undivided, sloping rapidly ; pectoral fins of 18 rays, sharp ; ventral
fins nearly triangular, of 9 rays, situated a little behind a perpendicular from the first
dorsal ray ; anal fin of 8 rays, including an anterior double ray, sloping rapidly behind :
tail deeply forked, of 19 rays, besides three minute rays outside each longest ray ; lobes
very sharp, but the line between them sublunulate. Fish described, 21 inches long by
7 inches high ; width 2| inches. Nose or upper lip with minute tubercles : flesh firm,
sweet, and agreeable: bones numerous, but sufficiently large not to be troublesome.
The fish is highly esteemed, and to me appears the most valuable of the Carps in India.

The outline of the body of this fine fish, which is called ' Tambra ' from the general
prevalence of a copper colour in it, is exactly that of the European Bream [Cyprinus
Brama), supposing the anal and the dorsal fins changing places.

In 86 species of Cyprinus described by Dr. Hamilton, there are only two which, from
the composition of their fins, will admit of the Tambra being compared with them — the
Cyprinus Nandina and the Cyprinus Nancar ; but the former has 26 rays in the dorsal
fin, fringed lips, 4 tendrils, and a smooth nose, and must therefore be set aside. The
latter has in every fin precisely the same number of rays as in the Tamhra, and corre-
sponds in form, but it has 4 tendrils, no tubercles, and its lateral line and colour are
quite diflr'erent. The Tambra has certainly a close affinity to the Cyprinus GibeUio of
Bloch, and, like it, wants the tendrils ; but its tuberculated nose, greater size, and re-
markable colour, sufficiently distinguish it.

Cyprinus Potail.

A Cyprinus proper, deep and fleshy ; slightly compressed ; without tendrils ; with the dorsal fin of 1 3 rays,
pectoral of 14, and anal of 9.

A very deep, high-backed, fleshy fish, compressed but slightly. Scales large and
silvery : dorsal fin on the highest part of the back, and having 13 rays, including the
first treble ray ; pectoral fins of 14 rays ; ventral fins of 10 rays, including a very minute
\ bony ray in front of the longest ray : vent far back : anal fin of 9 rays, including the

first treble ray : tail forked, of 19 rays, besides 4 or 5 rays outside each longest ray.
Length of the fish described, 10 inches ; height, 3^ inches ; width, l^ inch. Brought
from Nursewpoor, on the Beema river.

This is a true Cyprinus agreeably to Dr. Hamilton's subgeneric distinctions, but the
number and arrangement of the rays in its different fins will not admit of its being iden-
tified with any of the species described by him.

Found in the Beema river, hear Taimboornee.

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 355

Cyprinus Nukta.

A Cyprinus, with two tendrils on the under jaw, and with two short horns or bosses on the space between
the eyes, whicli, together with the reflected upper li(), are tuberculated ; large scales.

I have mislaid my notes of the number of rays in the fins of this fish, but it is too
remarkable, from the character of its head, to be mistaken for any other species of
Cyprinus ; and as I have drawings of two individuals of the same species, I am enabled
to give a sufficient description of it. The natives call ii ' Nukta,' from the two knobs
or short horns on the nose, between the eyes. I have met with it but at Mahloongeh,
18 miles north of Poona: brought from the Inderanee river. Body subcylindrical and
elongated, but higher at the shoulders than in any other part. Of a rich brown colour,
softening towards the belly, with a golden reflection, and each scale furnished with a
carmine lunule. It does not exceed the length of 5 or 6 inches. Head abrupt ; upper
lip reflected ; chin supplied with two short fleshy feelers ; gill-covers rounded ; the space
between the eyes furnished with two short horns or bosses, which, together with the
upper lip, are tuberculated ; eyes circular, high up ; irides reddish. Dorsal fin before '
the centre ; ventral a httie behind a perpendicular from the last dorsal ray ; pectoral
fins very low down : tail two-lobed ; lobes sharpish. Both Mr. Ruppell and Mr.
Yarrell, who have done me the favour to look over my fishes, express their belief that
the present fish is only a monstrosity of C. auratus, but it is worthy of notice, from its
peculiarities. In the domesticated state we meet with these deviations from nature,
but where man does not interfere I had thought them rare, and yet in the Dukhun
I found them so common as to have a specific native name.

Genus Varicorhinus, Ruppell.

Varicorhinus Bobree.

Tab. LXr. Fig. 3.

A Varicorhinus, with tuberculated nose ; without tendrils ; with 1 7 rays in the dorsal, and 8 in the anal fin ;
with the form of a tench.

An erect tench-like fish, attaining a foot in length. Pectoral fins of 16 rays ; dorsal
fin of 17 rays, including the first double dorsal ray ; ventral fins of 9 rays ; anal fin of 8
rays, including minute rays before the longest ray: tail forked, of 19 rays, exclusive of
6 outer minute rays : scales rounded, darkish on the back, softening to silvery towards
the belly, with a gloss of greenish-gold ; and some of the scales on the centre of the
body have a carmine spot. Length of the fish described, 6 inches ; height before the
dorsal fin, l^^ths. Head conic ; nose tuberculated ; head and gill-covers of a brown
chestnut colour; gill-plates rounded ; eyes far back, circular; pupils surrounded by a
yellow and carmine ring ; nostrils near the lips : ventral fins situated a little behind a
perpendicular from the first dorsal ray. The lateral line is a little below the centre,
bent slightly, with the concave side uppermost. Fish full of minute bones, but very

356 LIEUT.-COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

sweet. This species has quite the outhne of the Tench, the arch of the back being greater
than that of the belly- The Bobree also has the outline, including the tins, of the C.
Catia figured by Dr. Hamilton. The discrepancies are in the Catla having one ray more
in the dorsal tin, in its nose not being tuberculated, in a larger head, in the scales
being marked with vertical lines of dots, and being large, and in its greater size ; but
all these differences may be dependent on age or locaUty.

In Ruppell's ' Fishes of the Nile ' there is a figure of a species of his genus Varico-
rhinus (Tab. III. fig. 2.). Cuvier classes the Cyprinus Catla of Buchanan Hamilton, to
which the Bohree is so nearly allied, with the division of the gold and silver Carps ; but
it is a question whether it is not a real Labeo of Cuvier, with long dorsal, no spines or
cirri, and thick fleshy lips, frequently crenated.

Genus Barbus, Cuv.

Barbus Mussullah.

Tab. LXI. Fig. 4.

A Barbus, with 12 rays in the dorsal, 8 in the anal, and 16 in the pectoral fins ; with the mouth furnished
with 4 ver)' short cirri ; and tuberculated nose : sometimes 3 feet and more long, and a foot high, and
weighing 42 pounds.

Pectoral fins of 16 rays ; ventral of 9 rays ; dorsal fin of 12 rays, including the first
double ray ; anal fin of 8 rays, including the first double ray : tail forked, of 24 rays,
including the short rays at each exterior side of the insertion of the tail : a remark-
able projecting prominence between the upper lip and nostrils, giving to the fish the
appearance of being Roman-nosed : the eyes are situated far back, and between the
eyes and the corners of the mouth there are a number of circular, rough, prominent
papilleB, but these are not constant : corners of the mouth furnished with a short
feeler, and the base of the nasal prominence, near the tip, also furnished with one on
each side: dorsal fin in the centre of the back, on a prominence which slopes sud-
denly behind ; ventral fins on the centre of the belly, on a perpendicular from the
first dorsal ray : tail suddenly narrows below, after the anal fin ; anal fin with the poste-
rior angle bluntly rounded off. The lateral line is slightly arched at the shoulder, then
falls, and runs straight to the anal fin ; over this it rises a httle, and then runs straight
to the centre of the fork of the tail. The whole of the upper parts of the fish are
covered with large, coarse, silvery scales, having blue and red reflections, and on the
under parts a yellow tinge prevails ; it is very bony, and its length, to the end of the
fork of the tail, is 12 inches, and height, 3 inches ; but its greatest growth is 5 feet.
When small fliis species resembles the Kolus, but in the latter, the colour is more red-
dish-silvery : the fins are reddish, and the Mussullah is a much coarser, and infinitely
larger fish A male brought to me at Seroor, from the Goreh river, measured in length
3 feet 4 inches, and in height 1 foot, and weighed nearly 42 lbs. avoirdupois. The flesh

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 357

wanted flavour. The Mussullah differs from the Mosul of Dr. Hamilton, in having 1
ray less in the dorsal and pectoral fins, and in the first rays of these fins being double
instead of quadruple ; in the latter respect, and indeed in many others, resembling the
C. Pulitora : it also differs in having the nose and upper lip tuberculated, and in colour.
The prominence on the nose is also marked. Russell describes three Barbels, calling
them Cyprini, but none of them are identical with the present fish.

Barbus Khudree.

A Barbus, with 4 cirri ; blood- stained fins ; large hexagonal scales ; elongated body ; and with 14 rays in the
dorsal, 14 in the pectoral, and 7 in the anal fins.

Dorsal fin of from 10 to 12 rays ; first long ray a thick strong bone, with 3 very short
bones before it ; the whole four compact: pectoral fins of 12 perfect rays, and 2 in-
complete rays ; ventral fins of 9 rays ; anal fin of 7 rays : tail forked, of 18 rays, besides
4 short rays outside the longest rays : scales large, hexagonal, and of a silvery bluish-
green colour : mouth furnished with 4 short feelers : anal, ventral and pectoral fins tipped
with blood-colour. Lateral line concave, below the centre, and corresponding to the
arch of the belly : the scales along the lateral line emarginate. Length, 10 inches ;
height, 2| inches ; greatest length, a foot and a half; weight, from half to three-quarters
of a seer. This fish has a considerable resemblance in form, size, and habits, to the
Cyprinus Mrigala of Dr. Hamilton ; but its blood-stained fins, 4 feelers, and the discre-
pancies in the number of its fin-rays, sufficiently distinguish it. It is sweet and agree-
able food. The same fish, under varied circumstances of age, has the fins tipped with
bluish instead of red.

Found in the Mota Mola river, 8 miles east of Poona.

Barbus Kolus.
Tab. LXn. Fig. 1.

A Barbus, with 13 rays in the dorsal fin, 8 in the anal, and 10 in the ventral ; with moderate-sized scales ;
with callous tubercles on the head, and a short cirrus at each corner of the mouth.

Dorsal fin of 13 rays, including the first treble ray ; pectoral fins of 14 perfect and 2
imperfect rays; ventral fins of 10 rays; anal fin of 8 rays, including the first double
ray : tail forked, of 19 rays, besides four external minute rays beyond each of the longest
rays : scales small, silver-grey : snout with minute white tubercles. Length, 1 1 inches ;
height 3| ; grows to the length of 18 inches, and weight of 1^ seer. Ventrals barely
behind a perpendicular from the first dorsal ray. Fish subcylindrical, slightly com-
pressed, fleshy : arch of the back and belly similar : posterior angle of anal fin rounded
off. Lateral fine sinks a little from the middle of the gills to the end of the ventral fins ;
thence it rises a little, and afterwards continues straight to the tail. A scaly appendao-e
above the base of each ventral fin : back reddish silver-grey : corners of the mouth fur-
nished with a short feeler. This fish resembles the Mussullah much in form, but the

358 LIEUT.-COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

latter is a larger and coarser fish, and bluer in colour. Very bony, but sweet. Differs
slightly from the Cyprinus Curmuca of Hamilton, in having 2 rays in the dorsal and
1 in the ventral more, and in the scaly appendage to the ventral fins.

Found in the Mota Mola river, 8 miles east of Poona.

We have in this fish another proof of the extreme difficulty of making generic cha-
racters rigidly embrace all the species of a genus. The Barbels have four cirri ; it ought
not, therefore, to be a Barbel. But the species of the next genus, Gobio, are without
cirri and without spines, whilst the present species has two cirri and a spine in the
dorsal ; it cannot, therefore, be a Gobio ; and as its chief characteristics are rather those
of Barbus than Gobio, I have classed it accordingly. However, Cuvier, in the ' R^gne
Animal,' considers the Cyprinus Curmuca of Buchanan Hamilton as a Gobio or Gugeon.

Genus Chondrostoma, Agassiz.
The first divisioD of the genus Leuciscus of Klein. Dorsal fin in the centre of the back.

Chondrostoma Kawrus.
Tab. LXn. Fig. 2.

A Chondrostoma, without lateral hne, tubercles, or cirri : with 12 rays in the dorsal, 8 in the anal, and 1 6
in the pectoral fins.

A subcylindrical fish, with a narrow profile and lance-shaped head : back of a reddish-
green grey, silvery below. Fins with the extremity of the rays tinted reddish ; dorsal
tin of 12 rays, situated in the centre of the back, but two rays undivided ; pectoral fins
of 16 rays ; ventral fins of 9 rays, situated on a perpendicular let fall from the centre of
the dorsal fin ; anal fin of 8 rays, including one short ray before the longest ray. Tail
forked, of 19 rays, exclusive of 4 rays on each side of the longest ray ; lobes of the tail
sharp and equal ; lateral line very rare, and when occurring obscure. Length 6 inches
(grows to a foot) ; height l^^ths. This fish has precisely the same number of rays
in all its fins as the Cyprinus Angra of Dr. Hamilton, but it is abundantly distinct
not only in its colour and in the absence of a dotted stripe, but more particularly in the
want of a lateral line, which is of more importance than the difference of a ray or two
in the fins. The Kawrus belongs to Dr. Hamilton's " Morulius " division of the Cypri-
nus family, and it has a close affinity to his Cyprinus Musiha, but it is not identical with
it. It has much the figure of the European Barbel, or rather of the Salmo fasciatus.
Found in the Beema river, at Seedataik.

Chondrostoma Fulungee.
A Chondrostoma, with dorsal fin of 10 rays, anal 6, and pectoral of 10 ; of an elongated, and not much
compressed shape.
Pectoral fins small, of 10 rays, situated close to the gills ; ventral fins small, of 8 rays,
situated in the middle of the abdomen ; anal fin of 6 rays, an inch from the caudal fin ;

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 359

caudal fin of 20 rays, in two divisions ; dorsal fin on the centre of the back, of 10
strong rays. General form of the fish salmon-like : scales large, silvery : gills without
bony rays : length about a foot; height nearly 4 inches. Bones somewhat numerous,
of several prongs at each end, easily separating from the flesh : flesh remarkably sweet
and firm. The Fulungee, which bears the same name as the fish closely aUied to the
Cyprinus Bacaila, would be referred to Dr. Hamilton's third subgenus of Cyprinus
" Bangana," but it is not to be identified with any of the species, although in outline it
has a close resemblance to the figure of Cyprinus Mrigala, and has other general points
of resemblance. In 86 species described by Dr. Hamilton, only one, like the Fulungee,
has an anal fin with 6 rays (C. Puntio), but the resemblance ceases here ; nor does the
Fulungee belong to the sub-genus Puntio.

Chondrostoma Boggut.

A Chondrostoma, without tendrils or tubercles on the nose; with 12 rays in the dorsal, 15 in the pectoral,
and 8 in the an^d fin ; body of an elongated form.

Pectoral fins small, of 15 rays, sharp, situated low; ventral fins of 9 rays, small,
situated on a perpendicular let fall from the centre of the dorsal fin ; anal fin of 8 rays,
including the first two undivided rays, first ray short ; caudal fin of 19 rays, in 2 lobes,
lobes sharp ; dorsal fin of 1 1 rays, besides one short ray in front of the longest, two first
rays osseous and undivided. Fish elongated; from 7 to 11 inches long; Ifths to 2
inches high. Scales hexagonal, silvery, reflecting gold and purple, each with a mar-
ginal line of very minute dots. Lateral line in the centre, straight : arches of the back
and belly very low, that of the back somewhat more convex than that of the belly :
eyes large, high up ; irides broad, silvery : nostrils double, seated near the eyes. Fish
very bony : flesh dry, somewhat insipid.

This fish has much the aspect of the Cyprinus Orfus ; possibly it is a little less deep.
The Boggut belongs to Dr. Hamilton's third division, or sub-genus ' Bangana ' of the
Carp family, but differs, in having 2 rays less in the pectoral fins, from the Cyprinus Cata,
and in the scales having stria. The Boggut has much the aspect also of the Cyprinus
boga of Dr. Hamilton's drawings. In some parts of the country it is called ' Kolees.'

Chondrostoma Mullya.
Tab. LXII. Fig. 3.

A Chondrostoma, with a short obtuse head, without tubercles or tendrils ; sub-cylindrical body, with 1 1
rays in the dorsal, 14 to IG in the pectoral, and 8 in the anal fins.

Fish sub-cylindrical : head very short, obtuse ; upper lip projecting far over the
mouth ; mouth small ; a red process or protuberance on the snout, between the nostrils ;
a reddish transverse process on the upper lip. Dorsal fin situate a little before the
centre of the fish, of 1 1 rays, including the first double ray, its edge concave ; pectoral
fins of 16 rays, situated very low, longest rays in the centre; ventral fins of 9 rays,

VOL. II. PART V. 3 B

360 LIEUT. -COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

situated a little behind a perpendicular from the first dorsal ray ; anal fin of 8 rays, in-
cluding first double ray. Tail barely two-lobed, the line between the points being concave,
of 19 rays, besides minute rays outside the longest rays ; lateral line above the centre,
straight. This fish does not exceed the length of 5 or 6 inches, and is 1^ to 2 inches
in diameter. There are some few handsome spots of carmine about the head, and the
eye has a narrow, bright orange iris. The general colour is dark olive, with a play of
faint red and copperas-green sometimes on the scales : the fins have a faint orange
tint at their extremities : fish firm, sweet, but bony. Found in the Beema river, at
Downde.

In 86 species of Cyprinus described by Dr. Hamilton there is not one corresponding
to the Mullya, in the arrangement of the rays of the fins ; I am constrained, therefore,
to consider it a new species. The Mullya approaches a good deal in figure to the Dace
of Europe.

Chondrostom-a. Wattanah.
Tab. LXII. Fig. 4.

A Chondrostoma of an elongated form, without tubercles or tendrils, with the dorsal fin high, and having
11 rays ; 9 or 10 rays in the ventral, and 8 in the anal fin ; and of a sub-cylindrical body. Length 4^
inches ; height f ths of an inch.

A long sub-cylindrical fish : reddish-brown on the back, softening to silvery under the
belly : head not obtuse ; eyes far back, circular ; irides silvery. Dorsal fin on the centre
of the back, of 1 1 rays, first ray undivided, large and high for the size of the fish ; pec-
toral fins of 14 or 15 rays, sharp ; ventral fins of 9 or 10 rays, situated a little behind a
perpendicular dropped from the first dorsal ray ; anal fin of 8 rays. Tail forked, of 1 9 or 20
rays, besides 6 short rays outside the longest rays. Lobes sharp, but small, there being
some depth of tail-fin previous to the divarication. Lateral line straight, in the centre
of the fish. Length of the fish 4\ inches ; height f ths of an inch ; does not grow
larger. Found in the Beema river, near Pairgaon.

This fish has quite the figure and aspect of the Dace of Europe. The Wattanah be-
longs to Dr. Hamilton's ninth, or ' Garra ' division of the genus Cyprinus, but there is
not any species with which it can be identified.

Genus Chela, Buchanan Hamilton.
A sub-genus of Lmciscus, with the dorsal fin very far behind over the anal ; straight back, and nose on
the level of the line of the back.

Chela Balookee.
A Chela, of the size of a Minnow : back straight ; body elongated ; dorsal fin situated far back, and having
8 rays, 14 rays in the anal, and 12 in the pectoral fins.
Size and form of a Minnoiv : general colour silvery : pectoral fins of 12 rays ; dorsal
fin of 8 rays, situated where a second dorsal fin is usually found ; anal fin of 14 rays :

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 3gl

tailforked.of more than 24 rays, including outer rays : ventral fins of 9 rays, situated on
he centre of the belly : point of nose forming a continuation of the line of the back ■
leng h, 3 mches. Rsh very sweet eating, bones and all, and it is usually served at
breakfast, fned ; the fishes (ten or a dozen) being arranged laterally, with a silver
skewer run through them. Common in all the rivers

The BalooJcee belongs to Dr. Hamilton's first division of the genus Cyprinus. having
an affimty to he Clupanodons, but it is not to be identified with any of the species
described by him. i/^^ico

Chela Ovveni.
Tab. LXIII. Fig. 1.

A Chela, with straight back, elongated and vertically con,pressed body ; dorsal fia situated far back ,vith
n rays,_12 m the pectoral, and 19 in the anal fins ; with scales so minute as to be scarcely discoverable
Length o inches ; greatest size 7 inches.

A straight, elongated, much compressed fish : the line of the back being strai-ht
and the snout on a continuation of the same fine : the belly arched : top of the head
flat, the lower part curving upward from below. The back is of a very light ohve-rev ■
the abdomen shining silvery : pectoral fins of 12 rays, very sharp ; dorsal fin of 1 l^'ravs'
situated very far back near the tail, edge rapidly sloping; ventral fins of 9 rays each
situated a httle behind the centre of the fish ; anal fin of 1 9 rays, including three minute
rays before the first longest ray: tail forked, of 19 rays, besides 6 small rays outside
he longest rays. One lateral line, and this is quite straight, and situated a httle above
the centre. Length to the end of the rays of the tail 5 inches ; depth f ths of an inch •
does not grow larger than 7 inches : scales barely discoverable. This fish belongs to
Dr. Hamilton's ■ Chela,' or first division of the genus Cyprinus, and has quite the out-
line of the Cypnnus bacaila ; but its want of a double lateral hne, of scale-like appen-
dages about the ventral and pectoral fins, and its having 2 rays more in the dorsal and
o m the ana fins, disable me from considering them identical. Found in most of the
rivers in Dukhun.

Russell's figure (199) is a species of this sub-genus, and Russell supposes his fish to
be the Clupea Dorab of Forskal (No. 108). Cyprinus CuUratus of Bloch would appear
to be the type of the sub-genus.

I have dedicated this fish to my friend Mr. Owen, the distinguished naturalist.

Chela Jorah.
A Chela with straight back, convex belly, dorsal fin far behind ; size of a large Minno. ; with 10 ravs in
the dorsal, 12 in the pectoral, and 8 rays in the anal fin.

A somewhat compressed fish : straightish back, convex beUy : size of a large Min-
now, back dark, with a purpUsh shade softening into silver down the sides and abdo-
men : dorsal fin of 10 rays, situated far back ; pectoral fins of 12 rays ; ventral fins of

3b2

362 LIEUT.-COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

8 rays, situated behind the centre of the fish ; anal fin of 11 rays : tail forked, of 18
rays, besides outer short rays : length about 4 inches ; height, To^hs of an inch : good
eating. This fish belongs to Dr. Hamilton's first sub-genus of Cyprinus, ' Chela,' as far
as the situation of the back-fin and elongated compressed form is concerned, but it is
not described by him. Found abundantly in the Beema river, near Pairgaon.

Chela Teekanee.

A small Chela, with nearly straight back ; snout on the continuation of the line of the back ; belly arched ;
with 10 rays in the dorsal, 12 in the pectoral, and 14 in the anal fins.

A compressed fish : back very slightly arched : snout nearly in a continuation of the
same line : body deep : belly convex : dorsal fin situated far back, of 10 rays, large for
the size of the fish ; pectoral fins of 12 rays ; ventral fins of 9 rays, situated in front of
a perpendicular let fall from the first dorsal ray ; anal fin of 14 rays : tail forked, of 18
rays, besides external minute rays. Colour on the back light reddish -brown, softening
into silver. Length, 2| inches ; depth, fths of an inch. Found in the Beema river, at
Pairgaon.

This fish also belongs to Dr. Hamilton's sub-genus ' Chela,' for the reasons assigned
with respect to the Jorah ; but it is not described by Dr. Hamilton.

Chela Alkootee.

An elongated, silver-white, slightly compressed, minute Chela, with the dorsal fin of about 8 rays, very
far back ; ventral of about 7, and anal of about 10 rays, with burnished silver gill-covers and black
orbits.
Although rarely more than an inch long and not much thicker than a good-sized
crow-quill, this fish is very beautiful, and is sweet eating. The sides are slightly com-
pressed : the back and belly rounded : back straight : the gill-covers quite smooth, and of
a pohshed silver : pupils black ; a black circle surrounds the eyes, and there is a patch
of faint yellow on the forehead : all the rest of the fish is of a silver-white colour, and the
body is semi-diaphanous. The rays are all so delicate that it is only with a microscope
\ they can be counted, and then not with absolute certainty. Dorsal fin of about 8 rays,

situated near to the tail, first ray half as long as the second ; ventral fins a httle behind
the centre of the fish, of about 7 rays ; anal fin of about 10 rays, first ray half as short
as the second, situated on a perpendicular from the dorsal fin ; pectoral fins longer than
the head, very sharp, situated low, of about 10 rays. Lobes of the tail sharp, lowest
the longest : lateral line quite straight : scales excessively minute.

Genus Leuciscus, Klein.

First division. The dorsal situated a little behind the centre of the back, above the space between the
ventral and anal fins.

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 363

Leuciscus Morar.
Cyprinus Morar, Buchanan Hamilton.

A Leuciscus allied to Chela, but with the dorsal fin a little behind the centre of the back, with 8 rays in
each ventral fin, 12 in the anal, and 10 in the dorsal, and with the edge of the belly smooth.

Head and back on the same line : thickish, fleshy fish, somewhat compressed, reddish-
grey on the back, softening into silvery below : edges of the scales so raised as to give
the fish a reticulated appearance : outline of the fish nearly that of a Smelt. Dorsal fin
situated a little behind the centre of the back, of 10 rays, including the first double
ray; pectoral fins of 14 rays ; ventral fins of 8 rays, situated a little before a perpendicular
from the first dorsal ray ; anal fin of 12 rays, including the first double ray : tail forked,
of 19 rays, besides 8 minute rays outside the longest rays : length 4f inches; depth
Iro inch.

With the exception of a single ray less in the pectoral fins, the Amlee has precisely
the number of rays of the C. Morar of Dr. Hamilton ; the situation of the fins and the
size and form of the fish correspond with sufficient exactness ; and although there are
some discrepancies with respect to colour, and one or two other matters, I conceive
myself justified in considering them identical.

Leuciscus Sandkhol.

A Leuciscus, with nearly cylindrical body ; dorsal fin of 12 rays, pectoral of 14, and ventral of 10 rays.

Long sub-cylindrical fish : gibbous head : olive on the back ; silvery on the belly :
dorsal fin of 1 2 rays, a little before the centre of the fish ; pectoral fins of 1 4 rays ; ven-
tral of 10 rays, situated on a perpendicular from third dorsal ray ; anal fin of 8 rays,
including 1 double ray: tail forked, of 19 rays, besides minute outer rays. 8 to 10
inches long, by 1^ to 2 inches high. Bony : eyes with whitish narrow irides.

Found in the Goreli river at Kullumb.

Leuciscus Chitul.

A Leuciscus, with 14 rays in the dorsal, 14 in the pectoral, and 8 in the anal fins ; of a reddish-grey colour,
and rounded head.

Small sub-cylindrical fish : 5 inches long ; height 1^ inch : tail deeply forked : dorsal
fin of 14 rays ; pectoral fins of 14 rays (possibly 15) ; ventral fins of 9 rays, situated on
a perpendicular from the centre of the dorsal fin ; anal fin of 8 fleshy rays : tail of 19
rays, besides small rays outside, tinged with reddish. General colour of the fish reddish-
grey. Head rounded.

Found in the Inderanee river, near Chakun.

It being found impracticable to arrange, in any of the sub-genera described, the fol-
lowing fishes of the Carp family, it is proposed to place them in a new sub-genus, which
I will call by the native Mahratta name of ' Rohtee.'

364 LIEUT.-COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

RoHTEE, nov. genus.

Carps, with a lozenge-shaped body, rather long dorsal and anal fins, the former seated on the angle of
the back, with the first complete ray serrated posteriorly ; scales minute.

RoHTEE OgILBII.

Tab. LXIII. Fig. 2.

A Rohtee, with 12 rays in the dorsal, 9 in the ventral, and 17 in the anal fins ; the body very compressed,
and very high, with the back sloping to each end from the centre.

An erect, compressed, deep fisli : lance-headed : reddish-purplish silvery on the back,
softening into silvery below : back angular : dorsal fin situated on the angle, of 10 rays,
besides 2 rays before the longest ray ; first long ray a strong bone, serrated posteriorly ;
pectoral fins of 1 5 rays ; ventral fins of 9 rays, situated on a perpendicular let fall from
the first dorsal ray ; anal fin of 1 5 rays, besides 2 before the longest ray : tail forked ;
lobes sharp, but not deep, of 19 rays, besides 8 minute rays on the outside of the
longest rays. Eyes very large : head short ; mouth descending obliquely. Lateral line
arched near the shoulders, thence straight to the tail. Scales not large ; uniform over
the body. Length, 4| inches ; height, \\ inch. Fish bony. Found abundantly in the
Beema river, near Pairgaon.

The Rohtee has the appearance of Clupanodon Chanpole of Dr. Hamilton ; also of
Cypriims devario in the outline of the body ; and were it proper to consider it a Cyprinus,
which its armed back-fin renders impossible, it would be placed in Dr. Hamilton's
eighth sub-genus ' Cahdio.' I have named this fish after my friend Mr. Ogilby, whose
contributions to natural history are so well known.

Rohtee Vigorsii.
Tab. LXIH. Fig. 3.

A Rohtee, with armed dorsal fin of 1 1 rays, ventral of 10, and anal of 28 rays ; compressed body ; high in
the middle, and sloping to each end.

A compressed, lance-head-form silvery fish, with the snout turned up : upper line of
the head straight, lower curved upwards from below : greyish light green on the back,
white on the abdomen : dorsal fin of 11 rays, including the first ray, which is bony and
double, and the second ray long-toothed posteriorly ; pectoral fins, including minute
rays, 16 ; ventral fins of 10 rays, and anal fin of 28 rays, including 2 minute rays before
the first long ray : tail deeply forked, of 27 rays, including 4 on the outer side of each
longest ray : ventral fins in advance of a perpendicular dropped from the dorsal fin : Une
of the dorsal and anal fins concave : lobes of the tail long and very sharp : dorsal fin
situated on the top of a keeled process from the back. Scales very minute, roundish,
quite transparent, and becoming invisible on the abdomen : back angular : eyes very

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 355

large and high up Length, 6 inches ; depth, l^ths inch : extreme length, 8 inches
Found abundantly ,n the Beema river, at Pairgaon. The native name is ' Pkenk
I have dedicated this fish to my friend Mr. Vigors, the distinguished naturalist.'

ROHTEE PaNGUT.
A Roktee, of a compressed and deep fonn. with an angular back, and having 12 rays in the dorsal 14 or 15
.n the pec oral, and 8 in the anal lins. and with the first 3 or 4 rays of L dorsal fin hLcHuhel tip.

An erect and somewhat compressed fish: line Of the back somewhat angular: dorsal fin
ray pectoral of 14 rays, possibly 15 ; ventral of 9 rays, situated a httle behind a ner

ail ork d, of 1 9 rays, besides minute rays on the outer side of the longest rays • back
and head yellowish-brown ; silvery towards the abdomen. Brought frL the Beema
river, at Nursewpoor. Length 5 inches ; height li ; width -ths 0? an inch. Fift 3

Chakun, brought from the Baum river. The Pangut belongs to Dr. Hamilton's ei<^hth
sub gen , CaMio, of C,,™, and has the outline of bod of C,,. J.^X, but
size of the fins render it otherwise quite distinct, and there is not any other fish of thi
sub-order with which it can be identified.

RoHTEE TiCTO.

Cyprinus Ticto of Buchanan Hamilton.

.adeup of minute dots, one small sp^l abo'ver. pecL^Lre ^Jott
situated on the tail, above the last anal fin ray, and one minute spo , someHme ."n
ing near the base of the first dorsal ray. It has the shape of a Sprat, ^J^Zel
ceeds n inch in length and most commonly does not approach an i;ch.^Do" all
Situated on a ridge on the centre of the back, and consisting of 10 rays • the first and
second undivided; the first, half the length of the second, the second a bone sharply
but minutely toothed behind ; pectoral fins of 10 or more rays, situated low down, and
very narrow and sharp, the first ray being the longest ; ventral fins, situated on a per-
pendicular let lall from the first dorsal ray. of 8 rays ; anal fin of 8 rays, situated mid-
way between the ventral fins and base of the fork of the tail ; first ray half as long as
he second: the tail suddenly contracts after the anal fin: tail-fins of 2 equal sharp
obes, and composed of 18 rays, besides small rays. Lateral line very obscure' above
the centre, corresponding to the arch of the back. Scales large for size of fish, marked

366 LIEUT.-COL. W. H. SYKES ON THE

with numerous minute dots at their base, visible mostly with the microscope. The
native name of the fish is ' Tipree.'

Although the Tipree differs from Dr. Hamilton's Cyprinus Ticto, in having one ray-
less in the ventral and caudal fins, and one more in the anal, and mention is not made
of the occasional spot at the base of the first dorsal ray, I am nevertheless satisfied they
are the same from the figure of the Ticto in Dr. Hamilton's Plates.

Found in the Mota Mola river, at Poona.

Genus Cobitis, Lin.

COBITIS RUPELLI.

Tab. LXIV. Fig 1.

A nearly cylindrical scaleless Cobitis, not much thicker than a large goose-quill ; from 2 to 3 inches long ;

with 6 cirri; colour, including the fins, greenish-yeUow, with the exception of the belly, which is white ;

the lateral line marked with short brown bars, and the rays of the dorsal and anal fins similarly barred ;

tail-fin cheveroned with brown.
The head acuminated : eyes high up, and prominent ; irides partly golden : dorsal fin
of 13 rays, including a minute ray in front of the longest ray, higher and longer than
any but the tail-fin ; pectoral fins of 12 rays, the central ray the longest ; ventral fins
of 8 rays, situated behind a perpendicular from the first dorsal ray ; anal fin of 8 rays,
including the first double ray; tail-fin large, rather notched than forked, the lobes
being small, of 19 rays, besides minute rays on the outer side of the longest rays. The
head, although acuminated, has the snout rounded : it is unarmed, and there are small
cirri at the corners of the mouth, and 4 small ones on the edge of the upper lip, the
two intermediate ones being shorter than the exterior. The lateral line runs straight
along the side of the fish. The native name is ' Mooreh.'

The Mooreh has a close afiinity to the Cobitis Cilturio of Dr. Hamilton, but it differs
in the number of its rays supporting the fins, and slightly in the arrangement of its

colours.

The Mooreh is a very beautiful little fish, is in great esteem for food, and is found in
the Beema river, near the town of Taimbournee ; in the Mota Mola river, near Poona,
and probably in most of the other rivers of Dukhun.

Cobitis Mooreh.

A Cobitis, with the same name of ' Mooreh ' ; it differs from the preceding only in
being of a smaller size, in having 12 rays in the dorsal, and 7 in the anal fin: the
head is more obtusely pointed, and there are more dark blotches on it : the transverse
dark marks on the body are not arranged along the lateral line and over the back, and
alternating with each other : it differs, moreover, in having the tail wedge-shaped, and
finally in having very minute scales. The fins have a very light orange tint.

Found in the Mota Mola river, at Poona.

FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 367

CoBiTis Maya.

A Cobiiis, with the same name of ' Mooreh ' : it differs only from the first in having a
prickle under each eye, in having a hlunter head, in having but 9 rays in the dorsal fin
and 7 in the ventral fins, and in the tail being wedge-shaped, and it differs, moreover,
in having excessively minute scales. The above fishes resemble each other so much in
aspect, that it requires minute examination to satisfy the mind of their being of different
species.

Found in the Mota Mola river, at Poona.

Fam. EsociPiE.
Genus Belone, Cuv.

Belone Graii.
Tab. LXIII. Fig. 4.

A Belone, with the fin of the tail rounded and emarginate ; with both jaws elongated into a quadrangular
beak ; with very minute scales ; and with a dorsal of 16 rays, and anal of 16 rays.

Form long, thin, and cylindrical : length 9^ inches : jaws subulate, almost linear,
armed with teeth, those of the upper jaw alternating with those of the lower : jaws 2
inches long : fins all very small : pectoral fins of 10 rays ; ventral fins of 6 rays ; anal
fin of 16 rays ; dorsal, or fin above anal fin, and adjoining the tail, of 16 rays : tail 16
rays. Scales excessively delicate, small, thin and silvery : whole fish of a silvery colour ;
greenish upon the back : bones few: flesh very sweet and delicate: upper jaw a very
little shorter than the lower ; lower jaw slightly turned up at the tip : teeth large,
distant, with many minute teeth between them.

Differs from Esox C