Vertebrata. Zoological Collections. 43 



of the haunches, 2 feet 8^ inches. This antelope was found in the eastern part of 

 Abyssinia. 



Antilope montana (pi. 3.) This species, described as new, is nothing else than 

 the A. scoparia of Schreber Bull, des Sci. Nat. xxi. 462. 



The new species of Birds discovered by Dr. Ruppell in Northern Africa, will 

 be given in our next Number. Ed. 



Distribution of the Prussian Elk. — How far the Prussian Elk agrees with, or 

 differs from, the Scandinavian animal of that denomination can probably not be 

 made out in the present state of the science. It may even remain an undecided point 

 for some length of time ; for the Prussian elk falls not easily in the way of a sci- 

 entific traveller : it is, as far as I know, only to be met with in one place, a low 

 swampy tract of land stretching along the eastern shores of the lake called Curish 

 Haff, between the Russ and the Gilgue, the two principal outlets of that river, 

 which is called by the Germans Memel, by the Polanders Niemeyi, by the Li- 

 thuanians Niemona. This tract is for the most part covered with wood, and in 

 this wood the elk finds shelter and food ; it goes by the name of the Forest of 

 Ibenhorst. The thriving population in the neighbourhood would long ago have 

 destroyed this valuable animal, if the Prussian government had not protected it 

 by laws, almost as severe as the game laws of England, against the avidity of 

 poachers — WittichinJourn.of Roy. Institut. I. 121. 



Notice of the Erinaceus setosus, Lin. {Centenes setosus, Desm.) — M. Julien 

 Desjardins lately sent to the Museum of Natural History of Paris, from the Mau- 

 ritius, six specimens of the tanrec, (called tandk or tandka by the Creoles,) about 

 four inches long. Yellow bands on a brown ground are peculiar to the young 

 animal ; fallow is the colour of old age. The specimens sent home were all 

 young, only a few months old. M. Desjardins mentions that it is difficult to 

 procure the old ones, the negroes are so fond of them for food. The tanrec is 

 very prolific, having as many as fifteen, and sometimes eighteen at a birth. It is 

 a singular fact in the natural history of this animal, that it should hibernate from 

 June to November in so warm a climate. M. Desjardins is of opinion that the 

 tanrec comes originally from Madagascar, and that this is the animal which some 

 travellers have noticed as a hog, or a very large rat.— Ann. des Sci. Nat. xx. 179. 



Two bones peculiar to the Common Hedge-hog (Erinaceus Europseus ;) by J. 



F. Meckel In a late number of the Archiv. fur Anat. und Physiologie, M. 



Meckel described two little bones which seem to be peculiar to the common 

 hedge-hog. They are situated in the pillars of the diaphragm, at the part where 

 the tendinous portion becomes fleshy, near the middle of the second lumbar vertebra. 

 They are intimately united to the substance of the diaphragm, but less firmly 

 connected with the intervertebral cartilages. They are of a flattened form ; their 

 greatest dimensions is from above downwards, that is to say, from the vertebral 

 column towards the belly. Their length is about three lines, and their greatest 

 breadth a line and a half. They are very slender. 



These two osseous pieces correspond to the superior part of the oblique orifice, 

 through which the aorta passes into the abdominal cavity, and they closely sur- 

 round the trunk of the artery. They are found in both sexes ; but they have not 

 yet been observed in the mature foetus. M. Meckel has sought for them in vain 

 in the mole, marten, fox, many species of bat, and the hamster. He is led to 

 consider them as rudiments of a V-shaped bone, or inferior spinous processes, 

 especially as the aorta passes between them. — Bull, des Sci. Nat. xxi. 311. 



Tympanum of the Three- Toed Sloth M. Vander Hoeven has remarked that 



the tympanum of the three-toed sloth, is not, as in other mammalia, hollow ex- 

 ternally, but, on the contrary, swelled out, — a fact which has escaped the best 

 known authors. Sir E. Home mentions an analogous structure in the cetacea. 



