332 A MEMOIR ON THE EXTINCT 



I observed an apparently recent skull labelled "Peccary, presented by Dr. Samuel Brown, 

 December, 1805." It struck me as being unusually large, whicb led me to compare it 

 with the heads of the Dicotyles torquatus, and D. labiatus, when it proved without doubt 

 to be very distinct from either. But how the head of a third species of existing Peccary 

 should be preserved in the cabinet of our Society for forty-seven years, and the animal be 

 entirely unknown, puzzled me. On examining the minutes of the society for 1805, to find 

 out the locality from whence the specimen was obtained, the mystery was solved. At a 

 meeting of the Philosophical Society, December 20th, 1805, "The bones of the head of 

 a new animal, found in a saltpetre cave, and a specimen of pure native saltpetre, were 

 presented by Dr. Brown of Kentucky." In the course of the same meeting the head was 

 referred to Dr.Wistar for examination, who, at the meeting of January 7th, 1806, reported 

 that the head of what was supposed to be a new animal, presented by Dr. Brown, proved 

 to belong to the Peccary of South America, as described by Daubenton in Buffbn's work. 



Dr. Harlan refers to this skull in a foot note to page 222 of his Fauna Americana, and 

 observes it "certainly belonged to the recent Pcccari.' 1 '' 



The remarkable condition in which the specimen has been preserved no doubt favoured 

 the impression of those who examined it, that it belonged to the recent Peccary. The 

 texture remains entirely unchanged, and it looks as fresh as if prepared but a few years 

 ago, and had become ochreous yellow from being kept out of the influence of light. With- 

 in the open fangs of several of the molars I noticed a few small pieces of adhering adipo- 

 cire. Its state of preservation, however, is not so remarkable as in the case of the bones 

 of the Megalonyx laqueatus, Harlan, contained in the Cabinet of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, and found under similar circumstances: namely, in a cave in Tennessee. These 

 bones not only retain their original texture, but also have attached shreds of fibrous tissue, 

 portions of articular cartilage, and upon one os unguis nearly the entire nail. 



With the exception of the greater portion of the ossa nasi, one upper canine, and all 

 the incisors but one inferior lateral, the cave head under consideration is almost perfect, 

 (PI. 35, 36.) 



The animal to which it belonged had not yet reached adult age, although many of the 

 sutures of the skull are nearly obliterated. The summits only of the anterior lobes of the 

 last molars of both jaws have just protruded, and the deciduous molars had not been shed. 

 The latter are preserved on the left side of the upper jaw, but all those of the lower jaw, 

 and of the right side above, except one, are lost. 



The general form of the cave head is most like that of the recent Peccary, but differs 

 strikingly in the great relative breadth of the forehead and the more abrupt narrowing and 

 greater degree of prolongation of the face. 



The upper part of the occiput in the fossil is relatively broader and shorter than in the 

 Peccary, and the lateral margins, instead of being nearly parallel, as in the latter, form 

 with the summit a semicircle. The infero-latcral portions of the occiput on the same plane 

 with the mastoid portions of the ossa tempora present more outwardly or are more bent 

 forwards. The occipital foramen has the same form as in the Peccary, but the superior 

 margin projects more posteriorly. The condyles have the same relation to the foramen, 

 and the para-mastoid processes the same form and direction. 



