ZOOLOGY. 495 



the marsupials. Tbe wombats [Phascolomys) of Australia, for example, 

 Lave rodeut-like incisor teeth, and have been generally regarded as rep- 

 resentatives of quite a peculiar family. Mr. A. M. Forbes, after a special 

 examination of the koala {Phascolarctas) and collaterally of other forms, 

 came to a different conclusion, and has proposed to combine the wom- 

 bats, the koala, and the i)halangers in one family, or at least group of 

 families, of which the several types named may in the former case con- 

 stitute subfamilies. The common characters of the three forms com- 

 bined under the name PJialangisticlce are a " diprotodont marsupialia, 

 with clavicles, and not more than six incisors above the hallux present, 

 the second and third digits of the pes smaller than the others, and more 

 or less united together by integument; stomach not sacculated; caecum 

 present; glans penis more or less bilobed ; vaginre provided with median 

 culs-de-sac which may unite." The phalangers (5 genera) constitute the 

 subfamily (1) Phalangistivw ; the koala the subfamily (2) Phascolarctincn, 

 and (3) the wombats the subfamily (3) Pliascolomylnoe? (P. Z. S., 1881, 

 180-195.) 



On the structure of the pharynx, larynx, and hyoid hones in the Epo- 



mophori. 



"In all species of Chiroptera of which the structure of the i:)harynx 

 and larynx has hitherto been described, and in all of those examined up 

 to the present by [Dr. Dobson], the form of these parts has been found 

 remarkably simple, differing but slightly from that of the insectivora, 

 all agreeing in i^ossessing a short pharynx generally guarded bv a short 

 acutely-pointed epiglottis, which, in some genera [Harpyia, Yampyrus, 

 e. g.), is almost obsolete, opening close behind the fauces, near to which 

 also the posterior nares enter, and in the small size of the laryngeal 

 cavity and feeble development of the vocal chords, the hyoid bone also 

 being slender and connected by a chain of simj^le cylindrical bones with 

 the cranium. 



" In the Epomophori, however, we find in the structure of all these parts 

 a remarkable departure from the general type; the i)harynx is long and 

 very capacious, the aperture of the larynx far removed from the fauces; 

 and opposite to it a canal leading from the narial chambers and extend- 

 ing along the back of the pharynx opens; the laryngeal cavity is spa- 

 cious, and its walls are ossified, and the vocal chords are well developed; 

 the hyoid bone is quite unconnected, except by muscle, with the cranium ; 

 the ceratohyals and epihyals are cartilaginous and greatly "exjianded, 

 entering into the formation of the walls of the pharynx, and, in the males 

 of two species at least, supporting the orifices of the large posterior pair 

 of air-sacs which extend beneath the integument of the sides of the neck." 



Dr. Dobson then proceeds to describe the structures exemplified in 

 the Epomophorus fraqueti in detail, and finally considers the physiology 

 of the modified parts in the following terms : 



"The remarkable form of the hyoid bones and great development of 

 the isthmus faucium part of the pharynx, in which (though especially 



