63 
: ft. in. 
Length from forehead to point of shoulder........ 1 11 
Length from point of shoulder to SA is fin a hao 3 0 
Breadth between eyes across head...... Blake wie es 
Length of ear ......-+ +++ eees SET Pr 0 8} 
“ He is a stallion, and has a broad dark stripe down the back, and 
a fainter stripe across the shoulders. 
‘He is said to be about a year and a half or two years old, and 
was caught when very young by a Hunia. 
« He is not nice in his food, and is perfectly tame. He is not at all 
timid, but in stubbornness and obstinacy surpasses even the common 
ass. In order to save him from the ill-treatment and injury to which 
his stubbornness would expose him, a poney was provided to accom- 
pany him to Calcutta. When this poney was led in front, he fol- 
lowed quietly ; but when alone, he could with difficulty be made to 
move a single step.” 
After some remarks by Mr. Gray and other Fellows of the Society 
on the interest with which Mr. Thomason’s specimen of the Kiang 
would be received in this country, the following paper was read. 
OBSERVATIONS RELATING TO SOME OF THE FoRAMINA AT THE BASE 
or THE SkuLL In Mammatia, AND ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF 
THE ORDER Carnivora. By H. N. Turner, JUN. 
Of all those parts of an animal frame to which the zoologist may 
direct his search for characters truly indicative of the affinities of the 
species, or of the group to which it obviously belongs, there is per- 
haps none in which a greater number of such characters are presented 
at one view than in the lower surface of the skull. Here are seen,— 
not only the teeth, whose differences of structure always have, and 
always will be, made considerable use of in assigning characters to 
zoological divisions, in whatever way our opinions as to the value of 
the characters derived from these organs may be modified by further 
researches,—but also the form and development of the zygomatic 
arch, with the capacity of the temporal fossa, and the mode in which 
the jaw is articulated; the form and extent of the bony palate, with 
its pterygoid appendages, the situation of the occipital foramen, and 
the structure of the condyles to which the atlas articulates, and many 
other characters of greater or less apparent consequence, may in the 
under surface of the cranium be all distinguished at a glance. 
Accordingly we find that such of our more modern naturalists 
whose endeavour has been to fix classification upon a truly philo- 
sophic basis, instead of resting satisfied with the arbitrary sub- 
divisions formerly in use, have directed their observations particularly 
to this part, so that the more obvious characters which it affords 
have been well observed, and turned to very useful account in deter- 
mining the extent and affinities of groups ; but in some cases, where, 
from the very close alliance existing between the genera, the differ- 
ences presented in this part are necessarily very minute, their im- 
_ portance in a zoological point of view has not as yet been recognized. 
‘As some of the characters of which I propose to avail myself in the 
