198 On the Sivatherium. 



the correctuess of the ordinal position assigned to the fossil ; but, when ve in- 

 quire farther, the difficulty ceases. In the Pach3'dermata, there are genera 

 with a trunk, and others without a trace of it. This organ is therefore not 

 essential to the constitution of the order, but accidental to the size of the 

 head, or habits of the animal, in certain genera. Thus, in the elephant. Na- 

 ture has given a short neck to support the huge head, the enormous tusks, 

 and the large grinding apparatus of the animal ; and, b_v such an arrangement, 

 the construction of the rest of the frame is saved from the disturbance which 

 a long neck would have entailed. But, as the lever of the head becomes 

 shortened, some other method of reaching its food becomes necessary; and a 

 trunk was appended to the mouth. We have only to apply analogous condi- 

 tions to a ruminant, and a trunk is equally required. In fact, the camel ex- 

 hibits a rudimentary form of this organ under different circumstances. The 

 upper lip is cleft ; each of the divisions is separately moveable and extensible, 

 so as to be an excellent organ of touch." 



GeofFroy de St Hilaire, on the contrary, maintains that it he- 

 longs to the Giraffe trihe, an opinion rejected hy M. de Blain- 

 ville, who remarks that there is no other resemblance between 

 the Sivatherium and the Giraffe than that which belongs to ani- 

 mals of the same order of rimiinants, as is evident on comparing 

 the figure of the head of the Sivatherium, plate ii., as given by 

 Messrs Falconer and Cautley, with that of the Giraffe, in plate ii. 

 In this comparison, M. de Blainville notes the following par- 

 ticulars : — 



" 1st, In the Sivatherium, the general form of the head is angular, we might 

 almost say triangular, very large behind, with an elevated vertex ; and, on 

 the contrary, much contracted and attenuated before, and exhibiting only 

 two depressions, the one of no great depth, behind the orbits ; and the 

 other very conspicuous before the molars. The upper mesial line ascends 

 very rapidly from the anterior extremity to the posterior ; and the inferior, 

 on the contrary, starts up at an acute angle from behind the maxillary to- 

 wards its vertebral portion, somewhat as is observed in the rhinoceros, so that, 

 if the head be placed on a plane resting upon the teeth, the condyles of the 

 occipital are raised far above tliat plane. In the Giraffe, on the contrary, the 

 head is long and straight, with an almost uniform slope throughout the whole 

 length, both in the upper and under mesial line, so that the two extremities 

 are scarcely raised from any plane on which it lies. Its greatest breadth is 

 besides from side to side, and not behind, but near the middle, in the diameter 

 of the orbits, when ;e it becomes smaller, both behind and before, 



2d, In the Sivatherium the occiput, or rather the vertex, is exceedingly re- 

 markable, inasmuch as, in addition to its great height, it also bulges out on 

 each side into a considerable protuberance, so much so that Dr Falconer and 

 Captain Cautley imagined that these protuberances may have been prolonged 

 into horns ; were this the case, then it would follow, that, as in oxen, the pos- 

 terior enlargement of the head would be formed by the frontal bones, — a sup 



