422 BuUiiia American Muscutn of Natural History. [\"ol. XXVII, 



etic significance of different kinds of characters in different orders. The 

 work might begin with a series of side vicAvs of the skeleton as a whole, 

 accompanied by a very brief tabulated statement of the mode of progression, 

 nature of the food, etc., of each animal figured. This would be followed 

 by side views of the skull, palatal views showing especially the foramina, 

 which should be carefully identified, top views and back views; longitudinal 

 sections, details of the skull such as composition of the auditory bulla, form 

 of the auditory ossicles, etc. A series showing the throat bones would come 

 next. The vertebral column with the ribs on the further side only would 

 follow, then a ventral view of the thorax showing the sternum and shoulder 

 girdle. The fore and hind limbs would he figured as a whole in side view, 

 the separate parts in front view. Special attention would be paid to both 

 front and back views of the carpus and tarsus, especially the astragalus. 



Doubtless such a work would be far beyond the resources of most in- 

 vestigators and could only be accomplished adequately by the application 

 of modern cooperative methods to the science of osteology. But M. Edmond 

 Hue's 'Musee Osteologique' (1908), with its 2187 careful drawings of the 

 bones of recent and quaternary mammals, indicates what may be accom- 

 plished in that direction by even a single investigator. 



Another requisite for the testing of hypotheses of relationship among 

 primitive orders is a thorough re-study and careful figures of the osteology 

 of such very primitive mammals as the insectivorous Dasyurids, various 

 species of the smaller Didelphids and Phalange rs, and of the more primitive 

 Insectivores such as Microgalc, Geogale, Ericulus, II;/!omi/s, Anurosorex, 

 Uropsilus, Tupaia, Ptilocercus, Rliyncliocyon. Among the Viverridfie, 

 Eupleres, Nandinia, Galidictis, Cyywgalc, might be refigiu-ed to advantage. 

 All these forms have been figured before but what is needed are more figures 

 of young skulls showing the limits of all the bones and the location of the 

 principal foramina. Parker's invaluable work on the development of the 

 skull in the Edentates and Insectivores (1885-86) sets an example in this 

 respect. The certain identification of the foramina requires in some in- 

 stances the dissection of representative types. 



Since the skeleton is the framework for the muscles, a thorough knowledge 

 of the former would be possible only to one who understood well the origin, 

 insertion and action of the muscles. The subject of comparative myology 

 appears to be still largely in the descriptive stage, ^ but there is urgent need of 

 more studies of the kind typified by Gaudry's memoir (1906.1) upon the 

 attitudes of certain extinct Patagonian ungulates. 



In studying the orders of mammals the student should look for "palseo- 



iThe important researches of Messrs. Windle and Parsons cited below (pp. 478, 504) offer 

 a decided exception to this statement. 



