1 32 LIFE OF FLOWER 



Between the years 1880 and 1883 several papers on 

 mammalian zoology were published by Flower in the 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society and elsewhere, 

 none of which can be regarded as of first-rate import- 

 ance. The first of these (P.Z.S. 1880) dealt with 

 the internal anatomy of that rare mammal, the bush- dog 

 (Speothus, or Icticyon, venaticus\ of Guiana, which had 

 never previously been described. The author regarded 

 this animal as a specialised member of the Canidae, 

 showing some signs of affinity with the wild dogs 

 (Cyon) of Asia. In 1880 the museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons received a very large skull of the 

 elephant-seal or sea-elephant (Macrorhinus leoninus); 

 and this induced Flower to draw up some notes on that 

 enormous creature, which appeared in the above-named 

 journal for 1 88 1. The author described it as "an 

 animal which, notwithstanding its former abundance 

 and wide distribution, and its great zoological interest, 

 is still very imperfectly known anatomically, and very 

 poorly represented in collections." Fortunately, since 

 that date mainly owing to the energy and liberality of 

 Mr. Rothschild specimens of the skin and skeleton 

 of this huge seal have been secured for our museums 

 before it was too late. In the same volume Flower 

 drew attention to the evidence showing that the sea- 

 cow, or manati, of which a pair were living at the time 

 in the Brighton Aquarium, occasionally, or periodically, 

 comes ashore for the purpose of grazing. In the same 

 year appeared an article from his pen in the British 

 Medical Journal on the anatomy of the Cetacea and 

 Edentata; while in 1882 the question of the mutual 

 relationships of the mammals commonly included in 



