May 27, 1875 J 



NATURE 



69 



Cavicomia, in being independent ossifications, situated, 

 on the suture between the frontal and parietal bones 

 instead of simple outgrowths from the frontal only. A 

 median excrescence on the forehead, in front of the 

 above-mentioned processes, is the result of a protrusion 

 upwards of the bones in the part. 



The Pronghorn {Antilocapra) has well-developed horns. 

 They are attached to ordinary bony cores, exactly similar 

 to those of the Antelopes. They are, however, unique of 

 their kind in that they are branched or bifurcate at their 

 tips, a second smaller point springing from the anterior 

 margin of the flattened stem, and running forward with a 

 gentle curve, convex upwards. In another respect these 

 horns are even more peculiar. Mr. Bartlett, the Super- 

 intendent of the Society's Gardens, was the first to show, 

 from a specimen living in the Gardens, that the Pronghorn 

 is in the habit of annually shedding its horns from off 

 their cores. This surprising discovery has since been 

 fully confirmed; at the end of each season the core being 

 found covered with a skin from which the fresh horn is 

 developed. 



Respecting the geographical distribution of the Cavi- 

 cornia, none are to be found in Australasia or in South 

 America. Very few inhabit North America ; the Big- 

 horn Sheep, one of the Bisons, the Musk Ox, the Moun- 

 tain Goat, and the Pronghorn embracing them all, Africa 

 is the head-quarters of the sub-ordei', and specially of the 

 Antilopine family. In Europe the Bison is a native of 

 Poland, the Chamois and the Ibex of the Alps ; whilst 

 the peculiar Saiga reaches our side of the Caspian Sea. 

 Among the best known Indian Antelopes are the Sasin 

 or Antelope par excellence, and the Nilghau, 



The Chevrotains, or Tragulidas, form a group of small, 

 deer-like animals, without horns, which were formerly 

 associated with the Musk Deer. The investigations of 

 Prof Flower have, more than any others, proved the in- 

 dependent nature of the group, which approach in their 

 internal anatomy to the Pigs. The third stomach of 

 other Ruminants — the Psalterium— is wanting. In the 

 axis vertebra, the odontoid process, instead of being 

 scooped into a spout, as in the Deer and Antelopes, is 

 peg-like, as in the Swine. The second and fifth meta- 

 carpal bones are completely developed from end to end, 

 and the lateral marginal intervals of the upper jaw 

 between the canine and molar teeth are not cut away, as 

 they are in other Ruminants. These and other pecu- 

 liarities in the teeth, &c., are quite sufficient to divide off 

 the sub-order as an independent one, ranking with the 

 others previously described. The number of genera and 

 species are very inconsiderable, there being two of the 

 ioxvaexiHyo^noschusdirvdi. Tra^ulus), and not half a dozen of 

 the latter. Hyojnosclms inhabits Western Africa, occu- 

 pying much the same ground as does the Chimpanzee. In it 

 the metacarpal bones remain separate during the life of 

 the animal, as in the Swine, and not in the other Ruminants. 

 The fur is spotted like that of most young deer, through- 

 out life. Tragulus is found, two species — T. meminna 

 and T. Stanley aims — in India, the Napu {T. javanicus) 

 and one or two others making Java and Sumatra their 

 abode. 



(7'tf be continued.) 



RARE ANIMAL AT THE MANCHESTER 

 AQUARIUM 



AMONG the numerous new accessions brought to- 

 gether to swell the list of special attractions for 

 the throngs of Whit-week visitors at the Manchester 

 Aquarium, one of the latest arrivals is especially deserving 

 of notice in these columns. This is an example of the 

 so-called ''Congo Snake" {Mttranopsts tridactvld), ixom 

 the neighbourhood of New Orleans, a singular eel or 

 snake-likc animal, belonging, nevertheless, to neither of 



the classes represented by those two types, but rather to 

 the true Amphibia. Judging from its shape, proportions, 

 and colour, the uninitiated would certainly pass it as an 

 ordinary eel, from which, on closer examination, it will be 

 found to differ in possessing no fins, small bead-like eyes 

 a mere puncture in the place of the ordinary gill- 

 operculum, though more especially in having stationed at 

 each extremity of the attenuated body a pair of feeble 

 little legs, and each leg furnished with three slender toes. 

 These legs may be described as almost rudimentary, but 

 they are at the same time used by the animal, and with 

 more marked effect than might be presupposed, when 

 crawling over the ground at the bottom of its tank. 

 Rising into the midst of the water, it can further swim 

 with great rapidity, progressing then by rapid undulations 

 of its body from side to side, after the manner of a true 

 snake. The length of this specimen is about two feet 

 six inches ; greatest diameter, in the centre of the body, 

 one inch and a half, tapering off from the posterior pair of 

 legs into an attenuate and slightly compressed tail. The 

 colour closely resembles that of an ordinary eel, being 

 slate-grey on the dorsal surface and sides down to the 

 lateral line, and below this, ash colour. Along the lateral 

 line is a double row of minute punctures, the orifices, no 

 doubt, of mucous glands similar to those obtaining in true 

 fishes. The animal has to repair to the surface of the 

 water to breathe, but this is at distant intervals, a large 

 quantity of air being drawn through the nostrils into the 

 lung-pouch by a singular inflation of the throat, repeated 

 several times in succession. This specimen is exhibited 

 in one of the octagon table tanks in the centre of the 

 saloon, eighteen inches in depth, so that when taking in 

 its supply of air it does not altogether leave the ground, 

 but raises itself in a semi-erect position until the head 

 touches the surface of the water. With the head just an 

 inch or two below the surface, and standing, as it were, 

 upon its posterior legs, with the anterior pair held out 

 helplessly in the water, is a very favourite attitude with 

 this creature, though at the same time an essentially gro- 

 tesque one, reminding the observer of the somewhat 

 similar attitude and general appearance, on a colossal 

 scale, of the larva of Ourapteryx or other of the Geo- 

 metria moths. In its native swamps the " Congo Snake " 

 is reputed by the black population to be highly venomous, 

 an injustice to the poor creature as great as when applied 

 by our own benighted countrymen to the harmless Newt 

 or Triton of English ponds and streams, and of which it is 

 merely a highly interesting and most extraordinary exotic 

 type. 



We are indebted for this rare and, indeed, at present, we 

 believe, in this country, unique example of this species to 

 Capt. A. H. Mellon, of the Dominion and Mississippi 

 Steamship Company, to whose influential and friendly 

 assistance we are also under further obligations for a fine 

 young alligator some two feet long, the trophy of a pre- 

 ceding voyage. W. Saville-Kent 



THE PROGRESS OF THE TELEGRAPH* 

 VI. 



IT has already been observed that from the limited 

 speed on the wire, the development of any extended 

 system of telegraphic communication between the centres 

 of commerce in a country where great distances have to 

 be reached, involves a vast outlay in the duplication of 

 the circuits necessary to afford the requisite transmitting 

 powers, and that by the adoption of the automatic 

 process, in addition to the accuracy of its performance, 

 the greater speed obtained upon long circuits enabled 

 the telegraphic service to be conducted by a much 

 smaller number of wires, thus reducing in a most im- 

 portant degree the outlay of capital expended on con- 



• Continued from p. 33. 



