582 



3501. The left ramus of the lower jaw of the same species of Chevrotain, with the 



roots of the grinders exposed. 



Presented by Prof. Owen, F.R.8. 



3502. The skull of a young Pigmy Chevrotain (Moschus pygm&us), showing the 

 deciduous series of teeth. Hunterian. 



Genus Alces. 



3503. The skeleton of a male American Elk (Alces Macklis, var. americana). 



The vertebral formula is: 7 cervical, 13 dorsal, 6 lumbar, 4 sacral, and 11 caudal, the 

 terminal one, perhaps, being wanting. Eight pairs of ribs directly join the sternum, which 

 consists of seven bones : these bones, as in other Kuminants, increase in breadth and decrease 

 in depth as they extend backwards : there is no manubrial process, there being no clavicles. 

 The transverse process of the atlas is perforated vertically by the vertebral artery, which 

 afterwards perforates the neural arch : there is a hypapophysial tubercle. In the three suc- 

 ceeding cervicals the hypapophysis forms a ridge ; in the fifth it becomes a tubercle ; in the 

 sixth it has disappeared. The pleurapophysial part of the transverse process extends down- 

 wards and forwards from the third to the sixth cervical inclusive, in which it forms a broad 

 compressed plate. In the seventh cervical the transverse process is represented by the 

 diapophysis only, and consequently is imperforate : the spine of this vertebra suddenly enlarges 

 both in height and antero-posterior extent ; but that of the first dorsal is nearly double its 

 dimensions, and is itself exceeded in length by the spines of the four following dorsals, after 

 which the spines rapidly shorten. The metapophysial ridge becomes distinctly developed in 

 the eighth dorsal, is a tubercle in the ninth, forms a process exceeding in length the diapo- 

 physis in the tenth and eleventh dorsals, and subsides to a tuberosity in the twelfth and suc- 

 ceeding vertebrae, where its position has changed from the diapophysis to the zygapophysis. 

 There is a slight trace of an anapophysis in the last lumbar vertebra. The spine of the 

 scapula terminates in a right angle, which is not produced into an acromion : the coracoid is 

 a low tuberosity. The humerus is entire between the condyles. The ulna is continued to 

 the carpus, and its distal extremity only is anchylosed with the radius. The slender rudi- 

 ments of the outer (second) and inner (fifth) metacarpals extend two-thirds up the coalesced 

 middle (third and fourth) metacarpals : a small sesamoid bone between the magnum and 

 inner coalesced metacarpal may represent the trapezoides. The medullary artery enters the 

 fore part of the shaft of the femur, near its proximal end, and the canal goes downwards and 

 backwards. The fibula is represented by its distal epiphysis only, which is wedged between 

 the tibia and calcaneum. The scaphoid is confluent with the cuboid. There is a rudiment of 

 the middle cuneiform bone, answering to the trapezoid in the carpus. The digits answering to 

 the second and fifth are represented by the phalanges only, the proximal of which is a short 

 compressed bone, articulated to the trochlear sesamoids behind the joint of the coalesced 

 metatarsals of the two large middle toes, answering to the third and fourth. 



The animal from which this skeleton was prepared was 

 presented by the Trustees of the British Museum. 



