700 



i 



ueck is longer, and the head of the bone larger : there is a fabella behind each condyle. The 

 tibia is shorter than the femur : the rotular ridge is less produced than in the Dog. The fibula 

 is less flattened at its lower half, and more independent of the tibia than in the Dog. The 

 entocuneiform supports a rudiment of the metatarsus of the hallux, as in the Dog : the caj- 

 caneal process is shorter, thicker, and more twisted inwards. 



The animal from which the skeleton was prepared was purchased in the year 1821 by the 

 Very Rev. Dr. Buckland, in order to carry on his experiments on the mode of feeding, and 

 on the nature of the excrements, of the Hyaena, which experiments are detailed in the 

 work entitled, ' Reliquiae Diluvianae,' p. 15 et seq. The creature lived in Mr. Cross's Mena- 

 gerie until the year 1845, when it died, with an enormous goiter. 



Presented by the Very Rev. Dr. Buckland, F.R.8. 



4447. The skull of the Spotted Hyaena (Hyana crocuta). 



The teeth have been removed from the right side of both jaws, and are separately displayed. 

 The first simple premolar above, p 1 , has no homotype below : the first premolar of the lower 

 jaw has two roots, and answers to the second, p 2, above. The fourth tooth below, which is 

 the carnassial or sectorial one, answers, as in other Carnivora, to the first of the true molar 

 series, m 1, and corresponds to the small double-rooted tubercular molar, m 1, above. With 

 the exception of the upper sectorial, the premolars have remarkably strong conical crowns, 

 girt by a cingulum at the base, which developes a small accessory cusp posteriorly, and well 

 adapts these teeth for the business of cracking and crushing the bones, which the Hyaena 

 devours with the flesh of the carcasses on which it feeds. The affinity of the Hyaena to the 

 Viverridce is shown by the broad, triangular, rough plate formed by the paroccipitals and 

 mastoids, and applied to the back part of the acoustic bullae : but the pterygoid processes are 

 not pierced by the ectocarotids. The strength of the muscles which work the jaw is shown 

 by the extent of the temporal fossae, the height of the sagittal crest, the thickness and the 

 expanse of the zygomatic arches, the height of the corouoid processes, and the depth of the 

 strongly-defined fossa? into which the great muscles of mastication are inserted. The antor- 

 bital foramina are small semilunar slits. The nasal processes of the maxillaries extend further 

 back than the points of the nasals. There are two oblique foramina in the palatal processes 

 of the maxillaries behind the incisive foramina. The palatines are imperforate. 



Purchased. 



4448. The skull of the Striped Hysena (Hyeena vulgaris). 



It corresponds pretty closely with that of the preceding specimen ; but the cerebral cavity 

 is proportionally less expanded, the molar teeth are relatively weaker ; the upper tubercular 

 molars are, however, larger, and the anterior accessory cusp at the base of the third and fourth 

 upper premolars is better developed. There is a small additional cusp on the inner side of 

 the posterior division of the lower carnassial tooth. In neither species does the maxillary join 

 the nasal. 



From the Himalaya Mountains. 



Presented by Colonel Finch. 



