Hyoidean Apparatus of the Lion &e. 225 
Separated on the plate, so as to be fitted into it, although 
there was no very obvious reason for selecting this particular 
figure to be treated in that way. But I now believe that in the 
preparation from which the figure in question was taken the 
hyoid at the point indicated was divided by the interposition 
of a ligament which was lost in maceration; and, secondly, 
that Blainville’s assertion that the two bones were connected 
was nothing but an inference based upon the assumption that 
when the ligament is present the suspensorium contains only 
two bones, and that when the suspensorium is composed of 
three bones the ligament is absent. 
The reasons given above for the opinion that Blainville’s 
interpretation of the hyoid of F. onca was erroneous is 
supported by the presence of the ligament in two examples 
of this bone that I possess. In one, taken from a young cub 
(fig. 2, D), there is a long cartilaginous styloid process, broad 
above and tapering below, with a single cylindrical ossifica- 
tion in its lower half a little less than its own length from 
the cartilaginous inferior extremity. From this extremity a 
longish ligament passes to the summit of the ceratohyal. 
In this example the hyoid is rather smaller than that of a 
domestic cat (/. catus). Ina second, much larger example 
of the hyoid taken from a jaguar about one year old (fig. 2, EK) 
the styloid process is divided into two distinct portions—an 
upper, long, and somewhat curved cartilaginous piece and 
a lower piece, consisting of a slender cylindrical bone with a 
cartilaginous epiphysis at each end. From the short inferior 
epiphysis the ligament runs to the ceratohyal. 
The correspondence between the elements of the two hyoids 
just described is quite clear from the figures (fig. 2, D, E) ; 
and if the figure of the more advanced of the two be com- 
pared with. that of the adult hyoid of F. onca depicted by 
Blainville, it will, I think, be evident that the two long bones 
coustituting the upper end of the suspensorium in the adult 
are the homologues of the long cartilaginous element and the 
shorter bony element in the one-year-old example above 
described, the only difference being that the upper portion of 
the suspensorium is ossified in the adult and cartilaginous 
in the young. 
In a very young leopard (fig. 2, C) I find that the suspen- 
sorium consists of a long, cartilaginous, curved, styloid process, 
broad at the top and tapering at the point, a longish liga 
ment, and a short weakly ossified ceratohyal. In a full- 
grown le (fig. 2, B) it is composed of the same elements, 
but the inferior half of the styloid is ossified, its superior, 
- broader, and more flattened half remaining cartilaginous. It 
Ann. & Mag. N. ist. Ser. 8. Vol. xvii. 15 
