180 Dr. Gerard Krefft on a Cuvierian 



itself, which, spun or twisted, was used by the aborigines to 

 prepare fishing-, duck-, and wallabj-nets. 



I can guess pretty well the age of native skulls, often 

 brought here, by examination of the teeth, because the practice 

 of chewing typha-fibre has ceased with the introduction of 

 twine. I may have misunderstood Professor Owen regarding 

 the wear and tear of incisor teeth ; if he means to say that they 

 do wear with age my remarks are superfluous. I regret that 

 Professor Owen has so little faith in my observing-power, and 

 more so that it is so difficult to convince him of his errors. I 

 have explained to him, by way of long letters, photographs, 

 casts, and original specimens, that the genus Zygoviaturus^ 

 established by the late Mr. W. S. Macleay, must be retained, 

 because the mandibular teeth of the animal which he has 

 named Nototherium are totally different in shape and structure 

 from those of Mr. Macleay's creature. Those who are able to 

 do so may compare them (Cat. Royal Coll. Surgeons, Mamm. & 

 Aves, plate 8. fig. 5, Nototherium ^ and Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. xv. 

 plate 7. fig. 1). Professor Owen again and again refers to 

 Mr. Macleay's genus under the designation of Nototherium ; 

 and as my own generic and specific terms have been super- 

 seded, sometimes in the most off-hand manner, by badly in- 

 formed naturalists, I consider it my duty to keep facts such 

 as these before the public. Professor Owen says (p. 263) : — 

 " No evidence of a megatheroid or other edentate animal has 

 been had from any cave or fossiliferous deposit in Australia. 

 The ungual phalanges (plate 13. figs. 11, 12, 13, 14) are too 

 small for Nototherium and Diprotodon, if even one were to 

 entertain the idea of those huge marsupial Herbivora having had 

 sheathed, compressed, decurved, pointed claws like those which 

 the phalanges in question plainly bore. These phalanges are 

 much too large for the Thylacinus and Sarcophilas. But there 

 is no other associated carnivore corresponding in size with 

 that of the animal indicated by them save the Thylacoleo.^'' 



When sending the photographs and casts of these " claw- 

 bones," I said to Professor Thomson : — " We shall have some 

 fun, depend upon it ; Owen will claim them as ' Thylacoleo- 

 claws,' just as he claims Macleay's Zygomaturus to be the 

 part to which the Nototherium^ & mandibles belong." Good, 

 clever, liberal, and obliging Professor Thomson is gone to 

 his long home, and Professor Owen has not disappointed my 

 expectations. 



The claw to which I more particularly refer as being that 

 of a " megatheroid animal," and which, with its next joint, 

 is deposited in the Australian Museum, where it may be in- 

 spected (table case C), is what I stated it to be — " the ungual 



