1875.] ON THE HYOID BONE OF THE ELEPHANT. 365 
in the product from the oocyans is about 2 the breadth; and its 
centre is a little further from the blue end, being at wave-length 497 ; 
and caustic potash does not develop any band as in the other sub- 
stances. On the whole, then, if we follow the same line of reasoning 
as that adopted in the case of oorhodeine, we are led to conclude 
that the product of the oxidization of the two kinds of oocyan is in 
some way connected with a product of the change and oxidization of 
the colouring- matter of bile ; and thus we may perhaps be justified in 
concluding that there is some chemical relation between the oocyans 
and bile. Bilirubin can indeed easily be converted by oxidization into 
a blue substance ; but this differs entirely from either of the oocyans, 
both in its spectrum and in the character of the products of its 
decomposition. The residual bile-product found in feces is in all 
probability a representative of a much further stage of change than 
to the oocyans ; and if it could give rise to them it would be by a 
process of integration, which is not at all likely. On the whole 
their connexion with bile is as if we had two parallel series of pro- 
ducts depending on two distinct physiological processes—one in the 
liver giving bile, and the other in the oviduct giving rise to eggshell- 
pigments, 
ConcLusIon. 
In conclusion I would say that the chief points which I have, I 
think, established are that all the varied tints of birds’ eggs are due 
to mixtures of a limited number of colouring-matters, having well- 
marked specific characters. Except in one particular case, there is 
apparently no intimate connexion between the organization of the 
birds and the colouring-matters secreted; but, if further inquiry 
should prove that on the whole these substances are formed naturally 
only during the development of the eggs of birds, it would, I think, 
be an important fact in relation to comparative physiology and 
chromatology, as showing that special coloured substances are secreted 
under special anatomical and physiological conditions, as does indeed 
occur in the case of many other normal and abnormal secretions. 
2. On the Hyoid Bone of the Elephant. By A. H. Garrop, 
B.A., F.Z.S., Prosector to the Society. 
[Received April 1, 1875.] 
The hyoid apparatus of the Indian Elephant (Hlephas indicus) 
presents peculiarities which a study of the same in the Ungulata 
would tend to complicate rather than to simplify. The basihyal 
together with the thyrohyals form an arch (of which, by the way, I 
have not seen the components anchylosed even in adult specimens )— 
which does not present the least difficulty, a small pair of cartila- 
ginous lesser cornua being present in the position of the lesser 
cornua of anthropotomy. It is the stylohyals which, as far as I 
can find, have not yet been correctly described. Of them Prof. 
Owen remarks*, ‘From the middle of the stylohyal a slender 
* Anatomy of Vertebrata, vol. ii. p. 441, ; 
