1874.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON A NEW CROCODILE. 145 



Indeed, I may here remark that I have proposed the name Ovis 

 brookei out of respect to the assiduous labours undertaken by that 

 gentleman, who is now engaged iu the production of a monograph 

 of the sheep, illustrated by Mr. Wolf. 



The head of this new Sheep now exhibited is believed to have been 

 obtained by Sir Morrison Barlow some years since at Leh, in Ladak. 

 It was parted with to a friend, from whom it subsequently passed, 

 upwards of two years since, into my possession. 



The late Mr. Blyth, who was so high and excellent an authority on 

 sheep, was very desirous of describing the specimen which I have 

 this evening brought before the Meeting ; but I preferred to defer his 

 doing so till I had obtained other heads. This I have not yet been 

 able to accomplish ; I, however, hope to do so shortly, and thus to 

 be further enabled to supplement my remarks in support of this new 

 species. 



4. On Crocodilus madagascariensis, the Madagascar Crocodile. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



[Eeceived January 30, 1874.] 

 (Plate XXIII.) 



Cuvier, in the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' p. 44, mentions a specimen 

 of a Crocodile from Madagascar, brought by M. Havet, and con- 

 siders it the same as the one from continental Africa ; I was in- 

 clined to do the same with two specimens of the young in spirits, 

 which the Museum received as coming from Madagascar. Lately 

 the British Museum has received a rather larger specimen direct from 

 Mr. Lormier, who collected in Madagascar ; and on comparing this 

 specimen and the other two with specimens of C. vulgaris from con- 

 tinental Africa, of about the same size, I find that they all have the 

 beak rather longer and slenderer compared with its breadth, and with 

 straighter sides. At the same time, the sides of the lower jaw of all 

 the specimens from Madagascar are pale and marbled with darker 

 spots, and the sides of the abdomen of the larger stuffed specimens 

 are marked with dark rounded spots placed in oblique cross lines — two 

 peculiarities which I have not observed in any of the specimens from 

 continental Africa. I am therefore inclined to think they indicate 

 that the Crocodile which inhabits Madagascar is distinct from that 

 which inhabits continental Africa ; and I propose to call it Ci'ocodilus 

 madagascariensis. 



I have seen it somewhere observed that the Crocodile of Madagas- 

 car is like the Crocodile from A merica, Molinia acuta ; but this is a 

 mistake ; for although its head somewhat approaches in shape and 

 proportion to that of Molinia acuta, its skull and the shields of the 

 body are those of a true Crocodile. 



The true Crocodiles have a cross series of four or six small occipital 

 shields in a line, and a nuchal disk behind them of six larger keeled 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 18/4, No. X. 10 



