1870. DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. 477 
It is necessary to speak with caution of the inferences deducible 
from pelvic formation, as sex, age, &c. render data unstable, unless 
an extensive series are studied side by side. The pelvis of the young 
female Saiga resembles that of the adult female Red Deer; but the 
adult male Saiga’s does not agree with it. The ilia of most Deer are 
shorter, the pubic angle wider, the brim is not so round, the sym- 
physial ridge and the ischial tuberosities relatively less pronounced. 
Sheep contrasted with Saiga have a more oval contour of brim, 
their anterior superior spinous processes, external ischial spine, and 
postischial tuberosity are, as in it, large, yet less produced ; the 
pubic angle is narrow and short. A greater differentiation obtains 
in the Goat, Ibex, and Chamois, where the bony processes are less 
developed and the pubic angle is wider. 
lI. Nasau CHAMBERS AND Myo.oey. 
1. The Nares. 
Outer aspect.—The organ, par excellence, which first excites at- 
tention and gives a peculiar character to the Saiga is its trunk-like 
proboscis (fig. 12). No existing Ruminant, to my kuowledge, is 
furnished with such an exaggerated nasal apparatus, though some few 
have the upper lip more than ordinarily elongated. It is, however, to 
the ample soft narial walls that the Pig-like or proboscidean face is 
due in Saiga. As in Swine, its extremity is abruptly truncated ; but 
it differs very materially from theirs in being soft and flabby, with- 
out a discoid fibro-cartilaginous expanse; and the nasal orifices are 
very patulous. Neither is the Saiga’s nasal enlargement quite after 
the type of the Elephant and Tapir, where the trunk is provided 
with a tactile retracting tip. The Horse, again, bears a resemblance to 
the Saiga in its greatly dilated nostrils, which, however, are more car- 
tilaginous ; and its upper lip is much more callous and prehensile. 
Externally and in front the nose and muzzle of the Saiga have a se- 
milunar contour, the lip broad, hairy, and mesially grooved, but not 
deeply fissured. The nares have an extreme transverse diameter of 
2 inches, and each is an inch in depth. Each wide nostril is sub- 
oval, and, when dilated, inclines upwards and outwards, where it is 
rather wider than at the septum. ‘This latter exteriorly is mode- 
rately thick, but thin interiorly for 2 or 3 inches backwards. The 
nasal passages are about 4 inches long from the external orifice to 
the nasal cartilages, 2 inches deep, the width depending greatly upon 
the contraction of the facial muscles ; for the passages themselves are 
very lax and pliant in the dead body. The accurate Pallas has not 
passed unnoticed that the floor and outer wall are clothed with 
longish silky white hairs, and studded with sebaceous follicles, the 
septum naked, and that there is a peculiar maxillary sac opening 
within the cavity of each naris. 
Nasal sac.—This sac possesses much interest, as helping, with 
others, to a better understanding of the homology of the Cetacean 
nasal sacs, which I have treated upon and compared with this else- 
Proc. Zoo. Soc.—1870, No. XXXII. 
