1870.] DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. 487 
ish-yellow, the right placed on the summit of the kidney, the left 
nearer the hilus. In one specimen only could I dissect them satis- 
factorily ; and in this they were slightly separate from the kidneys. 
3. The Alimentary Canal and Accessory Glands. 
The cesophagus, 15 inches long in the female and 223 in the male, 
has its cardiac orifice opening into the paunch, as sd dees in most ru- 
minants; though Hyomoschus* and Tragulust+ offer exceptions in 
its directly communicating with the reticulum. Pallas has figured 
the four-fold stomach of Saiga tartarica, and beside it has placed 
for comparison that of the Antilope gutturosa. His description of 
the former agrees in most particulars with what I have- found, 
though, as might be predicted, his rigid measurements do not quite 
accord with my different-aged specimens. 
~ I may reiterate that the paunch is capacious, and bifid at its 
greater curvature, the reticulum of moderate size, the psalterium 
is comparatively small, and the abomasus of fair dimensions. 
It may further be noted that the cuticular papillary villi of the 
paunch are short and club-shaped. The cells of the reticulum are 
of moderate depth, with rudiments of stellate septa within. The 
folds of the psalterium correspond with Pallas’s description, as do 
the plications of the abomasus. 
The same authority mentions that in the abomasus there are often 
found woolly balls incrusted by a blackish tartar, as in the Sheep. 
But no such foreign substance was present in the digestive cavity of 
the Society’s two specimens. 
In our Proceedings for 1865, p. 262, Dr. Edwards Crisp makes the 
following statement :—‘‘ 1 supposed, until recently, that only the 
Camelidz had water-cavities in the stomachs; but on dissecting an 
Antelope from Siberia, the Saiga (Antilope saiga), I was surprised 
to find two large water-bags in the rumen.” Unfortunately my eye 
did not catch this paragraph until I had thrown away the said por- 
tion of the viscera of both animals. But I avow that I cut up in 
each Saiga the stomachs throughout their entire course, and aver 
that neither my assistant, who was present, nor myself detected such 
a structure. Pallas, whose opportunities were numerous, and who 
carefully describes the interior of each cavity of the stomach, does 
not allude to any such remarkable disposition of the parts. 
Having great faith in Dr. Crisp as a careful and conscientious 
observer, I felt it but justice to communicate with him previously to 
reading this paper. He has been kind enough to reply to me, and 
as respects the above says, ‘I cannot find the paper of the dissec- 
tion of the Antelope, nor can I lay hands on the dry preparation of 
what I supposed to be water-bags in the paunch; but I give you 
the size on the other side [alluding to a sketch enclosed]. These 
may be abnormal from a lesion, or some other cause ; and if it is the 
* Flower, P. Z.S. 1867, p. 957, & fig. 2. 
t+ ‘Sur la famille des Chevrotains,’ Monograph by M. Alphonse Milne- 
Edwards: Paris, 1864. 
