300 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE GREAT ANTEATER. [Mar. 7, 



eater, though present as rudiments in Tamandua, and well developed 

 in Cycloturus^. 



In the larger specimen of the two examined by me I find, how- 

 ever, a distinct one present on each side, lying in the muscles, about 

 an inch long, nearly straight, of flattened form, with one end cylin- 

 drical. Similar ones were also present, closely attached to the 

 sternum, but of smaller size, in the second specimen. Rapp (/. c. 

 p. 40) found a rudimentary cartilaginous one in IMyrmecophaga, 

 though he (erroneously) denies one to Tamandua. There is also 

 an accessory ossicle developed at the head of the fibula, as in some 

 of the fossil forms. 



In the anterior cornu of the hyoid bone, I find in both specimens 

 three distinct ossifications". The proximal of these is a small nodule 

 of bone, '3 inch long, articulating below with the basihyal ; it is 

 called the " apohyal" by Pouchet, but, according to the nomencla- 

 ture now ordinarily employed, must really be the cerato-hyaP. The 

 other two long curved ossifications of the anterior cornu must there- 

 fore be the epi- and stylo-hyals respectively. 



Both Rapp {I. c. p. 61) and Pouchet (' Memoires,' p. 95, pi. xii. 

 figs. 1-3) describe the posterior cornu as articulating externally with 

 the anterior one. But in neither of my specimens can I find any 

 evidence of such a joint, as the two cornua, when in their undis- 

 turbed condition, are separated by a considerable space, in part 

 occupied by a muscle (the intercormialis, Owen, /. c. p. 127); and 

 in the cleaned bones I also find it impossible, without violence, to 

 bring the two arches into such contact together. In Tamandua, 

 though there is a distinct ligament between the two arches, they 

 are nevertheless similarly separated ; and neither Duvernoy'', who 

 dissected this species, nor Owen, in his account of Myrmecophaga, 

 allude to any such interarticulation existing ; Owen's figure (pi. xxxix. 

 fig. 2) indeed clearly shows the two cornua separated by the inter- 

 cornualis muscle, as also observed by me {cf. Plate XV. fig. 1, int). 



At the place where the three main ducts of the submaxillary 

 glands of each side converge to become intimately connected to- 

 gether by their walls, though they still remain quite separate tubes, 

 they are covered by a mass of muscle which forms a bulb-like 

 sweUing for an extent of 1| inch on the inferior aspect of the con- 

 joined ducts (Plate XV. fig. 1). It is this mass of muscles that has 

 been described by Owen {I.e. p. I2(j) as the " constrictor salivaris," 

 a name adopted by Pouchet subsequently. 



The external aspect of the ducts is also, for the posterior half inch 

 of this space, covered by a thick muscular coating, so that in this 

 portion the three ducts are encircled by a broad ring of muscular 

 fibres. These fibres arise from the anterior edge of the anterior 

 hyoid cornu, on each side of the junction of the stylo- and epihyal 



1 'Osteology of the Mammalia,' by W. H. Flower, p. 235: London, 1876. 

 - The accounts given by different authors of the compositon of the hyoid 

 bones in the Anteaters differ considerably hiter se. Cf. Pouchet, 'Memoires,' 

 pp. 93-95. 



^ In Tamandna I am unable to find any corresponding ossification, though 

 both the epi- and stylo-hyals are well developed. 



* Mim. Soc. Hist. Nat. Strasbourg, 1830; and Cuvier's Anat. Comp. 2me ed. 

 iv. part 1, p. 476. 



