1876.] ON THE CRANIAL CHARACTERS IN RHINOCEROSES. 443 



3. On some Cranial and Dental Characters of the existing 

 Species of Rhinoceroses. By William Henry Flower, 

 F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. 



[Received May 15, 1876.] 



While engaged lately in cataloguing the osteological specimens of 

 the genus Rhinoceros in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, and at the same time, through the kindness of Dr. 

 Giiuther, examining those at the British Museum (the two col- 

 lections comprising a total number of fifty-four skulls), several 

 points in relation to the distinctive characters of the different species 

 came under my notice, which I think may be worth bringing before 

 the Society. 



The principal distinguishing characters in the skeleton, dentition, 

 and even the folds of the skin, of three distinct forms of Asiatic 

 rhinoceroses were clearly and concisely pointed out by Cuvier in the 

 third volume of the last edition of the ' Ossemens Fossiles ' (1834). 

 De Blainville *, Duvernoy t, and Blythjhave also added to our 

 knowledge of the same three forms, which in fact appeared to be 

 well established as the only ones existing in that region of the 

 world. The late Dr. Gray, however, with far more abundant 

 material at his disposal than either of the above-named zoologists, 

 came to very different conclusions from them, both as to the num- 

 ber, distinctive characters, and relations of the various species of 

 the group § ; and it is partly with the view of ascertaining how far 

 his views can be accepted that the observations about to be recorded 

 have been made. It is the more necessary that this should be done 

 without further delay, as Dr. Gray's arrangement of the species has 

 already been adopted in zoological and palseontological literature ||. 



As is well known, the existing Asiatic Rhinoceroses are sharply 

 differentiated from those of Africa by the presence, throughout life, 

 of well-developed and functional incisor teeth. The Museum of 

 the College of Surgeons contains eighteen skulls of rhinoceroses of 

 the former group of various ages, most of them, unfortunatelv, 

 without locality. The British Museum contains twenty, making ;i 

 total of thirty -eight Asiatic skulls, upon which the following obser- 

 vations are based. 



The whole of these, in my opinion, can be grouped into three 



* Osteographie des niammiferes. Tome iii. " Rhinoceros" (1846). 



t •' Nxmvelles etudes but les Rhinoceros fossiles," Arch, du Mus. t. iii. 185-1- 

 55. 



\ "A Memoir on the living Asiatic .Species of Rhinoceros," J. Asiat Soc. 

 Bengal, xxxi. 1862, p. 151. 



§ " Observations on the preserved Specimens and Skeletons of the Ehinocero- 

 tidce in the collection of the British Museum and Royal College of Surgeons, 

 including the Descriptions of three new Species," P. Z. S. 1867, p. 1003 : mostly 

 reprinted, with the illustrations, in the ' Catalogue of the Carnivoiwis, Pachy- 

 dermatous and Edentate Mammals in the British Museum,' 1869. 



|| See R. B. Foote, Rhiiiocen sis, ' Palreontologica Indica,' 1*74. 



