THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. IX. 



No. v.— MAY, 1902. 



(D:RXG-xjsr jl.1L, .a.:rtigl:es. 



I. — Some Account of a nearlt complete Skeleton of 

 SippoPOTAMUs Madagasgariensis, Guldb., from Sirabe, 

 Madagascar, obtained in 1895. 



By C. I. Forsyth Major, M.D., F.Z.S. 



(PLATE XII.) 



THE skeletou of a Hippopotamus Madagascariensis, Guldb., in 

 the British Museum (Natural History) has been mounted from 

 materials excavated by myself in the marshes of Sirabe (Central 

 Madagascar) during the year 1895. The skull, lower jaw, several 

 of the vertebrae, and presumably some other bones belong to the 

 same individual. 



My workmen reached a depth of five metres ; the bones from 

 which the skeleton is composed were found in the superficial 

 deposit, but remains of Hippopotamus, apparently of a single species, 

 are numerous at all depths. 



We have a careful description of the skull and skeleton from 

 the same locality by G. A. Guldberg,^ and one by A. Grandidier & 

 H. Filhol on materials collected by the former in the marshes of 

 Ambolisatra on the south-west coast." I myself have published 

 some notes on the affinities of the Malagasy Hippopotami with the 

 other then known species, living and extinct.^ 



There are in the British Museum (Natural History) rich collections 

 from the interior and from the coast, which afibrd the materials for 

 an exhaustive monograph of at least two of the three or four 



1 G. A. Guldberg, " Undersoegelser over en sublossil tiodhest fra Madagascar" : 

 Christiania Videnskabsselskabs Forbandlinger, 1883, No. 6, pis. i and ii. 



* Grandidier et H. Filhol, " Observations relatives aux ossements d'Hippopotames 

 trouves dans le niarais d' Ambolisatra a Madagascar": Ann. Sci. Nat. Zoologie, 

 ser. VII, vol. xvi (1893), pp. 151-190, pis. vii-xv. 



* C. I. Forsyth Major, " On the general Eesults of a Zoological Expedition to 

 Madagascar in 1894-96" : Proc. Zool. See. London, 1896, pp. 976-978. 



DECADE IV. VOL. IX. NO. V. 13 



