20 



olive-brown, a tint arising from the hairs being each minutely an- 

 nulated with deep yellow and black. The throat, chest, and rump, 

 are whitish, and the belly is yellow. The hairs covering the feet 

 above are annulated like those of the body, but of a deeper tint. 

 The tail is cylindrical and rather slender, and exhibits obscure an- 

 nulations, each hair being annulated with deep golden yellow and 

 black. The fur is short and soft, that on the back is grey at the 

 base ; on the under parts the hairs are very obscurely tinted with 

 grey at the base. The hairs of the moustaches are numerous, 

 moderately long, rather slender, and of a black colour. The head 

 is very nearly uniform in colour with the body, it is however less 

 yellow." 



Mr. Blyth called the attention of the Society to a peculiarity in 

 the structure of the feet in the Trogonida, which he thought had not 

 been previously noticed. This family, although zygodactylous, have 

 the toes disposed on quite a different principle from the Wood- 

 peckers, Parrots, and other birds, which present an analogous struc- 

 ture; their first and second toes being opposed to the third and 

 fourth, in lieu of the first and fourth to the second and third, in 

 consequence of which, that toe, which corresponds to the middle one 

 in birds that are not yoke-footed, that is to say, the third or longest 

 toe, is the inward of the two forward toes in the Trogon family, and 

 the outward in the Woodpeckers and Parrots. 



A continuation of Mr. Owen's paper, on the Anatomy of the Gi- 

 raffe was then read, embracing the principal features of interest in 

 the osteological peculiarities of tliis animal. 



_ The author, in the first place, details the result of his investiga- 

 tion into the evidence bearing upon the supposition of there being in 

 the male Nubian Giraffe a third horn, situated anteriorly in the me- 

 sial line of the cranium. 



Upon making a section of the skull of the male Cape Giraffe, the 

 anterior protuberance was shown to be due only to a thickening and 

 elevation of the anterior extremities of the frontal, and the contiguous 

 extremities of the nasal, bones ; and in the Nubian Giraffe the ex- 

 istence of a third distinct bony nucleus was also satisfactorily nega- 

 tived ; for, upon macerating the skulls of individuals which had not 

 attained the adult age, the posterior horns became detached from the 

 bones of the a-anium ; but no such separation took place in respect 

 to the protuberances forming the supposed third horn, which would 

 have been the case had its relation to the cranium been that of a 

 distinct epiphysis. 



In both the Cape and Nubian Giraffe, the horns were placed im- 

 mediately over the coronal suture, which traversed the centre of their 

 expanded bases. The frontal bones were distinct and joined by a 

 well-marked suture, continued along the posterior two-thirds of the 

 frontal protuberance, or as far as the nasal bones. The sagittal 

 suture was persistent on both sides external to the horns. The parietal 

 bone was single and anchylosed with the occipital and interparietal 

 hones. 



