152 



as the state of the specimens will uot permit any definite character to 

 be drawn from it, I will not venture an opinion as to which family of 

 Ruminants should claim this remarkable form. 



Among the remaining families, I have noticed that in the Moschidce 

 and CervidcB the styloid process becomes free almost immediately at 

 the base of the auditory process, while in the Bovidce or Cavicorn 

 Ruminants, it is enclosed more or less completely for some distance 

 in the downward and forward direction. The Cervidce may also 

 be distinguished from the latter by the form of the infraorbital 

 depression, which has its most sudden sinkage on the upper side, or 

 that which is next the infraorbital fissure. The Giraife, although it 

 has neither the depression nor the fissure, resembles the Cervidce in 

 the character of the auditory bulla, and in having the molar teeth ex- 

 panded at the base of the crown, and compressed towards the summits 

 of the lobes. The Moschidee must, of course, be distinguished from 

 the Cervidce by their trilocular stomach, and by the presence of the 

 gall-bladder*, and it is probable that further differences in their in- 

 ternal anatomy may yet be found ; I must however revert to the 

 subject of dentition to point out some characters in which they chffer 

 from all other Ruminants, and agree with the non-ruminant Artiodac- 

 tjda. In these, as well as in some of the Musk-deer, the premolars, and 

 those that represent them among the milk series, assume a trenchant 

 form, and have a more or less developed additional cusp both before and 

 behind ; this little cusp also shows itself upon the anterior extremity 

 of the penultimate upper milk tooth, which, as well as the last one, 

 has the bipartite form of a true molar, and therefore by this combi- 

 nation of characters may be recognised if found alone. In most Ru- 

 minants the cusp is very small, and when worn down shows itself 

 merely as a thickening of the anterior border of the crown. This 

 tooth, however, also presents us occasionally with a zoological cha- 

 racter in the development or non-development of the internal tubercle 

 of the anterior pair ; it is absent in the Hog ; in the Peccary (who 

 seems loath to relinquish any of the full number of cusps that nature 

 can allow him) it is present ; the Moschidce are the only true Rumi- 

 nants in which I have found it wanting ; this seems to characterize 

 the family, and together with the trenchant character of the premolars 

 in the Meminna and Hyeomoschus, seems to associate with them the 

 genera Dickobune, Dichodon, and Cainotheriumf. 



* Tlie singular variety in this respect noticed by Prof. Owen in the Giraffe, inust 

 detract somewhat from the vakie of the character ; but as the absence of the gall- 

 bladder seems to be the rule in this animal, it strengthens, so far as it can avail, 

 the idea of Cervine affinity. 



f In the true Moschus the premolars have much the same form as in the gene- 

 rality of Ruminants; the incisors are uniform and nearly equal in size, and the au- 

 ditory bulla is small : in the Meminna, and in those to which the generic name 

 Tragulus has been applied (which I can see no reason for separating from it), the 

 last upper premolar alone is bicuspid, the other two and all the lower ones being 

 trenchant ; the two median incisors are expanded, the others narrowed and curved 

 outwards to make room for them, and the auditory bulla swollen : Hyeomoschus 

 only differs from these in the penultimate upper premolar, which though trenchant 

 is short, and when worn down has the appearance of being simply conical. 



