THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



81 



divided by cartilage, with an enormous shallow valley extending the entire breadth 

 of the lower surface, whereas the one in question is very much smaller in dimensions. 

 Again the pit on the peroneal face, wanting, apparently, in all astragals of very young 

 elephants, is here fully developed. The sulcus, as in the large forms, terminates in a 

 deep pit near the centre ; and the external calcaneal facet shows no trace of the fcBtal 

 condition. With the exception of an injury to the central portion of the tibial surface 

 the bone may be said to be perfect, and is represented in Plate XVI. fig. 3, and also by 

 Busk\ Like the last the anterior sulcus traverses the anterior margin of the tibial 

 facet ; but it is broader and shallower, and there is a similar undulation of the margia ; 

 the posterior internal angle, however, is not nearly so pronounced, and resembles that of 

 A series. But in all the recent astragals I have examined this tuberosity is stouter 

 than in any of the Maltese, and is not ossified in the recent specimen 2723, Eoyal College 

 of Surgeons. The pygmy, however, displays the curving outline above noticed on the 

 posterior border of the tibial facet. 



The saddle-back hollow on the upper surface, so patent in the last described, is not 

 apparent in this, neither the proportionally large navicular facet ; so that, with the 

 characters common to A series, it is more allied to them and the recent species than to B 

 series. The small astragalus belonging to no. 2723, Royal College of Surgeons, compared 

 with fig. 3, gives the following dimensions. 



Besides the immature specimen figured and described by Busk from Admiral Spratt's 

 collection ^ I obtained from Mnaidra Gap another example of the same diminutive 

 form. But the tibial surface only was preserved, and measured 1-3 inch in the antero- 

 posterior diameter, and 1-5 inch in the transverse diameter, showing an astragalus of 

 still smaller dimensions ; I am not certain of the age of the owner, however, seeing that 

 the bone was imperfect. 



VOL. IX. — PAET I. 



' Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. p. 269, and p. 270. no. 30 a & h. 

 ' Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. p. 269, pi. 47. fig. 14. 



November, 1874. 



M 



