THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



103 



No. 3. 



No. 4. 



The fifth metacarpal is represented by five specimens, nearly all of which are per- 

 fect, excepting a few abrasions. They well support the other bones belonging to the 

 large and intermediate and pygmy forms, not only in dimensions, but also in general 

 characters. 



A Tyfe. — There are two fifth right metacarpals, of which PI. XIX. fig. 11 is the 

 more perfect ; they dififer in scarcely a line as regards relative admeasurements, and are 

 so much like each other in characters that they must have belonged to individuals of 

 the same size exactly. 



The length of fig. 11 is 4-3 inches, breadth at middle of shaft 2-1, thickness at mid- 

 shaft 1-4, fourth metacarpal facet 1-6 by 0-5, unciform-facet 2 by 1-5, distal articular 

 surface 2-6 by 2-2, surface for the first phalanx (fig. 11) a to 5 = 1-6 by 1-4. 



The flat upper and outer surface and absence of the compressed sides of the Asiatic 

 give quite the characters of the African Elephant to these two specimens, whilst the 

 rugosities on their exposed sides and complete anchylosis of epiphyses proclaim them to 

 be bones of aged animals. These two specimens equal in dimensions the same bone 

 in 2677 a Roy. Coll. Surg., also in the skeletons in Guy's and Royal- Victoria Hospital 

 Museums. The Sumatran is longer, being 5 inches ; but its articular facets are quite as 

 large, showing that the fossil was altogether a relatively shorter and broader bone, as 

 obtains in the African. 



B Tijfe. — The two next might also have belonged to individuals of nearly the same 

 dimensions. They are from left feet ; and the more perfect is shown in PI. XIX. fig. 12. 

 The differences between them and the two just described are that they are not quite so 

 broad in proportion, with sides more compressed, and the shaft rounded instead of the 

 determined flattening on the dorsal and plantar aspects. The unciform-surface is more 

 concave, and the distance between the fourth-metacarpal facet and distal articulation 



