116 ME. A. L. ADAMS ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 



allowances for individual differences of age and sex, I believe that the bones of the 

 Maltese fossil elephants are divisible into three varieties and two well-marked species, 

 viz. a large and a small Elephant, the latter showing two forms represented by the 

 Elephas melitensis of Falconer and Busk, which may have seldom attained a height of 5 

 feet, and a diminutive or pygmy form named by Mr. Busk Elephas falconeri, the smallest 

 bones of which indicate an elephant about 3 feet in height. But there are intermediate- 

 sized bones which easily bridge over the differences between the latter and the Elephas 

 melitensis ; nevertheless Mr. Busk has pointed out characters appertaining to the two, 

 and is of opinion that they are distinct species'. 



Finally the presence of a much larger species of Elephant among the Zebbug remains 

 has been clearly pointed out by Falconer and Busk ; but the bones were very fi-agmentary 

 and of little use for anatomical descriptions. It has been my good fortune to bring to- 

 gether abundant remains of apparently the same Elephant, the characters of which are 

 as minutely detailed in the preceding pages as it has been in my power to accomplish. 

 I believe they represent the entire dentition and osteology of the greater portion of the 

 skeleton of an Elephant of considerably smaller dimensions than the living species, and 

 seldom exceeding 7 feet in height, whilst the average height may have been between 6 

 and 7 feet. Thus, probably, the two species displaying the variability as to size which 

 we see common among heads of the two recent Elephants, often approached the limits 

 of each other's growth ; and, as otherwise there was not any very marked distinction, it 

 would be difficult to decide the proper place for such remains ; hence it may be that 

 here and there I have referred bones to the small species which belong to small-sized 

 individuals of the former. This, however, does not appear of much moment in com- 

 parison with the data descriptive of the molars and largest bones, which afford unquestion- 

 able evidence of a distinct species. 



I have named the largest Elephant Elephas mnaidriensis, in consideration of the 

 circumstance that the gap, or rock-rent, from which I obtained the most perfect 

 specimens of its bony structure is situated close to the ruins of the Mnaidra temple, a 

 prehistoric and megalithic structure bearing evidences of the earliest human occupa- 

 tion of the Island of Malta. 



DESCKIPTION OF THE PLATES. 



PLATE I. 



Figs. 1&2. Yirstxia\k-\nd.soxsoi Elephas mnaidriensis oadiE.Tnelitensis: p. 8. Zebbug 



Cave and Mnaidra Gap. 

 Figs. .3, 4, 5 & 6. Second or antepenultimate milk-molars of the Maltese Elephants : 



p. 11-12. Mnaidra Gap ; fig. 6, Benghisa Gap. 

 ' Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. pp. 235 & 251. 



