DENTAL VARIATIONS IN MAMMALIAN SKULLS, 1071 
disturbed in any way, but about three weeks after the eggs were 
laid they were apparently thrown out of the nest by the “sitting 
bird, for they were found broken upon the ground. Neither 
appeared to have been fertilized. The one least damaged was 
saved, 
This is the first instance of any species of Paradise-bird laying 
in these Gardens, and the eggs laid in Mr. Brook’s aviaries were 
the first ever laid in captivity. The bird that laid these eggs 
was captured on the nest in New Guinea by Mr. Goodfellow, and 
the nest and two eggs upon which she was sitting are now in the 
British Museum. 
The egg is very similar to that of the Greater Bird of Paradise 
(Paradisea apoda), and, so far as we know, characteristic of the 
whole Broun The ground-colour is cream, bold streaks of 
reddish brown radiating from the larger end and overlaying 
fainter splashes of pale grey. 
Dentat Variations i im M ammalian Skulls. 
Dr. Roperr Roan, G. M. Z. S., exhibited :— 
(1) A number of skulls of Zrichosurus vulpecula illustrating 
dental variations. Normally upper p’ is situated 2°5 mm. behind 
the canine. Two skulls exhibited show it from *5 mm. to 1 mm. 
behind the canine. One skull shows on the left side p' closely 
pressed against the canine, and on the right side the two teeth 
fused together. Another skull shows the p entirely absent. 
In the lower jaw normally the small tooth behind the large 
incisor is close to it. One jaw shown has the second tooth 
2 mm. behind the large incisor. A second jaw has 2 mm. 
behind the normally placed second tooth a third small tooth, 
which may be either a third incisor, a canine, or a first 
premolar. 
(2) A skull of Phascolarctus cinereus showing in the right 
lower jaw a small tooth behind the large incisor, resembling 
in position the second tooth in the medinle of Tr falvecninne 
vulpecula. 
(3) A series of skulls of Chrysochloris hottentota and C. asiatica 
illustrating the peculiar loss of teeth found in nearly all sexually 
mature Moles in the Stellenbosch district,S. Africa. As Dr. Broom 
pointed out in 1907, C. hottentota, when probably. two years old 
and when in full sexual activity, suffers from a disease of the 
gums, probabiy pyorrheea, and the teeth become loose and fall 
out. The disease appears also to damage the developing second 
set, which never fully replaces the lost milk set, and hence 
specimens are found where the disease has been arrested in a 
practically toothless condition. 
It is very interesting to note that these toothless specimens 
