Note on Rhinoceros leptorhinus, Owen. 401 



and scientific skill of Mr. William Davies, of the G-eological Depart- 

 ment of the British Museum, who rescued with his own hands 

 this and many other equally unique and priceless remains from in- 

 evitable destruction, owing to the exceedingly friable nature of the 

 fossils imbedded in this deposit of permeable and moist Brick-earth. 



This species was heretofore only known in this country from 

 exceedingly fragmentary remains, as, for example, the upper part of 

 a skull and parts of lower jaws from Clacton and Walton, in Essex, 

 (figured in Owen's British Fossil Mammals, pp. 356-381, figs. 131- 

 141), and the basal portions of two crania and eleven rami of the 

 lower jaw from the Gower Caves and Northampton (figured in 

 Falconer's Palaeontological Memoirs, vol. ii., plates 19-21 and 23-25. 



Concerning the specimen from Ilford (Plate XV.), Mr. William 

 Davies writes as follows : ' — 



"The skull is nearly entire, and evidently that of an aged animal; 

 for the molars, of which there are six on each side, are all very much 

 worn. The skull has not been crushed, and therefore shows well 

 the normal form and proportions. The occiput is partly restored. 

 The condyles and foramen magnum are entire, the basi-occipital is 

 wanting. The parietal, frontals, and nasal bones are perfect. The 

 last have a very rugose surface for the attachment of the nasal horn. 

 The inter-orbital space is also slightly rugose, and probably supported 

 a short frontal horn or boss. The zygomatic arches and styloid pro- 

 cesses are perfect ; the orbital rims are imperfect. The maxillaries 

 ai-e greatly mutilated, and the incisive bones are also imperfect, 

 wanting the anterior ends by which they were united to the lower 

 border of the nasal septum. The palate is nearly entire. Appended 

 to the nasals is the anterior portion of the bony septum of the nares, 

 perfect in front, but broken behind. 



" The dimensions of skull are as follows : — Length of molar series 

 10'7 inch. Length of true molars 6-3 in. Length of pre-molars 

 4*4:. Extreme length of skull from occipital crest to tip of nasals, 

 measured along the curve, 33 in. Length from occipital crest to end 

 of nasals in a straight line 31 in. Greatest constriction of skull 

 between' the zygomatic arches 5*1 in. Width of inter-orbital space 

 11 in. Width of nasals about the middle of the anterior rugosity 

 5*5 in. Extreme length of nasal opening, right side, 10-6 in. Width 

 of zygomatic arches posterior to last molar 13 in. Width of zygo- 

 matic arches across glenoids 14 in. Width of occipital crest 4-6 in. 

 Height of occipital crest from lower border of the foramen magnum 

 7*6 in. Width of condyles, including foramen magnum, 6"3 in." 



Concerning the cloison, or bony septum dividing the nostrils, upon 

 which Dr. Falconer in his classification (already quoted) lays so 

 much stress, Mr. Davies contributes the following most imjportant 

 information : — 



" In clearing the skull from its matrix of sandy gravel, I found 

 the anterior border of the septum joined and apparently consolidated 



1 Catalogue of Pleistocene Vertebrata in the Collection of Sir Antonio Brady, 

 r.G.S., by William Davies, of the British Museum (p. 29). Printed for private 

 circulation. 



DECADE II. — VOL. I. — NO. IX. 26 



