EHINOCEROS. 157 



VI. ON THE SPECIES OF FOSSIL EHINOCEROS 

 POUND IN THE SEWALIK HILLS. 



[Tliree species of fossil Ehinoceros from the Sewalik hills are 

 figured in the Pauna Antiqua Sivalensis (Plates LXXII. to 

 LXXIX.), viz. : R. Sivalensis, B. Paloeindicus, and B. platy- 

 rhinus, the two former characterized by the curved line of the 

 upper plane of the head, the last by the upper plane of the 

 head being straight and broad. (See PI. XIV.) No complete 

 description of the species was ever published or written by 

 Dr. Falconer. The following account, which appears to 

 refer mainly to B. Sivalensis (although the possibility of there 

 being two species is hinted at), is extracted from a memoir 

 on Sub-Himalayan Fossils, by Messrs. Baker and Durand, 

 published in the Joiu-nal of the Asiatic Society for August, 

 1836, vol. V. p. 490. The annexed illustrations are copied 

 from the Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis, and the reader is referred 

 to the descriptions of the Plates in the Fauna for further 

 particulars. Professor Owen, in his ' Odontography' ^ makes 

 the following statement. ' In one of the extinct species of 

 Ehinoceros from the Himalayan tertiary beds. Dr. Falconer 

 informs me that there are six incisors in both jaws ; the typi- 

 cal number was, therefore, retamed in this ancient species, as 

 in the contemporary Hippopotamus of the same formations.' 

 The species referred to was evidently B. Sivalensis, for Plates 

 LXXII. fig. 4b, LXXIV. fig. 4, and LXXV. fig. 10, F.A.S., 

 of the Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis, show that the remark does 

 not apply to B. platyrhinus or B. Palceindicus. (See PL XIV. 

 fig. 4.) The following note, also, on Colonel Baker's large 

 specimen of the skull of the Bhinoceros platyrhinus in the 

 British Museum, was written by Dr. Falconer in his Note- 

 book for 1860 : ' The molars are in fine condition, six on 

 either side. The last true molar is only just touched by wear. 

 The last true molar is exactly like B. hemitcechus, in having 

 a posterior basal funnel-shaped pit ; while the penultimate 

 and antepenultimate true molars, and the penultimate and 

 antepenultimate milk molars, have each three distinct fos- 

 settes, as in Bhinoceros tichorinus ! The vertical ridges of the 

 outer side are very well pronounced in three valleys. The 

 animal had two large incisors above and four below : of the 

 latter, the two outer are big, the two inner small, as in 

 the existing Indian Ehinoceros.' In the ' Fauna Antiqua 

 Sivalensis,' there are likewise illustrations of fossil Ehinoceros 

 from Perim Island {R. Perimensis), and from the valley of the 

 Nerbudda. — Ed.] 



> Vol. i. p. 589. 



