E. (LOXODON) MEEIDIONALIS. 125 



the profile- view of the skull of E. Africanus (fig. 15, Plate 

 II.). _ J V " 



2. According to Nesti, the plane of the zygomatic arch is 

 inclined to that of the molars at an angle of about 35°, while 

 the two planes are nearly parallel in E. primigenius. In E. 

 meridionalis they are also more elongated. 



3. The antero-posterior extent of the temporal fossa, in 

 relation to its vertical height, increases progressively from E. 

 priimgemus through E. Indicus to E. Africanus, being round 

 in the latter and oval in the Indian Elephant. In E. meri- 

 dionalis the temporal fossa has a large antero-posterior ex- 

 panse. According to Nesti, the proportions of length to 

 height are in the Indian Elephant as 37 : 44, while in E. 

 meridionalis they are as 16 : 17. The difference is still 

 greater when the latter is compared with E. primigenius. 



4. Corresponding with these proportions, the distance 

 from the auditory meatus to the nasal border is greater, and 

 from the same point to the vertex less, in E. meridionalis 

 than in the Mammoth. 



5. The incisive alveoli form elongated massive cylinders 

 corresponding with the huge diameters of the tusks, but in- 

 stead of forming an angle with the frontal plane, as in E. 

 primigenius, they are produced in the same plane, or with a 

 little outward obliquity, in E. meridionalis. 



/3. Occipital aspect. — The occipital face is chiefly remark- 

 able for two enormous bosses stretching from a little way 

 above the condyles up to the vertex, and leaving between 

 them a long and deep depression for the attachment of the 

 ligamentum nuehse and muscles of the neck. These bosses 

 are continued on either side into the protuberant arches of 

 the parietals, that bound the temporal fossae towards the 

 vertex. Nesti describes them as ' grassi tetrtedri,' with 

 parallel faces where separated by the fossa, and as pointed 

 towards the condyles. He regarded the spacious deep fossa 

 as a distinctive mark from E. primigenius. But Breyne, in 

 his excellent description of Messrs. Schmidt's cranium of the 

 Mammoth, 1 expressly states that there is 'a peculiar and 

 very remarkable sums of the occipital bone, deeper than an 

 ostrich's egg, serving in all appearance for the insertion of 

 the muscles of the neck.' These occipital bosses are distinctly 

 represented by two convex lines in Breyne's profile figure, one 

 of which is omitted in the copy reproduced by Cuvier. 8 Their 

 development varies hi the Elephants, according to the age, 

 sex, and size of the tusks in the individual. In some of the 

 species, such as E. Namadicus and E. Hysudricus, the fossa 



1 Phil. Trans, vol. xl,iv. for 1737-38, p. 133. 



2 Oss. loss. torn. i. Elkphans, PI. ii. fig. 1. 



