ELEPIIAS MELITENSIS. 



299 



the narrow crown and by the tendency to mesial expansion 

 of the discs of wear, together with the point already alluded 

 to of the milk-incisors being invested with a layer of 

 enamel. But although allied, the two forms are speci- 

 fically very distinct. Besides the signal difference of size, 

 the form of the discs of wear, although belonging to the 

 common pattern, presents broad marks of distinction. In 

 the African species the discs are angularly dilated into 

 rhombs in the middle, and the angles terminate in a round 

 loop, caused by a single outlying digital element, which in 

 the progress of abrasion becomes confluent with the disc of 

 the ridge to which it is appended. In the Zebbug form 

 there is never a trace of this outlying loop, and the discs, 

 although open, exhibit only but a very slight tendency to 

 angular expansion. The character is most pronounced in the 

 two milk-teeth (PL XII. figs. 2 and 3), while it is entirely 

 wanting in the penultimate upper molar (PI. XI. fig. 2) . In 

 fact, this tooth differs more from the ordinary type of the 

 African species than does the corresponding molar of E. an- 

 tiquus. The amount of agreement and of difference in the 

 molars of the two species is best appreciated by comparing 

 the last lower molar (PI. XII. fig. 4) of the Zebbug form, with 

 the corresponding molar of the African species. 1 



Elephas Melitensis is the name which I have applied to the 

 new species. It was the pigmy form of the order. In size, 

 it stood between a large Tapir and the small unicorned 

 Rhinoceros of Java. 



APPENDIX. 



CONSISTING OF MEMORANDA, ETC., BY DR. FALCONER, ON FOSSILS FROM 



THE CAVES OF MALTA. 



I. — Extracts of Letters from Dr. Falconer to Capt. Spratt, C.B. 2 



July 21, 1860. 



' Your last researches in the Zebbug Cave are to me of very great 

 interest. I am now occupied with them. The Elephant remains are of 



1 See Plate vi. fig. 1.— [Ed.] 



2 In May, 1860, Capt, Spratt de- 

 spatched from Malta to the Geological 

 Society of London the fossils which he 

 had discovered in the caves of Zebbug, 

 &c, and their examination was under- 

 taken by Dr. Falconer at the beginning 



of July 1860. The collection included 

 the tooth of Elcphas Melitensis, already 

 described as belonging to the public 

 library of Malta, which Dr. Falconer 

 returned to Malta in May 1862. Since 

 Dr. Falconer's death a statement has 

 been published in a Malta paper to the 



