300 



OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF MALTA. 



the highest importance. They belong, not to the Mammoth, but to 

 quite a distinct species.' 



August 2, 1860. 



' The cave fossils (from Malta) are turning out to be of great interest. 



' From Krendi, the larger teeth-specimens are almost entirely of 

 Hippopotamus Pentlandi, the Sicilian sjnecies. The teeth and small 

 bones in the breccia are almost entirely of a new species of Myoxus 

 or Dormouse, Myoxus Melitensts, of very large size, as big in com- 

 parison to the living Dormouse as the Bandicoot Eat to the Mouse. 1 



' From Zebbug there is a small species of Proboscidean, I believe 

 quite new and allied to the Elephant, but not much bigger than a large 

 Tapir. There are two fossil birds among the Zebbug bones. The best 

 marked is an extinct species of Swan, which I propose calling Cygnus 

 Melitensis. It was very much larger than any of the known existing 

 species. 2 There are also some Eeptilia not yet made out. But strange 

 to say I have as yet detected no big Carnivora, although from the con-" 

 tracted tunnel form of the cave it is clear that the bones must have 

 been dragged in by large Carnivora.' 



effect that he was not the first to 

 identify the. Elephas Mditensis, and 

 to place it in the subgenus Loxodon, 

 on the ground that in a memoir 

 communicated to the Royal Dublin 

 Society in November 1861, but not 

 published till 1863, an opinion had been 

 incidentally expressed that a. tooth in 

 the Museum of the Maltese University 

 presented markings on the crown dif- 

 fering from those of the Mammoth, but 

 approaching those of the African Ele- 

 phant. It may be well, therefore, to 

 state that careful tracings of this tooth 

 in the University Museum of Malta were 

 transmitted by Capt. Spratt to Dr. 

 Falconer, who pronounced it as entirely 

 different from those of the pigmy Ele- 

 phant, but ' allied to, if not identical 

 with, the African Elephant.' — [Ed.] 



1 Figures of the ' Myoxus Miletnisis 

 (Nobis),' sic, accompanied a paper, en- 

 titled; ' Observations on the Fossiliferous 

 Caves of Malta.' By Andrew Leith 

 Adams, M.B., which was communicated 

 to the Royal Dublin Society on Novem- 

 ber 18, 1861, and published in the 

 Journal of the Society for 1863.— [Ed.] 



2 The fossil remains of this species 

 of Cygnus were transferred by Dr. 

 Falconer to Mr. W. K. Parker, F.R.S., 

 who communicated an account of them 

 to the Zoological Society on Dec. 12, 

 1865, from which the following passage 

 is extracted : — 



' The first species was a gigantic 

 Swan, nearly one-third larger than aver- 



age individuals of the Mute Swan 

 {Cygnus olor). The head and more than 

 half of the long bones belong to this 

 kind. Its wings appear to have had 

 the same relative length as those of the 

 tame Swan ; but the thigh-bone was 

 relatively shorter, the tarso-metatarso 

 (shank) was considerably longer in pro- 

 portion. The most remarkable dif- 

 ference, however, between this extinct 

 species (which I propose to call C. 

 Falconer/) is to be found in the compara- 

 tive length of the phalanges ; for whilst 

 the proximal joint of the middle toe is 

 one-fourth thicker than that of the 

 Mute Swan, it is only three-fourths the 

 length ; so that whilst C. Fa'coneri was 

 between one-third and one-fourth larger 

 than the common kind, it stood on longer 

 legs, and had the comparatively short 

 toes of a goose. 



'The next species, that to which the 

 important sternal fragment belonged, 

 showing it to be a species of Hooper, 

 I have doubtfully named C. nvusicus (?). 

 Having recently examined the osteo- 

 logical specimens in the Museum of the 

 College of Surgeons, which are attributed 

 to C. ferus (see Cat. Mus. Coll. Surg, 

 vol. i. p. 233, Nos. 1241-1248), I am 

 strongly inclined to think, from the 

 extreme difference of size, that some of 

 the smaller ones belong to C. Bewickii. 

 The smaller bones from Malta may 

 either belong to small individuals (per- 

 haps females) of C. nvusicus, or perhaps 

 to the smaller C. Bewickii.' — [Ed.] 



