THE SKELETON IN THE FLYING LEMUES. 203 



as the Boliol specimen, and I will forward the entire head and neck of this in hope 

 that you may be able to dig out the hyoid from it. It has been long in formalin 

 so that the bones may have softened a bit or perhaps hopelessly so, at any rate 

 I think it worth while to forward in case it will complete your description. 



If you have already mailed your manuscript you can write out the hyoid 

 matter and send to me with indication where to insert, etc., and I will see that 

 it is properly placed in your manuscript. 



Toward the latter part of April, 1909, I received by mail the above 

 mentioned head and found it to be a specimen of the kind described by 

 Mr. McGregor and in a vevj satisfactory condition for dissection. I 

 have carefully dissected the hyoidean apparatus, the larynx, and about 

 an inch of the trachea (all that came with it) of this specimen. 



I have compared all the parts with the corresponding ones of a domestic 

 cat as figured by Mivart, and with several other species of the Carnivora, 

 bats, etc. Upon the whole it agrees pretty well with the first-named 

 animal, except in the matter of the tympanohyal, and it was Flower -^ 

 who said : 



The hyoid [in the Insectivora] is formed generally like that of the Carnivora, 

 with three complete extracranial ossifications in the anterior arch, a tranversely 

 extended basihyal, and tolerably long, stout, flattened thyrohyals, sometimes anky- 

 losed with the basihyal. 



The tj'mpanohyal in Oynocephalus, if it exists at all, is very small and 

 coossifies with certain bones at the base of the skull between the periotic 

 and tympanic elements in the neighborhood of the stylomastoid foramen. 



ISTeither Dobson nor Flower, I believe, ever described the hjroid or the 

 ossifications of Gynocephalus, and in fact up to the present time I have 

 not met with any observations of any kind upon this part of the skeleton 

 of the flying lemur. 



The specimen at hand is from a fuUy adult animal and probably 

 ossification in the parts has gone as far as it ever goes in this species, 

 though in individuals attaining an unusual age it may be carried some- 

 what further. 



The anterior cornu has a length of 1.5 centimeters, and the posterior 

 comu has a length of 6 millimeters, while the average height of the laryn- 

 geal box is 7 millimeters, and its width about the same, the former in- 

 cluding the crinoid cartilage. 



So much of the windpipe as remained with this specimen is composed 

 of vertically narrow, closely adjusted rings. These rings are not large; 

 they are transversely elliptical, performed in elementary bone, and while 

 thinner posteriorly they appear to unite in bone in the medio-vertical 

 line; the first few superior rings certainly do. All the parts usually 

 found in the larynx among the higher vertebrates are present, but it is 

 only in the case of the anterior thyroid alee that fii-m ossification is 



'^ Osteology of the Mammalia, 176. 



