Tlic Ficlatiuiisliip of the rri'maxilla in Hears. 



173 



111 the Brown Bear Owen mentions that tlie Maxillae by articula- 

 ting with the nasals sliut out the Premaxillae fi'oni the frontals. This 

 is not the case in Ursiis Pyrenaicus, the Brown Bear of the Pyrenees. 



The two ossicles sometimes found in Monkeys (Gorilla) and the 

 ossifications in the fronto Maxillary articulations in U. labiatus (Me- 

 lursus labiatus) are wormian. Edentates loke birds show a disposition 

 to consolidate ligaments, a fact that is not without significance. The 

 bone referred by Meckel in Choloepus and the Condition of the Pre- 

 maxilla in Bradypus and bats, is susceptible of various interpretations. 



HELARCTUS 

 sp. 



Meckel gives credit to Blainville but still more to Rudolphi in the 

 passage from his Anatomy given above. 



Meckel refers to the Reptilian character of the Arctoidea in the 

 section on the Alimentary Canal, which approaches in its characters 

 the condition of a Mesogastrium as in some other aberrant mammals. 

 They seem indeed, of a systematic value different from the Cynoids and 

 Ailuroids. The vomerine groove in its relations to the Premaxillary 

 groove is here also worth noting. 



The presence of odd vomerine prolongations in the palate 

 suggests naturally enough in the case of some reptiles morphological 

 questions in of great interest as do the elongated facial parts of the 

 premaxillae in some lizards and birds. 



