54 ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Tiil.ie-cases 21 and ^ The series of remains of the Pigmy Elephant from Malta, collected in part by Admiral 

 21a. Spratt, K.N., F.E.S., and in part by the late Dr. Leith Adams, F.R.S., have all been 



identified, named, and, tableted, and all the figured specimens specially indicated. 



Tahle-cases 17 and , The fine series of British fossil Elephant-remains belonging to ELephas meridionalis, 



17a, 18 and 19, and E. antiquus, &txA E. jprimigenins (many of which have been figured and described by 



19a. Prof. Leith Adams, M.ix, f.r.s., Mon. Pal. Soc. "Fossil Elephants," 1877-1881), have 



all been compared with the descriptions and figures, and labels with references affixed 



to each. All the more important specimens of the above species, suitable for tableting, 



have been mounted, and tableted, and placed in the exhibition-cases ; the larger series 



occupy the Wall and Pier-cases. 



In Table-case No. 16 is arranged an instructive series of sections of molar teeth of the 

 Prohoscidea, for the purpose of showing the modifications which the various species display 

 in the arrangement of the several components of dentine, enamel, and cement, such 

 modifications being maintained with great constancy in the different species, and yielding 

 the characters by which they are most readily distinguished. 



From the sections of the teeth of Dinotherium and Mastodon at the commencement of 

 the case, to those of the existing Indian Elephant at the end, there is a series of inter- 

 mediate forms which establishes an almost unbroken passage from the one to the other. 

 Pier-cases 4 ^^ ^^^^ adjoining Pier-case No. 24 are displayed skulls of two varieties of the modern 



Indian and one skull of the existing African Elephant, together with a good series of the 

 molar teeth, exemplifying various conditions of age and wear. 



Upon the upper shelf of the same case is arranged a fine series of tusks of the iMam- 



moth from the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, from the Norfolk coast, and from 



Siberia. 



Table-cases 4 to 10 ^^ *'^^ south side of this Gallery all the Cases, both of the Perissodactyle and 



and Piei'-cases 6 to' Artiodactyle Ungulates, have been completely re-organised, every specimen has been 



13. re-examined, and all those found suitable for the Table-cases have been arranged, tableted, 



and carefully labelled; the figured and described specimens being specially indicated by 



green discs. 



A large number of specimen* have also been prepared and placed in drawers and in 

 Eeserve Gallery No. 4, awaiting the addition of three Pier-cases on the south side of the 

 Gallery, when they will be added to the present exhibited series. 



In Pier-case No. 14 is placed a very fine series of coloured casts of skulls and limb- 

 bones of animals belonging to a remarkable order of large extinct herbivorous mammals, 

 named Dinocerata, discovered in the Eocene Tertiary strata of Wyoming, North America, 

 by Prof. O. C. Marsh, m.a., f.g.s., in 1870, and by whom these reproductions have been 

 presented to the Trustees. 



The skulls, lower-jaw, fore and hind limbs have been carefully mounted, labelled, 

 and set up for exhibition, and present a more remarkable and novel aspect than that 

 of any of the other hoofed quadrupeds whose remains are preserved in the Department. 



The most striking feature is the skull, which is surmotinted by three pairs of rounded 

 protuberances, or horn-cores, which may have been encased in horny sheaths. There 

 are no upper incisor teeth, but the upper canines are developed into large and powerful 

 flattened tusks directed downwards, and protected on each side by the broadly expanded 

 margin of the lower jaw. 



In the centre of the Gallery, near the entrance to the pavilion at the Eastern end, has 

 been set up the recently acquired, and almost entire skeleton, of the remarkable herbi- 

 vorous marine mammal known as " Steller's Sea-cow" {Rhytina gigas), measuring 19 feet 

 6 inches in length, obtained from a peat-deposit on Behring's Island, around the shores of 

 which, and the adjoining Copper Island, it formerly lived, and was observed by the 

 Naturalist Steller in 1741. But owing to its gentleness, and the ease with which it was 

 captured, this remarkable Sirenian was entirely killed ofi for the sake of its flesh by the 

 various ships' crews which visited these Islands to collect furs, and in 1782, just 40 years 

 after it had been first described by Steller, it had become extinct. 



In Pier-case No. 15 adjoining, the other representatives of the order Sirenia 

 are placed, comprising the remains of Halitherium, Felsinotherium, Piorastomus, &c. ; 

 also skulls of the recent genera lialicore and Manatus, sole survivors of a once much 

 larger group, whose remains are now met with widelj^ distributed in the Tertiary deposits 

 over Europe and in North Africa. 



The Pavilion. — Aves. — A small but instructive series of remains of the "Dodo" 

 have been added to the bones of extinct birds, in Wall-case No. 19; from the recently 

 acquired collection of John Edward Lee, Esq., F.G.S. 



A plate of the Berlin Archaopteryx ; presented by Herr Prof. W. Dames, has been 

 glazed, framed and fixed up near Table-case No. 13, containing the original specimen 

 (described by Sir Richard Owen in 1863). 



Fossil jRcjoftVzff. — Gallery D. — A reproduction of the hind-foot of Iguanodon 

 Bernissartensis, from the Wealdeu of Belgium, presented by the Brussels Museum, has 

 been added to the case containing the Maidstone Iguanodon Wall-case 3. A magnificent 



and 



