302 ON THE DERMAL ARMOUR OF JACARE AND CAIMAN 
and dorsal scutes form one continuous shield ; and they represent 
the two anterior mandibular teeth passing in grooves on either side 
of the end of the premaxilla. In fact, they fully and completely 
establish the fact that their new species belongs to the Longzrostres 
of Cuvier, or to the Gavials of later writers. 
Under these circumstances, it is somewhat surprising to find the 
deliberate conclusions of these careful investigators set aside in the 
following brief passage :— 
“This Bornean species (C. Schlegel?) was, in fact, originally de- 
scribed as a new species of Gavial; but the nasal bones, as in the 
fossil from Sheppey, figured in t. ii. 15, extend to the hinder border of 
the external nostril."—Owex, Fossil Reptilia of the London Clay 
‘Crocodilia, p. 15: 1850. 
Miller and Schlegel give remarkably clear and beautiful figures 
of the skull of their Gavial; and these show at once that the nasal 
bones do not “reach the hinder border of the external nostril,” but 
meet the premanillaries at a point very distant from that border, 
viz. opposite the ninth tooth. Even did the nasal bones reach the 
posterior boundary of the nostril, such a character would not out- 
weigh those derived from the relations and number of the teeth, the 
structure and extent of the mandibular symphysis, and the disposition 
of the dermal scutes,—all of which are so clearly and definitely set 
forth by Miiller and Schlegel, that it seems difficult to understand 
how any one who had consulted the original memoir could have 
overlooked them. 
It was possible, however, that Muller and Schlegel, notwith- 
standing their great opportunities, might have erred in their state- 
ments ; and I therefore gladly seized the opportunity of testing their 
description by comparing it with an authentic skull of the species in 
question, from New Guinea, in the collection of the British Museum. 
I have found the statement of Miiller and Schlegel minutely accu- 
rate in almost all points ; and there cannot be the slightest doubt, not 
only that the Schlegelian crocodile is one of the Gavzalide, but that 
it forms a distinct generic type in that family, as different from 
Gavialts as Caiman is from Jacare, or Mecistops from Crocodilus. 
The following are the most important measurements of the skull 
of Rhynchosuchus Schlegelii in the British Museum collection :— 
Inches. 
Length from the end of the premaxilla to that of os quadratum... 23 
Breadth from outer edge of one os quadratum to that of the other 8# 
Breadth aross the face in front of the orbits...............ccceeeeee 4 
