1628 Quadrupeds. 



Mr. Nolan to that eminent archaeologist, the celebrated Crofton Cho- 

 ker, from whom also Mr. Nolan received the very interesting, and in 

 my opinion important, information, that the meaning of the name 

 Loch Gur, is not Lake of the Goats, but Lake of the Great As- 

 semblage. 



Is this nothing ? Yet Professor Owen has passed over this impor- 

 tant fact. It was certainly an awkward one to meddle with ; but 

 surely to pass it over in total silence is scarcely fair, especially as it 

 bears so strongly on the point at issue, analogically and collaterally 

 supporting the other circumstances. 



In conclusion, I may observe that the discovery of these heads are 

 further most important on the following account : — Naturalists had 

 hitherto been in the habit of describing a small, and comparatively 

 unknown skull, of which there are specimens in the British Museum 

 and elsewhere, as that of the female of the Megaceros. Indeed I 

 may add, that I, among the rest, fell into this error, which I now wil- 

 lingly avow. Now the true female is found. I unhesitatingly as- 

 sert these new heads, found at Loch Gur to be so ; and that skull 

 which has hitherto been regarded as such, to belong to another 

 variety, of inferior size and less strongly marked development. Let 

 Mr. Owen go to the British Museum, and he will see another va- 

 riety — a male described by me some time back in the columns of this 

 paper. 1 design on a future occasion to return to this portion of the 

 subject ; but beg Mr. Owen first to reply to my objections. 



" Facts," Mr. Editor, to employ your own words, so facetiously 

 reiterated by Professor Owen, " are stubborn things ; " and I leave it 

 o the judgment of any impartial person whether Mr. Owen has 

 iduced a single fact calculated to shake his belief in those de- 

 tailed by you in the able article which evoked his letter. 



Yours, &c, 



H. I). Richardson. 



Additional Note by Mr. Richardson. 



To the Editor of the Zoologist. 



Sir, — Perceiving upon the cover of your excellent periodical for this month an an- 

 nouncement of your intention to republish the correspondence which recently took 

 place between Professor Owen and me in the ' Farmer's Gazette,' I take the liberty of 

 requesting your permission to correct an error info which I had inadvertently fallen, 

 from following, without investigation, a statement put forward by Professor Owen, 



