and Giraffe from North of India. 579 



small ruminants. The A. Servinum of Professor Owen (Geol. Trans. 

 2nd ser. vol. vi. p. 45), obtained by Mr. Pratt from Binstead in the 

 Isle of Wight (Idem, vol. iii. p. 451), is admitted on all hands to be 

 exceedingly like a musk deer. Such heterogeneous materials are too 

 much for the limits of any one genus Cuvier imagined the separa- 

 tion of the two metacarpal bones to be a character limited to the 

 Anoplotheria exclusively. He has also regarded the union of the 

 metacarpal bones as holding without exception in all the ruminants ; 

 and this law with respect to ruminants, though empirical, he regards 

 as equally certain with any conclusion in physics or morals, and as 

 a surer mark than all those of Zadig (Disc. Prel. p. 49). 



The authors, having had an opportunity of examining the skeleton 

 of an African ruminant, the Moschus aquaticus of Ogilby, described 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society by that gentleman from 

 a living specimen, found it wanting in the above supposed essential 

 character of the ruminants, and possessing the above supposed dis- 

 tinctive character of Anoplotherian Pachyderms. Its metacarpals are 

 distinct along their whole length ; its fore leg, from the carpus down- 

 wards, is undistinguishable from that of the peccary ; and its succen- 

 torial toes are as much developed as in the last- mentioned animal. 



The deviation from the ordinary ruminant type, indicated by the 

 foot of this Moschus, is borne out by a series of modifications in the 

 construction of the head and in the bones of the extremities and 

 trunk, all tending in the direction of the pachyderms. 



The authors believe the present to be the first announcement of 

 the existence of such an anomaly in any living ruminant : they had 

 previously ascertained the occurrence of the same structure in a 

 fossil ruminant from the Sewalik hills. As the Dorcatherium of 

 Kaup breaks down the empirical distinction between the ruminants 

 and pachyderms, as regards the number of the teeth, so does the 

 Moschus aquaticus as regards the structure of the feet. 



Giraffe. — In the 7th volume of the Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal (pp. 658-660) is a communication dated " Northern Doab, 

 July 15, 1838," and intituled, " Note on a Fossil Ruminant Genus 

 allied to Girafndse, in the Sewalik hills, by Capt. P. T. Cautley." 

 The specimen referred to in that paper was the third cervical vertebra 

 of a ruminant, which, for the reasons therein assigned, was supposed 



