434 ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF PACHYDERMATOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



is every day seen between individuals of the same species ; on the con- 

 trary, it is at once seen that this Cafrerian head differs considerably in 

 all these particulars, from the fossil head, fig. 3. 



This latter is much more elongated in proportion to its height ; its 

 nasal slope is much deeper, the nasal branch of the maxillary bone is 

 longer and narrower ; it presents in one word, in this simple drawing, 

 all the characters of general form which I pointed out so many times, 

 and by which it is just as easy to distinguish it from the head of the 

 Cafrerian animal, as from the other heads of living rhinoceroses ob- 

 served up to the present day. 



But there was still a more simple, and, jif possible, a more decisive 

 means, to satisfy one's self whether this rhinoceros of Cafreria, resem- 

 bles the fossil one in an essential character : it was to see whether its 

 septum narium was ossified. Astonished that Sir Everard, in all his 

 paper, had entirely omitted to speak on this point, which was one of 

 the most importance, I entreated a learned naturalist, a friend of mine, 

 who was in London, to have the kindness to ascertain it. The follow- 

 ing are his exact words in answer to me : — 



" I repaired yesterday to the Museum of the Missionary Society, 

 (Old Jewry, Cheapside), and examined the septum narium of the Afri- 

 can rhinoceros represented in the Philosophical Transactions of 1822, 

 placing the head between me and the light, and I found that it was 

 semi-transparent, and consisted of cartilage, or of ligamento-cartilagi- 

 nous substance, without any appearance of ossification in any part of 

 it ; thus, notwithstanding the great resemblance which exists as to gene- 

 ral form between this skull and the fossil skulls, it differs, with 

 respect to the septum narium, from all the fossil skulls which I have 

 ever seen, all of which have this septum ossified." 



Any one can go to the Museum of the Missionary Society to verify this 

 fact, and thus satisfy himself by his own eyes, that the rhinocei'os of 

 Mashaiv, were it a new species, is no less a species as essentially dif- 

 ferent from the fossil rhinoceros with partitioned nares, than the other 

 living species. 



But I do not even think that it is a particular species. The length 

 and direction of the horns may vary, and in fact do vary considerably 

 in different individuals in the rhinoceros of the Cape ; and with respect 

 to the superiority of size, we can affirm that it scarcely exceeds, that it 

 does not even approach that which takes place between equally adult 

 individuals in the two-horned species of Sumatra. 



Article III. 



Osteological comparison of the two-homed Rhinoceros of the Cape, 

 and of the one-homed Rhinoceros of Java, with the one-homed of 

 India. 



Just at the moment I was arranging this chapter, I was so fortunate as 

 to receive from the Cape a complete skeleton of an adult two-homed 

 rhinoceros, prepared by the indefatigable M. Delalande ; and a very few 

 days after, I received from Java that of the one-horned rhinoceros of 

 that island, obtained in the woods by M. Diard, a naturalist as estima- 

 ble for his great knowledge, as for the courageous devotion which car- 



