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e. D. Corg, * A.M 
GEOLOGY. 695 
did not find there any Mammalia, with the exception of some 
large bats; none of those remarkable Lemuride peculiar to the 
fauna of Madagascar existed in the Mascarene ‘Islands. The 
study of fossil birds leads to the same result; and three species 
of Æpyornis which Mr. A. Grandidier and I have been able to 
recognize among the fossils collected in the swamps of the south- 
west coast have enabled us to establish the relationship which 
connects these birds with the Dinornis, the Palypteryx and Aptor- 
nis of New Zealand. All these species belong to the same zoo- 
logical type, and make us feel that at a more or less remote epoch 
there may have existed some cOmmunication between these lands 
so far away from one another; perhaps groups of islands, now 
submerged, formed intermediate stations, of which unfortunately 
we have no trace. — A. MILNE-EDWARDS, from American Journal 
of Science and Arts. 
Tue Eocene Genus SYNOPLOTHERIUM.— This genus rests on a 
single species of about the size of a black bear, from the southern 
Wyoming Eocene. Many parts of the skeleton are preserved, and 
furnish the following characters. The toes of the fore foot are 
four, the outer materially shorter than the others; the claws flat, 
ovate, and deeply fissured above; the tail slender; the head with 
a flat muzzle with anterior nareal exposure and premaxillary bones 
much contracted below, and with a wide lateral vertical groove. 
Immediately behind this projects a huge canine tooth, and the outer 
face of the outer incisor is exposed in its bottom. There are three 
_ Upper incisors, the median two much smaller than the external, 
Which is as large as many canines. The mandible had six molars, 
the last shorter than the penultimate. They are separated by a 
toothless interval from the incisors, which are very large and 
directed upwards and forwards like those of 4 rodent. They 
Oppose the outer incisors at the extremity, and the canine superi- 
orly and laterally, performing thus a double service. 
This form is evidently allied to the genera Anchippodus of Leidy 
and Psemotomus Cope, as well as to the larger Loxolophodonts 
and are either forms of Proboscidia or represent those connecting 
this-group with the Perissodactyla. They are thus of interest, and 
their full analysis cannot fail to be of value to zoology — EDWARD 
"SS hn: eee a 
* : we 
: Read at the Dubuque Meeting of the American Association 
Science, Aug., 1872. 
for the Advancement of 
"7: 
