A NEW FOSSIL RUMINANT GENUS. 



19 



must have been of proportionate diameter to receive and sustain the con- 

 dyles, and surrounded by a large mass of flesh. Both these circumstances 

 would tend greatly to limit the range of motion of the head and neck. But 

 to suit the herbivorous habits of the animal, it must have had some other 

 mode of reaching its food ; or the vertebrae must have been elongated in a 

 ratio to their diameter sufficient to admit of free motion to the neck. In 

 the -latter case the neck must have been of great length, and to support it 

 and the load of muscles about it, an immense developement would be requir- 

 ed in the spinal apophysis of the dorsal vertebrae, and in the whole anterior 

 extremity, with an unwieldy form of the body generally. It is therefore 

 more probable that the vertebrae were condensed as in the Elephant, and 

 the neck short and thick, admitting of limited motion to the head : circum- 

 stances indirectly corroborating the existence of a trunk. 



4th.— The face is short, broad and massive, to an extent not found in 

 the Ruminantia, and somewhat resembling that of the Elephant, and suita- 

 ble for the attachment of a trunk. 



Next with regard to the horns : — ■ 



There can be no doubt, that the two thick short and conical processes 

 between the orbits, were the cores of horns, resembling those of the Bovine 

 and Antilopine sections of the Ruminantia. They are smooth, and run 

 evenly into the brow without any burr. The horny sheaths which 

 they bore, must have been straight, thick, and not much elongat- 

 ed. None of the bicorned Ruminantia have horns placed in the same 

 way, exactly between and over the orbits : they have them more or 

 less to the rear. The only ruminant which has horns similar in posi- 

 tion is the four-horned Antelope* of Hindustan, which differs only 

 in having its anterior pair of horns a little more in advance of 

 the orbits, than occurs in the Sivatherium. The correspondence of the 



* The Tetracerus or Antilope Quadricornis and Chekara of authors. 



