226 Description of the Sivatherium, - [July 



pliant, the interval between their outer angles, taken across their occipi- 

 tal foramen, being 7 4 inches. The atlas, and the rest of the series of 

 cervical vertebrae, must have been of proportionate diameter to receive 

 and sustain the condyles, 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, suffici- 

 ent 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 mus- 

 cles about it, an immense developement would be required in the 

 spinal apophysis of the dorsal vertebrae, and in the whole interior ex- 

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

 more probable that the vertebra* were condensed, as in the Ele- 

 phant, and the neck short and thick, admitting of limited motion to the 

 head : circumstances 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 suitable for the attachment of a trunk. 



Next with regard to the horns : — 



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

 cesses 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 

 elongated. 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 position 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 

 two at once suggest the question, " had the Sivatherium also two 

 additional horns on the vertex?" The cranium in the fossil is muti- 

 lated across at the vertex, so as to deprive us of direct evidence on 

 the point, but the following reasons render the supposition at least 

 probable : 



1**.-- As above stated, in the bi-cavicorned Ruminantia, the osseous 

 cores are placed more or less to the rear of the orbits. 



2d.— -In such known species as have four horns, the supplementary 

 pair is between the orbits, and the normal pair well back upon the 

 frontal. 



3c?. — In the Bovine section of Ruminantia, the frontalis contracted 

 behind the orbits, and upwards from the contraction, it is expanded 



* The Tetracerus or Antilope Quadricornis and Chekara of authors. 



