M A T ERT AL FOR THE STUDY OF RUMINANTS. 



3 



As is also the case in the Saiga according to Murie (1. c.) the 

 anterior portion of the tongue of the Black-buck is strongly pigmented. 

 The dark colouration is, however, in this animal still more restricted, 

 being confined to the anterior third or only a little more. The poste- 

 rior part is perfectly pale. The papillœ filiformes are flattened almost 

 scale-like but pointed, thus similar to those of the sheep. Anteriorly 

 they extend about 7 mm. on the lower side of the tongue, that is just 

 as far as the tongue is pigmented. Posteriorly hardly any such pa- 

 pillae are found on the lateral surfaces of the tongue. The median 

 region of the posterior half of the longue is as usual covered by large 

 papillae which are similar to those I have described in Ovibos 1 ). They 

 are mostly scale-like and blunt at the tip; some of the anterior ones 

 almost like tubercles. 1 have had the opportunity to examine two heads 

 of Salt's Dik-dik and may therefore make a comparison between this 

 species and the Black-buck in some points. The Dik-dik has also 

 rather scale-like papillœ filiformes which are not even pointed but 

 rather truncate. But where the papillary covering extends on the sides 

 of the tongue the papillae are slender and pointed. Posteriorly the 

 Dik-dik like the Black-buck has large wart-like papillae in the middle 

 of the back of the tongue but towards the sides they become more 

 conical or partly scale-like. The papillœ fungi form es are in the Black- 

 buck by far most numerous and most closely set at the anterior 

 edge of the tongue, but are in the black region found anteriorly 1 Va 

 cm. and laterally 1 cm. from the margin. Underneath they are scat- 

 tered almost over the whole, black region although, of course, most 

 numerous near the edge. In the pale region the papillœ fungiformes 

 are few and far between, only found near the lateral border of the 

 tongue leaving a broad central area unoccupied. Some few are also 

 found on the upper part of the lateral surfaces posteriorly. In the 

 pigmented portion they are black, in the pale region pale. Their di- 

 stribution is on the whole similar to the same in the Gnu 2 ). Madoqua 

 saltiana has numerous papillœ fungiformes scattered all over the ante- 

 rior portion of the tongue, less densely in the middle, in greater num- 

 ber at the tip and especially crowded below the same. In the middle 

 of the posterior portion of the tongue there are no fungiform papillae 

 in the little Dik-dik, but towards the sides they become fairly nume- 



x ) Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1900. 



2 ) Gonf. Lönnberg : On the soft anatomy of the Gnu. K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd. 35. 



