FURTHER TRACES OF MEIOLANIA IN N. S. -WALES — ETHERIDGE. 41 
M. Owenii , and the angle of inclination they would probably form, 
with the median line of the tail, is different. So far the conviction 
of the Writer is that they are horn-cores of a, Meiolcmia, probably 
detached from a tail-sheath and possibly from a species differing 
from those described. 
The late Sir R. Owen united in his description of the tail-sheath 
of Meiolania Owenii, the two rings and cap* with a detached ring.f 
He remarked^ “The anterior ring .... may have come from a 
more advanced part of the tail, but the peripheral border of the 
hinder aperture .... fits that ©f the front aperture of the fore- 
most of the coalesced group.” Before me are excellent plaster 
reproductions of these fossils, and with the highest possible respect 
for the weighty opinion of the late celebrated Author, it appears to 
me that this opinion has been too hastily formed. J udging from the 
casts in question, made I believe, at the Natural History Museum, 
London, portions between the two parts must be missing, fc>r the 
union is anything but a happy one. The conical processes on the 
detached ring are much smaller than the anterior pair on the 
coalesced portion of the tail-sheath, the curvature of the processes 
is unlike, and to some extent the angle they form with the median 
line of the tail is different. Now the assumption naturally would 
be that the more anterior in position, the larger the processes ; 
and for the reasons cited I am of opinion that the two portions 
appertain to separate individuals. One other point may be 
mentioned in support of this. In the tail-sheath of coalesced 
processes the lateral pair almost pass insensibly below into the 
ventral surface, but in the detached ring there is a considerable 
interval of almost vertical walls between the preserved lateral 
process and the ventral surface. 
We look forward to the day when, between the various National 
Collections, it will be possible to put together a tolerably perfect 
skeleton of this curious animal. 
*Phil. Trans., clxxii., t. 65, f. 1-3 (pars.) 
f Phil. Trans., clxxii., t. 65, f. 4. 
X Phil. Trans., clxxii., p. 547. 
