40 
ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
4 PhoccBna communis. On the anatomy of the retina see Hulke, Joum. of 
Aiiat. & Physiol. 1867, i. pp. 19-25. 
Qlohiocephalus svineval. Prof. Turner has contributed to the anatomy, 
Journ. of Anat. & Physiol. 1867, i. pp. GQ-79. — A short account of the cap- 
ture of a shoal of this Whale in the Firth of Forth, April 26, 1867, is given 
by Mr. Alsten in the Zoologist, 1867, pp. 801-803.— Dr. Macalister has 
examined and described the myology of a young example, Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1867, pp. 477-482. 
'^Rhytina stelleri. The organ of hearing is described by Prof. Claudius, 
M6m. Ac. Sc. St. P^tersb. 1867, xi. no. 6, with two plates. 
Prof. Brandt has published some additional notes on the distribution and 
extinction of this animal. Bull. Ac. Sc. St. P^tersb. xi. 1867, pp. 446-461. 
MARSUPIALIA. 
Mr. Flower has published an important paper on the deve- 
lopment and succession of the teeth in the Marsupialia. He has 
examined very young examples of the types of six families, and 
found that, in this subclass, the teeth do not vertically displace 
and succeed other teeth, as in the other Mammalia, with the ex- 
ception of a single tooth on each side of each jaw. The tooth in 
which a vertical succession takes place is always the correspond- 
ing or homologous tooth, being the hindermost of the premolar 
series, which is preceded by a tooth having the characters, more 
or less strongly expressed, of a true molar. The author then 
argues the question whether the milk-dentition of the typical 
diphyodont Mammals is represented in the Marsupials only by 
these fom’ deciduous molars, or whether the large majority of the 
teeth of the Marsupials are the homologues of the milk-teeth of 
the diphyodonts, in which case the four successional premolars 
of Marsupials would be the feeble representatives of the perma- 
nent dentition of the diphyodonts. The author is inclined 
to assume the former as the true solution of the question, which, 
however, will require further confirmation from examination of 
examples in phases of development earlier than those at his dis- 
posal. Philos. Trans, clvi. pp. 631-641 ; abstract in Proc. Roy. 
Soc. 1867, pp. 464-468. The paper is illustrated by plates 
29 & 30. The simple plan of marking the diflPerent sets of teeth 
with different colours renders the subject very perspicuous, and 
we trust that it will be followed on all similar occasions. 
Dr. Peters communicated to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin and to 
the Zoological Society of London a note on the relation of the tympanic bone 
to the mandible in the Marsupials, stating that he had found in a young Hal- 
maturus hennettii (85 millims. long without tail) and in a young Didelphys, 
that the former bonp is inserted into the cavity formed by the angle of the 
latter. He considered that this temporary glenoid surface is to be compared 
with the permanent glenoid cavity in birds, or at least to a part of it, as it is 
well known that relations which are permanent in lower animals are often 
