THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
118 
taming in the giraffe, in which, it need hardly 
be said, the so-called horns are short bony pro- 
cesses, covered with skin in the living condition, 
and entirely distinct from the frontal bone*. 
The horn-core of the samothere are, indeed, very 
similar to those of certain Pikermi antelopes, 
and were, in all probability, sheathed in horn 
in the living animal. This ruminant appears, 
therefore, to indicate a close genetic connection 
between the giraffes and the antelopes ; and since 
the giraffe itself is very closely allied to the 
deer, while the extinct Indian sivathere exhibits 
many points of affinity with the giraffe, but 
appears to have had deer-like antlers which 
were never shed, we see how little importance 
can really be attached to horns and antlers as 
indicative of want of affinity, or the reverse, 
between their respective owners. Indeed, there 
can now be but little doubt that deer, giraffes, 
prongbucks, and antelopes, are all descended 
from a common stock; the intermediate and 
annectant types having mostly died out, althought 
the evidence of their former existence is now 
slowly but surely accumulating. 
The only other mammals calling for especial 
notice are a species of aard-vark (Orycteropus) 
and a pangolin. 
Occurrence of “Chrysophrys” in the 
Malta Miocene. 
The occurrence of the remains of the fish Chry- 
sophrys in the Maltese Miocene has not hitherto 
been recorded, it will therefore be of interest to 
Maltese geologists to learn that I have found the 
teeth of this fish in the Marl, in the Globigerina 
Limestone, and in the Greensands. 
Professor Capellini very kindly determined the 
specimen from the Marl bed. 
J. H. C. 
Observations on the Geology of the 
Maltese Islands 
BY 
John H. Cooke. 
( continued from. No. 5.) 
Taking up our position, therefore, on one of 
the Binjemma heights in the vicinity of Gebel 
Ciautar or Chain Toffiha, and gazing down from 
our coign of vantage upon the wide expanse of 
mountainous, forestclad country around, a scene 
of varied and picturesque beauty confronts us. 
Hill and dale, mountain and valley, lake and 
rivulet form one vast panorama that extends as 
far as the eye can reach. 
The tinkling music of purling streams, whose 
waters appear, in the blight sunshine, as silvery 
threads entwined among the dark, green foliage 
of the palms, ferns, swamp cypresses, laurels, 
mimosas, oaks, myrtles, and acacias that clothe 
the slopes, attracts our attention, and causes t-he 
eye to involuntary follow the courses that the 
streams pursue as they meander onward to the 
broad and noble river, that w r inds along the bases 
of the hills to the southward. 
Let us saunter through the forests of club- 
mosses, ferns, and palm-trees that cover the hill 
sides around us; and let us observe, more closely, 
the animal life with which these wilds are tenanted. 
The air is alive with the twittering and screams 
of feathered songsters, that are carolling forth 
their melodious music from the branches of the 
trees around. Soft balmy breezes lightly kiss the 
foliage, and cause it to respond in murmuring 
whispers to their advances. Swarms of midges, 
dragonflies, and ether flies (Syrphus) rise from 
the green sward and mosses, and with drowsy 
hum dart upward, coquetting with the sunbeams 
that here and there pierce the moving canopy of 
leaves and branches, and exhibiting in a never 
ending variety the brilliant colouring of their 
wings, and the matchless symetry of their pro- 
portions. A monster swan, Cygnus falconeri, (1) 
that was a few moments since, foraging in the 
rank verdure of the morasses that fringe the 
river’s bank, has now taken flight, and is rapidly 
moving towards the flocks of its companious 
( Cygnus Melitensis and C. A lor) (2) whose snowy 
white forms we see in the distance glancing in the 
sunshine as they hurry onward with swift and 
noisy motion towards the calm, glassy waters of 
the lake that lies to the eastwards. 
And on the most prominent of the many 
pinnacles that fringe the ravine stands in ma- 
jestic and watchful solitude, a magnificent vulture 
(1) Falconer Dr. Paleontological Memoirs Vol. 
II. 300. 305. 307. 
(2) Parker. Trans. Zoolog. Soc. Vol. VI. 119. 
