276 
W. S. Maeleay, Esq., on the 
On a first inspection it seems very anomalous, differing from 
the skulls of all known Mammalia, and gives us the notion of 
some bird such as the Emu or Ostrich; which is owing to the 
breadth between the eye-orbits, which are close to the molars of 
the upper jaw, and also owing to the great development of the 
occiput. This last is so extensive as to present somewhat the 
form of the skull in Man and other animals of the order Primates, 
rather than the truncated occipital form of that of Mammalia in 
general. 
The extreme fragility and lightness of the cranium, and the 
sharpness of the crowns of the molars, which are only milk teeth, 
shew that the animal was quite young, if not a foetus. These 
first molars, which are three on each side, are exactly those of a 
young foal, having that fifth and subtriangular crown between 
their inner crescents which distinguishes the genus Equus from 
the Ruminantia and all other quadrupeds. The animal was 
therefore like the horse, graminivorous. The maxillary bones 
are exactly those of a horse, and the infra-orbital foramen, is 
situated in the same way with relation to the eye and jaw. The 
post-orbitary apophyse of the frontal bone closes in the case of 
the orbit behind, by forming a junction with a corresponding 
apophyse of the zygomatic arch. This is a character among the 
Ungulata of the Ruminating animals as well as of the horse; 
and the shortness of the nasal bones, and the extension of the 
occiput remind us somewhat of certain of the camel tribe, more 
particularly the Auchenia, or Peruvian Llama, which is known to 
make a distant approach in affinity to the Solipedes. But in the 
immense development of the frontal and parietal bones, the ele¬ 
vation of the frontals, and in the depression of the jugals, so low 
as almost to touch the molars, this skull differs from that of the 
ordinary horse, and every other mammiferous animal whatever. 
I have however, I repeat, in ray possession the skull of a fcetus 
of a mare which was found floating on the river Hawkesbury, in 
the year 1841. This skull was prepared by the lamented late 
Dr. Stewart, and he has made drawings and notes of it, which I 
intend before long to publish, with his other observations on 
various branches of natural history. Now the great elevation of 
