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Show 460 DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. [June 9, obtains in the Ruminant skull; including the short-nasaled Elk. As already intimated, they are set in a plane horizontal to the anterior portion of the frontals, though, from the descending sweep which the maxillaries take, the nasals appear to have a more upward cast than they in reality possess. Their upper surface is smooth and convex, the fronto-nasal suture being nearly transverse. The anterior free borders are rough for the attachment of the nasal cartilages; and on each outer corner is a small subquadrangular wing-piece, 0-3 inch in diameter, which inferiorly is suturally connected with the lachrymal. No portion whatsoever of the maxillary or premaxillary bones is in conjunction with the nasals ; in this respect, therefore, they differ materially from those of most Ruminants. Even Alces americana, distinguished by shortened nasals and praemaxillae, does not agree with Saiga, as its maxillae and nasal bones are partially coadapted, although the praemaxillae are widely apart from the latter. Examined from in front, the ethmoid and turbinate bones are large and sinuous, the inferior turbinate, especially, being tilted at an acute angle upwards and forwards. A small portion of their anterior ends projects beyond the interior border of the lachrymal; and to this inferior turbinate portion the upper lateral nasal cartilage is partially adherent. In spite of the very diminished length of the nasals, it is to be observed that their tips reach a point perpendicular to the infraorbital foramina or anterior true molar, the latter, as to a certain extent is the case in the true goats, being as it were, thrust backwards relatively to the facial regiorr. The development of the lachrymal bone is peculiar and noteworthy. In some senses, by its great vertical depth, does it give that strange aspect in profile to Saiga which elevates, as it were, the nasal region of the animal; while at the same time, by its more than ordinary enlargement, the lachrymal entirely excludes the maxillaries from reaching the nasals, as obtains in all the other artiodactyla. In shape, the lachrymal (L) is irregularly contoured, though it exhibits a tendency to a quadrate figure, divided, however, by a portion of the raised thin orbital ring. The cheek-surface is more or less impressed by three concavities, the chief of which is the ante- or suborbital fossa. This is obovate, shallowish, but broad, and lies at the inferior border of the bone ; above it is a small osseous tubercle. The fossa contains the so-called crumen or suborbital gland. About a sixth share of the ring and inner orbital plate is constituted by the lachrymal. The foramen for the lachrymal duct pierces the bone within and just beneath the anteorbital angle. The superior border of the lachrymal joins the frontal, and barely touches the middle outer border of the os nasi. Below, the lachrymal intrudes into the maxillary, as in Antelopes and Sheep, agreeing with the former, however, in the angular abutment of the piece. To the narial side of the ascending process of the maxillary an inlaid splint of the lachrymal descends; and the root of this is pierced by a large foramen (* fig. 4), wherein the lachrymal sac is lodged. This opening, in the fresh condition of the parts, is overlain by the sesamoid nasal cartilage (Ss, fig. 5) ; whilst the |
