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Show 18/0.] DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. 487 ish-yellow, the right placed on the summit of the kidney, the left nearer the hilus. In one specimen only could I dissect them satisfactorily ; and in this they were slightly separate from the kidneys. 3. The Alimentary Canal and Accessory Glands. The oesophagus, 15 inches long in the female and 22| in the male, has its cardiac orifice opening into the paunch, as obtains in most ruminants ; though Hyomoschus* and Tragulusf offer exceptions in its directly communicating with the reticulum. Pallas has figured the four-fold stomach of Saiga tartarica, and beside it has placed for comparison that of the Antilope gutturosa. His description of the former agrees in most particulars with what I have found, though, as might be predicted, his rigid measurements do not quite accord with m y different-aged specimens. I may reiterate that the paunch is capacious, and bifid at its greater curvature, the reticulum of moderate size, the psalterium is comparatively small, and the abomasus of fair dimensions. It may further be noted that the cuticular papillary villi of the paunch are short and club-shaped. The cells of the reticulum are of moderate depth, with rudiments of stellate septa within. The folds of the psalterium correspond with Pallas's description, as do the plications of the abomasus. The same authority mentions that in the abomasus there are often found woolly balls incrusted by a blackish tartar, as in the Sheep. But no such foreign substance was present in the digestive cavity of the Society's two specimens. In our Proceedings for 1865, p. 262, Dr. Edwards Crisp makes the following statement:-" I supposed, until recently, that only the Camelidse had water-cavities in the stomachs; but on dissecting an Antelope from Siberia, the Saiga (Antilope saiga), I was surprised to find two large water-bags in the rumen." Unfortunately m y eve did not catch this paragraph until I had thrown away the said portion of the viscera of both animals. But I avow that I cut up in each Saiga the stomachs throughout their entire course, and aver that neither my assistant, who was present, nor myself detected such a structure. Pallas, whose opportunities were numerous, and who carefully describes the interior of each cavity of the stomach, does not allude to any such remarkable disposition of the parts. Having great faith in Dr. Crisp as a careful and conscientious observer, I felt it but justice to communicate with him previously to reading this paper. He has been kind enough to reply to me, and as respects the above says, " I cannot find the paper of the dissection of the Antelope, nor can I lay hands on the dry preparation of what I supposed to he water-bags in the paunch; but I give you the size on the other side [alluding to a sketch enclosed]. These may be abnormal from a lesion, or some other cause ; and if it is the * Flower, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 957, & fig. 2. f ' Sur la famille des Chevrotains,' Monograph by M. Alphonse Milne- Edwards : Paris, 1864. |
