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Show 488 DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. [June 9, Saiga, and you have found no such protuberances, such is probably the explanation. However, I am not quite sure as to the species of Antelope : I think Mr. Bartlett had some doubt about it." In the well-conditioned male, as in Pallas's specimen, the mesentery was loaded with fat, which in great part covered the stomach and the convolutions of the gut. As regards the extent of the intestinal tube, it is best expressed in tbe subjoined tabular view. Zool. Soc. specimens. , » ^Pallas's $ spec. ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. Small intestine. . in the 5 33 2 .. in the J 37 7 39 10 Caecum „ „ 0 12.. „ „ 0 9-| 012*8 Great intestine . . „ ,, 15 4 .. ,, ,, 17 11*> 16 5 The lesser gut is throughout narrow. There is no ileo-colic sacculated gland as in the Giraffe; but the ileo-caecal orifice has a broadish valvular fringe. The caecum is simple, and neither it nor the colon is provided with longitudinal fibrous bands. Close upon two and a half feet of the caecal appendage and the great intestine have a diameter of about a gouple of inches ; the remainder of the tube is of moderate calibre, with a very slight widening towards the rectum. The intestines describe gyrations and are spirally coiled. M y admeasurement of the intestines do not accurately coincide with those of Pallas ; but this may be accounted for by variation in the animals' ages, or, mayhap, by reason of one being wild, the other confined and fed differently. Assuming that his observations and those of Cuvier* are correct, the intestinal tract is nearly equivalent to similar-sized Antelopes' and disagrees with that of the Sheep. Entire intestine exceeds the body in length: -13*1 times, Stag; 13*6, Saiga; 149, A. cervicapra; 15*0, A. gutturosa ; 28*1, Sheep. The small intestine is in excess of the great:- I -4 times, Stag ; 2*3, A. gutturosa ; 2*6, Saiga; 2*7, A. cervicapra; 3*3, Sheep. The ISheep-like liver is transversely broad, almost destitute of incisions ; what answers therefore to a large left lobe is medianly imperfectly defined. The slight median notch and its round ligament are close to the fundus of the gall-bladder, thus cutting off from its due share of the anterior border the homologue of the lobus quadratus; the latter is moderately wide and triangular. The bayonet-figured caudate lobe is four inches long, and extends freely beyond the right border. A lobus Spigelii is but scantily developed. The relative diameters of the liver in the male Saiga were 10 inches transversely and 6 antero-posteriorly, in the younger female 8 and 4k inches respectively. As in the Bovidae, the hepatic substance is soft, finely granular, and smooth-surfaced. The short roundish gall-bladder is of moderate dimensions, its fossa small and shallow; the fundus, as in Bison americanus, reaches quite beyond the free border of the liver. The cystic duct and * As given by Meckel. Anat. C. mp. vol. viii. p. 446. Meckel's estimate does not correspond with the above data calculated from his lable. |