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Show 1870.] DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. 503 tion as to the relative value of these is encountered. If horns are the test, the place assigned it by Gray and Turner cannot be objected to. If tried by Ogilby's standard of the form of the upper lip, and distribution of cutaneous glands, or Sundevall's proposed arrangement by hoof-structure, it m a y claim kindred with several widely different tribes. If teeth rule, or visceral structure prevail, it is of alien stock. If the skeleton, and specially the skull, decide its position, there is still something equivocal in its kinship. Thus, what I have said of the Prongbuck is applicable to the Saiga : both constitute forms of intermediate position, and defy the mandate of systematists who rigidly circumscribe the boundaries of groups. They tell in the strongest terms how interblended are the Ruminant tribes and subtribes. Every fresh fossil remnant, moreover, proves the truth of this dictum, and makes even the definition of genera unstable, generic limitation, in the present state of science, being a manifold convenience. The Saiga, to all intents and purposes, m a y be regarded as an Antilopine Sheep, not absolutely a Sheep, but an offshoot derivative of the genus Gazella rather than of Turner's Ovine Antelopes, Nemorhcedus. With this shifting of tribal alliance, Dr. Gray's generic rank to it would remain, with the addition of such anatomical characters as I have enunciated. Genus SAIGA, Gray. Horns roundish, lyrate, annulated, translucent. Nose very high and produced, walls soft, cavities capacious, and orifices patulous. A n internal maxillary sinus or pouch. Crumen, inguinal, and interdigital sacs present. Fleece ovine but short. Molars without supplemental lobes; the median incisors only moderately expanded. Nasals and praemaxillae very short and far apart; a wide vacuity above. Maxillary produced as a shallow rostrum. Lachrymal higher than broad; no naso-lachrymal fissure ; a shallow impressed suborbital fossa ; masseteric ridge rising before the orbit; basioccipital flat, as wide as long, or slightly more expanded in front; anterior basilar tubercles well developed, the posterior ones less so, but not small; auditory bullae moderate, partially inflated ; a mastoidal or supraparamastoidal concavity ; spheno-pterygoids high, approaching the vertical. Horizontal palate-plates reaching far back ; posterior nares wide and deep. Limb-bones of moderate length, with Ovine proportions and Antilopine symmetry. Male thyroid cartilage somewhat gibbous, but no internal laryngeal pouch ; thyro-hyals long. Intestines Antilopine in their moderate length and proportions. A gall-bladder present. A well-developed prostate and Cowper's glands ; penis terminating by a short whip-like extension of the corpus cavernosum. |
