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Show 1891.] PROF. E. C. STIRLING ON NOTORYCTES TYPHLOPS. 329 unfortunately is also considerably damaged, especially about the occipital region ; but from a cursory examination of the recently skinned body, I can note the following points with, I believe, accuracy :- " Cranium relatively large, no bony orbits ; zygomatic arches present ; well-developed shoulder-girdles with slender clavicles, pectoral muscles large ; pelvis large and strong, with a rather wide symphysis pubis, but no epipubic bones, either actual or rudimentary ; ribs 14 ; angle of lower jaw markedly inflected. " The teeth are peculiar, and require a more extended description than I can give at present, but the formula appears to be:- i. » c. \, m. • (? * ! » * ) . 31 1 o v p. 1, m. i' " This, however, may require some modification, as just posterior and external to the premolar (or first molar) of the right ramus of the mandible there is a small rudimentary conical tooth, which is not to be found on the opposite side, nor at corresponding positions in the maxilla." Portions of a letter since addressed by Professor Stirling, on 29th of October, 1890, to Professor Newton were also read as follows:- ".... As to the new beast. ... I am very sorry that various causes .... have prevented m y working it out .... It turns out not to be a Monotreme, but a Marsupial, with Mole-like configuration. The marsupial bones are exceedingly small nodules and escaped my notice at first. Four or five of the cervical vertebrae are fused, and there is a keeled sternum, an enormously thick and short first rib, which serves the purpose of buttressing the sternum in lieu of cora-coids; a bird-like pel vis, with the ischia abutting on the spinal column ; penis in the urogenital canal, and testes external in front of the penis ; eyes mere pigment-spots underneath the skin and temporalis muscle. Altogether it is a curious beast .... the Mole-type of Marsupials. It has a remarkable habit of burrowing for long distances in the sand, and with great rapidity .... I have four specimens, but only one in good preservation, which is not to be wondered at when I say that they came 1500 miles wrapped up in a kerosined rag, and I have not been able to get any more .... This is the whole story and I regret the delay .... While I am working it out I should like to keep all the specimens I have, as, with one exception, they are not good alike in the soft parts, and I shall want them to supplement each other." In a later letter from Prof. Stirling, dated 29th March, 1891, he informed the same correspondent that he was then about to cross the Australian continent from Port Darwin to Adelaide, where he expected to arrive about the present time, hoping to travel through the portion of the country inhabited by Notoryctes, and to obtain from the natives some more specimens, though he was careful to say that " they are not common " there. The full description of this form had, it was understood, already appeared in the ' Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,' though no copy of it had yet reached England. |