| OCR Text |
Show 1867.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE RHINOCEROTIDAE. 1005 The Museum of the College of Surgeons contains two skeletons and thirteen skulls of the Asiatic and three skulls of the African Rhinocerotes. One of these skulls is very interesting; it belongs to the one-horned Indian group, and is much like that of R. unicornis in general characters. It is an adult skull, with all the permanent teeth ; and it is so much smaller than the skull of the adult or even a half-grown animal of that species, that it indicates an animal not more than half, or perhaps one-third, of the size of the common Indian Rhinoceros. , There are generally one or more skulls of the animals of the genus to be seen in the larger local museums, as, for example, at Manchester, Leeds, and York.- If these skulls could be collected together and compared, they would form a most interesting collection for study; unfortunately they are generally without any certain history as to habitat &c. Cuvier, in his essay above quoted, has given an excellent resume of the history of the former knowledge of the animals; and I have only to observe that he did not discover that the skull figured by Camper, which he copied (t. 2. f. 7) and regarded as the skull of the adult Rhinoceros bicornis, is the skull of the Rhinoceros keitloa. He mentions R. simus as a distinct species, from M . de Blainville's note on the animal (from Mr. Burchell's MS.) in the 'Journal de Physique.' The horns of these animals attracted the attention of Dr. Parsons, who figured several of them in a paper in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1742 and 1743, among the rest the horns of some African species, which have, since Cuvier's time, been determined, chiefly by the form of the horn, to be distinct species. Some of these horns are still in the British Museum. t. 3. f. 4, 5. Rhinoceros bicornis, in B. M. t. 3. f. 6. Rhinoceros simus, in B. M. t. 3. f. 7. Rhinoceros oswellii, in B. M . t. 3. f. 8, 9. Rhinoceros keitloal In the British Museum and in the Museum of the College of Surgeons there is a large series of the horns of both the Asiatic and African species. Fam. 3. R H I N O C E R O T I D ^ E. Nose simple. Upper lip subprehensile, with one cw two horns on the central line. Toes three or five, united into a broad clavate foot, each with a separate broad nail-like hoof. Teeth:-Incisors variable or wanting, C. ^ , P.M. - , M . ~, =28. Molar teeth with distinct roots. Rhinocerina, Gray, Ann. Phil. 1825; Cat. M a m m . B.M. 186. Rhinoceroten, Giebel, Saugeth. 191. Rhinoceratidce, Owen, Odont. 587 ; Schinz, Syn. M a m m . ii, 3325 1845. Rhinoceratina, Bonap. Prodr. Mast. 11. Rhinocerosidice, Lesson, N. Tab. R. A. 1858. |
