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Show 178 PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE MUSK-DEER. [Mai*. 16, has been so long mounted in the Museum of the College of Surgeons there are certainly 14 ribs ; but in two others presented by Mr. Bryan Hodgson there are but 13, which is the number in the female subject of the present notice. It is curious that if Moschus sometimes varies in excess of the number of ribs usual to the Cervida, Hydropotes differs in the opposite direction ; for the fine skeleton of a male of that species lately presented to the Museum by Mr. Swinhoe has but 12 pairs. Systematic Position and Affinities of Moschus. Although, in consequence of imperfect knowledge or imperfect reasoning upon such knowledge as we possess, a large portion of our present system of zoological classification can only be looked upon as tentative and provisional, there are certain conclusions which we have good reason to believe no future discoveries will ever change, and upon which we can therefore take our stand and say they are questions of fact and not of opinion. One such is that the Paridigitate Ungulates of Cuvier (the A R TIODACTYLA of Owen, the "Bisulques" of Gervais) form a definite natural group, all the members of which are more nearly related to each other than they are to any other mammals. Of no large group do we know the past history so thoroughly ; and our knowledge of it has enabled us to fill up almost every important link since the middle of the Eocene epoch, and to show the gradual steps by which its different modifications have been brought about*. Another fact which I think indisputable is that, by the extinction of the various intermediate forms, four distinct modifications of the original Artiodactyle type have been left at present inhabiting the earth's surface, which are the Suina (including the Pigs and Hippopotamus), the Tylopodaf (the Camels and Llamas), the Trayulina% or Chevrotains, and the true Ruminants (called also Pecora and Coty lophora). * Our present state of knowledge on this subject has been very ably and ingeniously expounded by Dr. W . Kowalevsky in his " Monographie des genus Anthracotherium, Cuv., und Versuch einer naturlichen Classification der fossilen Huftbiere," Palrcontographica, xxii. 1873. An abstract will be found in a paper by tbe same author " O n the Osteology of the Hyopotamidce," Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xxi. p. 147, 1873. See also W . H . Flower, " O n Palseontological Evidence of Gradual Modifications of Animal Forms," Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, April 25th, 1873. t Illiger,'Prodromus,'1811. Phalangigrada and Bigitigrada, proposed subsequently, have no advantage over the earlier name. \ The known members of this group, constituted of tbe genera Tragulus and Hyomoschus, are so closely allied as to form a single family, which, according to the most convenient rules of zoological nomenclature, would be called TragulidcB; but I use the above termination as implying that they constitute a zoological division of more than family importance, equivalent, in fact, to the three others mentioned above. Although the French word Chevrotain and the Latin Tragulus may have had originally nothing to do with these animals, it is very desirable, in default of any better designation, to keep them for their exclusive use, and never for tbe future to allow such unfortunate expressions as " Pigmy Musk-Deer " to remain to convey false notions of zoological affinities. |
