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Show 1875.] PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE MUSK-DEER. 185 males of many species, as Amphitragulus and Dremotherium. These, after a time, became generally superseded by horns or antlers ; but they have either continued from those times or have been independently developed by the agency of similar causes in Hydropotes and in Moschus, and to a less extent in Cervulus, Tragulus, and Hyomoschus. The latter supposition seems more likely, as when closely examined the canines of Moschus and Tragulus will be seen to differ much in form and direction. The former are rounded and the latter concave on the external surface; the former tend to approach each other as they grow downwards, the latter to diverge and turn backwards *. The canines of the Musk seem at first sight to differ from those of other Deer in having persistent pulps; but this is only a question of degree. In old Musks, as in old Muntjaks and Hydropotes, the base of the tooth becomes closed, as specimens in the Museum of the College of Surgeons show; but this takes place at a relatively later age. III. The special characters of the feet are :-(1) the navicular and cuboid united together, (2) the ectocuneiform free, (3) the outer metatarsals entirely absent, (4) the lower extremity of the outer metacarpals fairly developed, (5) well-developed phalanges to the outer toes on all extremities. The first is common to all the Pecora and Tragulina, but separates them from the Tylopoda and Suina. The second is found in all Pecora except the Muntjaks and the Pudu, which, in the union of these bones, exhibit a nearer approach to the Chevrotains than does Moschus. The third character is common to all the Pecora t, and separates them from the Tragulina. The fourth Moschus shares in common with Alces, Bangifer, Hydropotes, Capreolus, Coassus, Cariacus, and Pudu, but not with the other Deer or any of the remaining Pecora%. The fifth is found in all the Cervida except Cervulus, but not (or only in a comparatively rudimentary condition) in any of the other Pecora. The evidence from the feet, then, is decidedly in favour of the affinity of Moschus with the Cervida ; for in that group alone is their exact counterpart to be found. IV. A very constant distinction in the skeletons of the Bovida and the Cervida (excluding Moschus) is to be found in the orifice of the lachrymal canal. In nearly all the former this is single and situated just within the anterior margin of the orbit; in the latter there are two openings, one above the other (the upper one situated just upon, and the lower one rather anterior to, the margin of the orbit), and there is generally a bony tubercle between them ; the two canals very soon join together. Professor A. Milne- Edwards, to whose excellent observations on this group of animals I am indebted for m y first knowledge of this useful character§, mentions certain exceptions; but on a closer examination of these, I find * Milne-Edwards, op. cit. p. 50. + If ever present, they are excessively rudimentary. + See Sir Victor Brooke, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 36 § Though pointed out in Cuvier's 'Lemons dAnatomie Comparee, t, u. (1837). |