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Show 188 PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE MUSK-DEER. [Mar. 16, The absence of antorbital glands (generally indicated in the skeleton by the flatness of the facial surface of the lachrymal bone) is a general character of the older members of the order, retained in some few Deer, many of the Bovida, the Giraffe, and all Tragulina, Tylopoda, and Suina. The same is probably the case with the interdigital glands, while the great development of the preputial gland is a specialization of the genus Moschus. VIII. The brain of the Musk, in its smallness, simplicity of surface-markings, and narrowness of the anterior part, indicates a low type of the group. It is inferior in these respects to the existing Deer, and still more to the Antelopes of corresponding size. IX. The peculiar construction of the psalterium probably also indicates a simple or low type of the group. X. I am not quite sure whether it is safe to put any reliance upon the character of the hair of the Musk, which is rather an exaggeration of that found in most Deer. But Antelopes such as Antilocapra, and especially Oreotragus saltatrix, show a very similar structure in their external covering. The fact of the young Musks being spotted (a character so nearly universal in the Deer, and not known in any of the other groups) may be some indication of Cervine affinity. To sum up the position of Moschus, it appears to me to be an animal belonging to the stock which remained of the selenodont (or crescentic-toothed) Artiodactyles after the Tylopoda and the Trayu-lina had been thrown off, and which, by continued modifications of the placenta, of the stomach, and other parts, produced the Pecora. Of this stock it is a low and little specialized form, not having the characteristic peculiarities of either the Bovida, the Giraffida, or the Cervida, being probably descended from the stock before either of those forms was well established, and having undergone comparatively little modification, though on the whole its affinities are nearest to the last-named group. I look upon it as, in the totality of its organization, an undeveloped Deer-an animal which in most points has ceased to progress with the rest of the group, while in some few it has taken a special line of advance of its own. Its position will perhaps be better understood by reference to the annexed table, in which I have endeavoured to show, only of course in a provisional manner, the order in which the principal modifications of the primitive Artiodactyle type have been brought about. The names of some of the best-known extinct forms are inserted to indicate their position only approximately; in the absence of knowledge of their visceral anatomy and unfortunately of much of their osteology, greater certainty cannot be attained. The primary division of the order into Selenodonts, or those having a crescentic arrangement of the projections on their molar teeth, and Bunodonts, or those with only explain how such organs can become fixed and gradually increase in development in any species. If the function suggested above be the correct one, such individuals as by the intensity and peculiarity of their scent had greater power of attracting the opposite sex would certainly be those most likely to leave descendants to inherit and in their turn propagate the modification. |