OCR Text |
Show 116 PROF. MIVART ON THE FINS O F E L A S M O B R A N C H S . [Feb. 5, was taken a puppy on the slopes of Fujisan last year. I bought him for $ 11 in November last. He has learnt a sort of bark from the other dogs which he did not know when I first had him; he comes out sometimes with a regular wolf's howl, but not often. In his muzzle he resembles more the mainland Wolf, the northern Wolf being, like the Siberian one, very long in the nose, and those on the mainland (C. hodophylax) much shorter. M y first impression was that this dog was a cross between a wolf and the hunter's dog ; but both its parents then would have had very large round feet, which this has not. A friend told m e that it is very like the Indian Dhole. In winter it has a thick coat ; but in summer all the long thin hair comes out, and it then has only its coarse wiry hair on. It is a much scarcer animal than the Wolf on the mainland, which latter is rather common in the mountains, anywhere where the sheep-faced Antelope is found." "Yokohama, Nov. 17th, 1877. " I am trying to get a Southern Wolf (Canis hodophylax) to send as a present to the Society. I have sent the Wild Dog in the ' Loudoun Castle,' and should like to hear what they say about him. He is a complete puzzle to me. At one time I would look at him and think that he was only an abnormal form of the common Dog, run wild, and at other times feel as perfectly convinced that he had nothing in common with it. H e has very narrow feet, clean limbs, very long canines, coarse hair in summer and plenty of long thin hair in the winter, eyes and ears like a Wolf. I heard of the animal wherever I went from the hunters, but only succeeded in getting this one, as they say it is very difficult to catch, more so than the Wolf, the capture of which is no easy task, as I know, as I have been in places where they were plentiful, but only saw one and poisoned another, although I have heard half a dozen at a time howling quite close to m e in the forests of Yamato. " M y Wild Dog differs considerably from C. lupus, which is found in Yesso, and C. hodophylax, which is confined to the Main Island, although in his shorter muzzle he resembles the latter. When we know more about the cave and other recent bone-deposits of Japan, we shall be able to speak more definitely about him." 2. A young Penguin of the genus Spheniscus, purchased January 24th. This bird is said to have been obtained in Chili, and is probably the young of Spheniscus humboldti. It is very tame, and has been for the present placed in a compartment of the Fish-house, where it seems likely to do well. Prof. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., read a Memoir entitled, " Notes on the Fins of Elasmobranchs, with Considerations on the Nature and Homologies of Vertebrate Limbs," of which the following is an abstract:- In this paper I describe (from dissections made for the purpose) the skeleton of the paired and azygos fins, especially the dorsal fins, of Zygeena malleus, Mustelus antarcticus, Notidanus cinereus, Scyl- |