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Show 502 DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. [June 9, culiarly its own, it, at the same time, as the comparison already entered into bas shown, deviates in several characteristics from the genus Gazella, as indeed it does from all modern Antilopidee. Still though endowed with a basis of Ovine construction, it sheers off from this group and engrafts itself with the Antelopes. Over and above it reverts to those strange ancient Deer-like forms of the Tertiary epoch, though isolated from the recent Cerfs, not excepting the abnormal- nosed Elk. The vertebral column is neither strictly that of an Antelope or Sheep, but a mixture of both, with a specialized atloid transverse process. The pelvic arcb in the male is nearest allied to that of the Ram, the scapula to the Antelope's. In relative lengths of the limb-bones the fore extremities range with Ovis, the hind legs with Cervus; but in fineness of symmetry they have more a Gazelle aspect. Skeletally there are shades and grades of various groups of Bovidae intermixed, truly one of Parker's " generalized forms," so in-terhlending by structural ties of families otherwise removed, that old taxonomic lines of demarcation are resistlessly swept away. All the habits of Saiga are consistent with those of a Feral Ovis. As to the fleece, taken in all its bearings, it does not belong to the Gazelle group nor Antelope proper, but essentially is a slightly modified species of Sheep's wool. I should say of the interdigital sacs, crumen, and knee-patches, that they, in this case, hardly afford satisfactory grounds to base affinity upon. The remarkable internal nasal or maxillary sinus, besides tbe nasal enlargement, nevertheless leads on apace to Pachyderms, where, as in the Tapir, such maxillary sacs, elongate cartilages, and modified proboscides obtain. The fact that there is abundant fatty deposition, in the fleshy structures outside the body as well as viscerally, and in the scrotum, is in favour of Ovine affinities ; in most Antelopes, and universally among Goats, fat is developed meagrely on the body and omentum, being chiefly found en masse surrounding the kidneys. The relatively elongate heart is that of an Antelope or Deer ; and the intestinal length conforms with these rather than Sheep. The final result of all the evidence which can be gathered from the anatomy of the singular Saiga tartarica leaves still doubts regarding the creature's place in any one of the present groups of the Bovidee. It cannot be said to be purely an Antelope, though in many particulars it announces alliance with tbe genus Gazella, among which, however, I must reject its admission. To the Sheep tribe it is even more related in a variety of characters ; yet must it be excluded from either of Gray's Ovine genera (Cat. B. M . p. 160) Ovis, Caprovis, Pseudovis, and Ammotragus. Betwixt the above subfamilies or subtribes the Saiga appears to hover, masking under an Antilopine aspect much that belongs to Ovine race. Again relations of no mean kind, whether in a physiological or anatomical point of view, link it with the ancient quadricorn Siva and Titanotheres. The non-position, so to speak, of the Saiga among present groups having been established, the difficult task of assigning a location and defining systematic characters for it remains; and here the ptoposi- |