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Show 1876.] ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF SOUTH-AFRICAN MAMMALS. 277 Psophia it is B,XY, as it is in Cariama (in Chunga B is also absent). In Balearica regulorum the formula is X Y ; in Grus antigone it is AB,XY, the femoro-caudal being reduced to almost a thread; in Anthropoides virgo the formula is AB,XY, as it is in Ibis and Platalea, as well as in Eurypyga. Myology therefore does not militate against the Gruine affinities of Aramus. Further, as in Grus, the tensor fascia covers the biceps cruris; the biceps humeri muscle sends a special belly into the patagium; the expansor secundariorum is Ciconine ; the obturator internus has a triangular origin*. Alimentary canal.-The tongue is 2 | inches long, very slender, quite smooth, nearly cylindrical, and tapering to a fine point in front. It has a slight papillary fringing at its posterior edge. The oesophagus is very capacious, although no crop is developed. The proventriculus is zonary ; its glands are cylindrical and short. Between it and the gizzard is a capacious dilatation of the termination of the gullet, lined, apparently, with squamous epithelium, the volume of which is greater than that of the interior of the gizzard itself. The gizzard is not large, and its muscular walls are not thick. The liver has the left lobe a little larger than the right, a condition far from common among birds ; the gall-bladder is present. The average-sized, or slightly narrow, intestines are 40 inches in length. The caca are somewhat dilated toward their blind ends ; they are 2 and 2\ inches long. They are peculiar in being situated laterally, and close together, instead of opposite one another, a condition approximated to in most of the non-columbine Schizorhinal birds, and in them only; the small intestine therefore enters the colon by a lateral, slit-like opening. In the Cranes the caeca are generally between 5 and 6 inches long ; and they being so much larger, the comparative size is much the same. In Ibis, Platalea, and Eurypyga they are very much shorter; in Cariama they measure 10 inches, whilst in Psophia their length is much the same as in Aramus. 2. On the past and present Geographical Distribution of the Large M a m m a l s of South Africa. By T. E . B U C K L E Y, B.A., F.Z.S. [Received February 7, 1876.] After I had made arrangements for an expedition to South Africa, principally for the purpose of sport, in 1873, the University of Cambridge offered me a grant from the "Wort's Fund," on the condition that I should send home a collection of specimens equal in value to the amount of the grant, and should also make a report to the Vice-Chancellor, detailing any observations that I thought of sufficient importance to be preserved. As the larger Mammals are yearly receding further into the interior,, and as their total extinction is only a question of time, I thought I * For further reference to these points, vide P. Z. S. 1876, p. 195. |
