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Show 976 DR. C I. FORSYTH MAJOR ON A [Dec. 1, POTAMOCHCERUS. The Wild Hog of Madagascar, of which the National Museum contains the skin of a young specimen, figures in m y collections with 11 specimens, male and female, adult and young, and complete skeletons. The species has been named, but never described, and will have to be compared with the P. africanus, with wdiich it presents more affinity than with P. penicillatus. To judge from the characters of the dentition, the same type is represented in the Siwaliks (S. hysudrlcus) as well as in the Upper Miocene and Pliocene of Europe, Eppelsheim, Montebamboli, Casteani, &c. (S. padceochcerus and S. chceroldes). HIPPOPOTAMUS. Filhol is of opinion that there are three subfossil Hippopotami in Madagascar. There are certainly two on the west coast, to judge from the remains in the National Museum. M y material comes from Sirabe, and the species may be different from those on the west coast. For the present, the question of one species more or less is a secondary one to me. All the Hippopotamus remains from Madagascar, those in the British Museum as well as those collected by myself and those preserved in Christiania and Paris, are certainly nearly related to each other, and this relationship may be briefly summed up as follows:-In size they are intermediate between H. liberiensls and H. palcelndlcus; in more important characters they would have to be placed, according to their greater or lesser degree of specialization, between H. slva-lensls and H, palcelndlcus on one side, and H. amphiblus on the other; one end of the whole line being occupied by the most generalized form, H. liberiensls, existing in W . Africa, and the other by the most specialized one, H. major of the Upper Pliocene of Europe. The whole series would be as follows:- H. liberiensls. H. iravadicus. H. sivalensis. H. palcelndlcus. H. madagascarlensls, H. merlel, &c. H. amp>hibius. H. major. I have called the H. liberiensls the most generalized form ; this does not hold good certainly as to the number of its incisors, in which respect it is very much specialized. The particulars of the cranium have almost the value of family characters, as by them it approaches the extinct genus Merycopotamus and the Suidae, and appears to be, as was pointed out by Gratiolet, less aquatic and especially less exclusively herbivorous than H. amphiblus. Compared with tbe other members, and especially with H. amphiblus and H. major, one of the most striking differences lies in the relative proportion of the cranial and facial portion of the skull, the first being greatly |
