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Show 150 DR. W. G. RIDEWOOD ON THE [Jan. 19, BoVIDyE (con.). Species:-Oryx beisa. F 3 Oryx gazella. F 2 young specimens Aclclax nasomaculatus. F 1 Saiga tcttarica. N 1 Genus Equus. f 100 examined specially E. caballus. F C P E I A G < in addition to a very [ large series obsex-ved. E. ctsinits (domestic) N PE I ... 20 Mule. N P E I 20 E. equuleus. F P E I 5 E. asinus somctlicus. F 1 E. hemionus. FA I 2 E. onager. F A I 2 E. zebra. F C 2 E. zebra burchelli. ¥ A C 5 E. zebra grevyi. F C , 3 E. quagga,. F 1 3. Some Observations on the Skull of the Giraffe. By W. G. IIIDEWOOD, D.Sc, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Lecturer on Biology at the Medical School of St. Mary's Hospital. [Received November 30, 1903.] (Text-figures 4-10.) Since the time of Blumenbach * it has been known that tlxe paired horns of the Giraffe are formed in tlxe young as separate bony columns or " epiphyses," which later fuse with tlxe almost smooth upper surface of tlxe cranium ; and shortly before tlxe publication of his memoir on the Okapi f Prof E. Ray Lankester learnt that a skin of the Okapi had axrived at Brussels with tlxe paired horns, or, as he proposes to call them, the " ossicusps," sepax-able from the skull %. A few weeks prior to the latter discovery Prof. Lankester had caused a section to be made lengthwise down one of tlxe horns of the skull of a well-grown male Giraffe §, with tlxe object of ascertaining to what extent tlxe suture between tlxe bony pillar and the cx-anial roof might remain visible. So far as the suture was concerned, the result was a little disappointing, but the section showed that the great fronto-parietal sinuses extend upwards into tlxe bases of tlxe horns (as described * Handb. d. vergl. Anatomie, Gottingen, 1805, p. 36, footnote. f Trans. Zool. Soc. xvi. 6, 1902. X The matter is referred to in an appendix, dated May 27th, to Prof. Lankester's memoir, pp. 305 & 306. The ossicusps were described by Dr. Forsyth Major in 'La Belgique Coloniale,' Nov. 9th, 1902, p. 533, and are again alluded to in his Dauer in the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1902, ii. p. 344. § Brit. Mus. Register No. 1.8.9.48. Presented by Sir Harry Johnston KCli Locality-Guas Ngishu Plateau, E. of Mt. Elgon, Brit. E. Africa. |
