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Show 1874.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON A NEW CROCODILE. 145 Indeed, I may here remark that I have proposed the name Ovis brookei out of respect to the assiduous labours undertaken by that gentleman, who is now engaged in the production of a monograph of the sheep, illustrated by Mr. Wolf. The head of this new Sheep now exhibited is believed to have been obtained by Sir Morrison Barlow some years since at Leb, in Ladak. It was parted with to a friend, from whom it subsequently passed, upwards of two years since, into m y possession. The late Mr. Blyth, who was so high and excellent an authority on sheep, was very desirous of describing the specimen which I have this evening brought before the Meeting; but I preferred to defer his doing so till I had obtained other heads. This I have not yet been able to accomplish; I, however, hope to do so shortly, and thus to be further enabled to supplement m y remarks in support of this new species. 4. O n Crocodilus madagascariensis, the Madagascar Crocodile. B y Dr. J. E . G R A Y , F.R.S. &c. [Received January 30, 1874.] (Plate XXIII.) Cuvier, in the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' p. 44, mentions a specimen of a Crocodile from Madagascar, brought by M . Havet, and considers it the same as the one from continental Africa; I was inclined to do the same with two specimens of the young in spirits. which the Museum received as coming from Madagascar. Lately the British Museum has received a rather larger specimen direct from Mr. Lormier, who collected in Madagascar; and on comparing this specimen and the other two with specimens of C. vulgaris from continental Africa, of about the same size, I find that they all have the beak rather longer and slenderer compared with its breadth, and with straighter sides. At the same time, the sides of the lower jaw of all the specimens from Madagascar are pale and marbled with darker spots, and the sides of the abdomen of the larger stuffed specimens are marked with dark rounded spots placed in oblique cross lines-two peculiarities which I have not observed in any of the specimens from continental Africa. I am therefore inclined to think they indicate that the Crocodile which inhabits Madagascar is distinct from that which inhabits continental Africa ; and I propose to call it Crocodilus madagascariensis. I have seen it somewhere observed that the Crocodile of Madagascar is like the Crocodile from America, Molinia acuta ; but this is a mistake; for although its head somewhat approaches in shape and proportion to that of Molinia acuta, its skull and the shields of the body are those of a true Crocodile. The true Crocodiles have a cross series of four or six small occipital shields in a line, and a nuchal disk behind them of six larger keeled PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1874, No. X. 10 |