is named Rhinoceros tichorrhinus, or strongly-walled about the nose, in contradistinction to another species of Southern Europe called R. leptorhinus, or fine-nosed. Mr. Hugh Strickland, Mr. Jabez Allies, and the Rev. W. Parker obtained many teeth of the rhinoceros from the Bricklehampton and Cropthorne drifts of Worcestershire.* The Coney of the Bible is the Hyrax of naturalists, and is a diminutive hornless rhinoceros, about the size of a rabbit: it inhabits rocky places in Africa. Ancient as is the coney of Scripture, there was one still older, for a hornless rhinoceros (Acerotherium), or gigantic hyrax, lived in the Miocene period. The Zoological Society possesses specimens of the American and Malayan species of tapir. The tapir is a form of pachyderm, of which three species are known to be living-the Malay tapir and two American species. Many tapir-like animals, with a short proboscis, lived at the commencement of the Dawn epoch; they appear to have had affinities to the tapir and rhinoceros. The restoration of the tapir-like creatures Palæotherium and Anoplotherium by Baron Cuvier was a wondrous triumph of science. Order 6.-PROBOSCIDEA. Animals with a proboscis. There are two living species of Elephants, the Asiatic and African species; they differ in the size of their ears and the structure of their teeth. Thanks * I have to thank Mr. Ballard, the contractor of the Malvern, Worcester, and Hereford Railway, for an interesting collection of fossil bones of the rhinoceros, elephant, and ox from the Glacial drifts of the Malvern district. Bavaria. The skulls, teeth, a large portion of the saziet as, and even a part of the external covering of the body, consisting of wedge-shaped scales, of two other restes, were preserved in the carboniferous elay of the ecalfeld of Saarbrüch, and were described by Professor Goldfuss, under the name of Archegosaurus (primeval lizard), in 1847. Had any person ventured to prophesy, thirty years ago, that reptilian animals would be discovered in the Coal formation, he would have been set down as a heretic! Some animals present us with organization so intermediate as to make it difficult to determine to which class of animals they belong. The existing Lepidosiren, a specimen of which may be seen at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, is an example. For some time naturalists were puzzled to determine whether this animal was a reptile, a fish, or an intermediate animal. During the epoch of the Old Red sandstone, numerous anoid, or shining-scaled fishes, frequented the ancient seas; but it is not until the Carboniferous period, which succeeds that of the Old Red, that we neet with the Primeval Lizard. It is therefore most Maresting and important to know what relation the A chegosaurus bore, first to fishes, secondly to the Cia Red ishes, and thirdly to the existing repart Gass These are the points interesting to the The remains of the Archegosaurus were referred by Css aux authority than Professor Agassiz to the Visites Zygopterus Lucius, Agassiz); and it Possible to read Professor Owen's description pule without believing that the ArchegoSuntex 988 Created after the type of the Old Red eccomi column of the Archegosaurus pre a andsienes, that furnished the Telerpeton, are beer! Quered to be of Prussic age. |