Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 33.djvu/225

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A. LEITH ADAMS ON MALTESE LAND-TORTOISES.
187

in the other large bones with prominent rugosities. The shaft is flat below, becoming rounded towards the middle. In T. ephippium the shaft is rounded posteriorly and flat, with a concavity close to the articulation on its tibial aspect. The circumference at midshaft is 60 millimetres in the fossil, and only 45 millims. in T. ephippium. A prominent rugosity for muscular attachment occupies the anterior border near the distal extremity, whilst a well-defined ridge runs up the posterior border and is lost about midshaft. Altogether this bone presents different characters from the fibula of T. elephantopus and T. ephippium, and bears a closer resemblance to that of T. vicina, and perhaps also of T. ponderosa, as far as I have been enabled to compare it with a specimen of the fibula of the latter in the possession of Dr. Günther, to whose masterly determinations we are indebted for the only lucid descriptions yet given of the osteology of the gigantic land-tortoises of the Galapagos Islands.

The foregoing Testudinea and Emydea must be admitted as interesting additions to the already goodly list of remarkable animal remains from the rock-rents of Malta.

The gigantic land Chelonians and their freshwater congener, when considered in relation to the gigantic Dormouse and water- birds and the small Pachydermata, furnish further proofs of the physical conditions requisite for the maintenance of such a varied fauna. This subject, however, deserves special consideration, not contemplated in the present communication.

The vertebrated and invertebrated animals hitherto recorded from the Cavern and alluvial deposits of Malta may be enumerated as follows:—

Mammalia.

Equus, sp.Horse, sp.?
Hippopotamus Pentlandi.Pentland's Hippopotamus.
Hippopotamus minutus.Pygmy Hippopotamus.
Cervus dama.Fallow Deer.
Cervus vel Capra.Deer or Goat, sp.?
Canis.Fox, sp.?.
Elephas mnaidriensis.Large Maltese Elephant.
Elephas melitensis.Smaller Maltese Elephant.
Elephas Falconeri.Pygmy Maltese Elephant.
Myoxus melitensis.Great Dormouse.
Myoxus Cartei(?).Carte's Dormouse.
Arvicola amphibia.Water-Vole.

Aves.

Cygnus Falconeri.Falconer's Swan.
Cygnus musicus(?).Wild Swan.
Bernicla vel Anser.Bernicle or Goose, sp.

Anas, sp.Duck, sp.?