I. Introduction. This paper was, for the most part, written several years ago, but its publication has been delayed with a view to its accompanying the description of the remains of the extinct animals found within the several caverns, and more particularly the detailed description of the Elephas Melitensis (the Pigmy Elephant) by the late Dr. Hugh Falconer. His lamented and premature death causing a still further delay, it is now presented to the Society in anticipation of the immediate publication of Dr. Falconer's prepared drawings and final notes upon the Little Elephant, with other posthumous papers, under the editorship of his friend Dr. Murchison, F.R.S.,—and also in anticipation of an elaborate paper upon the same subject, which is being prepared by Mr. G. Busk, F.R.S., to whom the bones were transferred at Dr. Falconer's decease. The bones of birds have been described by Mr. W. K. Parker, F.R.S. &c. II. The Maghlak Bone-cave. The first of these bone-caves was discovered in the summer of 1858, on the south coast of Malta, near the town of Crendi. That part of the coast, for a distance of about six miles on either side of the cavern, presents a line of almost precipitous cliffs or bold scarps, extending from Marsa Scirrocco Bay, at the south-eastern extremity of Malta, to the small bay Foum el Rieh, at the north-western extremity and the base of the Bengemma heights or plateau. These bold features terminate above in tWO distinct plateaux of nearly equal extent—the eastern