VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY IN 191 1 559 



on the somewhat slender evidence of a single incisor tooth. 

 The grounds for specifically distinguishing this specimen are, 

 firstly, that it occurs in a horizon from which remains of 

 beavers have not previously been obtained ; secondly, that 

 the relative proportions of its two transverse diameters are 

 the reverse of those which obtain in the corresponding teeth 

 of other fossil American beavers. 



Passing from faunistic papers to those dealing with in- 

 dividual groups and species of mammals, it may be noted 

 that many years ago the name of Arctotherium bonariense 

 was proposed for a huge bear-like carnivore from the Pam- 

 pean formation of Argentina. Although remains of other 

 species were subsequently discovered in the Californian and 

 Pennsylvanian Pleistocene, the genus, which appears to be in 

 some degree intermediate between modern bears and the 

 Pliocene Old World Hyamarctus, has been regarded as a 

 southern type. This conclusion was, however, somewhat 

 premature, for during 191 1 Mr. L. M. Lambe has described 

 {Ottawa Naturalist, vol. xxv. pp. 21-6) the skull of a species 

 from the Pleistocene of the Yukon. A.yukonense, as the new 

 form is called, thus serves to bring the genus into con- 

 nection, by way of Bering Strait, with Hyamarctus, and to 

 indicate that it is an immigrant from the north into South 

 America. 



In regard to ruminants, it has already been mentioned 

 that bones of cattle from Corstopitum, Northumberland, have 

 been regarded by Messrs. Meek and Gray as indicating 

 a wild species identical with the white cattle of British parks 

 for which the superfluous name Bos sylvestris has been pro- 

 posed. Small skulls of the extinct wild ox or aurochs from 

 the superficial deposits of Belgium have also been described 

 by Mr. R. v. d. Malsburg(Z?w//. Internal. Ac. Cracovie, 191 1, No. 5) 

 as a new species under the name B. (urus) minutus. Unless, 

 however, the term urus be used in a generic sense, it would 

 seem that a sub-species is intended. Under various forms, 

 the author regards this Bos minutus as the connecting link 

 between the typical aurochs (which is considered to be the 

 descendant of the Indian B. namadicus) and modern cattle. 



Remains of extinct wild cattle from Bute have likewise 

 been recorded by Mr. James Ritchie in Trans. Buteshire Nat. 

 Hist. Soc. vol. iii. pp. 67-8. 



