162 Transactions of the Society, 



the two former from French localities, and the two latter from the 

 American Miocene deposits, we come to an ancestor of the existing 

 Camelidre, camels and llamas (Tylopoda, in allusion to their cushion- 

 like feet). 



Of these, Macrauchenia occurs in Patagonia, Poibrotherium and 

 Procamelus in Colorado and New Mexico. Protoceras is another 

 remarkable horned form from the lower Miocene of Dakota, having 

 bony prominences, probably supporting horns, on the nose, on the 

 frontal bones, and a third pair on the parietal bones of the skull. 



The Cervid.e, true deer, appear for the first time in the middle 

 and upper Miocene of North America, and in the Miocene of 

 France, etc. The earliest members of the deer-tribe appear to 

 have had very prominent bony pedicles on their skulls giving rise 

 to small deciduous Antlers, which seem to have attained their 

 greatest size in Pleistocene or Quaternary times. 



The gigantic Irish deer, the Reindeer, and the Elk, have all 

 been living inhabitants of Britain within the human period. 



The Gikaffid^e are represented by two surviving forms, the 

 Giraffe and the Okapi, both confined at present to the interior of 

 Africa. 



The extinct forms are JTclladotherium, and Samotherium, from 

 Samos, Greece, and Persia ; Palocotragus from Greece ; and 

 Sivatherium from the Siwaliks of India. 



The Axtelopid-'E are almost confined to Africa, but they 

 formerly ranged, in Tertiary times, into France, Spain, England, 

 Austria, Italy, Greece, Samos, Persia, and India. The Saiga 

 tartarica once inhabited the Thames Valley, and is still living on 

 the Siberian steppes of the Volga. 



Of the ancient stocks from which our domestic cattle have 

 arisen, the only ones of geological interest are the musk-ox (Ovibos 

 moschatus), the Bison, occurring both in Europe and North America, 

 the great Bos primigenius (probably the " Urus " of Csesar), and 

 the small Bos longifrons; this last having survived down to 

 Romano-British times. 



Rodentia. — The Rodentia are a well-defined group of small 

 gnawing mammals, destitute of canine teeth, and with one pah' of 

 large chisel-shaped incisor teeth above and below, growing with 

 persistent pulps throughout life. The Hare, Babbits, Porcupines, 

 Beaver, Bats, Mice, Dormice, Squirrels and Marmots, offer 

 examples of existing forms of this group. 



The Marmot, Spher?nophilus, occurs in the Pleistocene deposits 

 in this country ; the Beaver was once a common animal with us, 

 its remains being abundantly met with in the Pleistocene deposits 

 of Essex and Cambridgeshire ; it is still living in the estuaries of 

 the Rhone and the Danube, and in some Russian rivers ; it is also 

 to be met with in Canada, and Vancouver's Island, British Columbia. 

 In the Forest Bed series of the Norfolk coast, in South Russia, in 



