888 THE JOHN DAY EPOCH. 



Diameter of acetabulum 0060 



Diameters of head of tibia} ^° ^ " „,„, 



( transverse UlUb 



Diameter of distal end of tibia 5 ™t«roposterior 0046 



( transverse uu» 



Length of free part of calcaneum - 007 



From the John Day River and the north fork of the John Day River, 

 Oregon. C. H. Sternberg. 



This rabbit ia the oldest species which can be referred to the genus 

 Lepus. It is dedicated to my friend Prof Jacob Ennis, of Philadelphia, 

 the distinguished mathematician and physicist. 



CARNIVORA. 



This order embraces the clawed mammalia with transverse glenoid 

 cavity of the squamosal bone, confluent scaphoid and lunar bones of the 

 carpus, and well developed cerebral hemispheres. It is well distinguished 

 from all others at present known, but such definition is likely to be invali- 

 dated by future discovery. Some of the Insectivora possess a united sca- 

 pholunar bone, but the reduction of the cerebral hemispheres of such forms 

 distinguishes them. The presence of the crucial fissure of the hemispheres 

 is present under various modifications in all Carnivora, except one or two 

 of the Melince (Garrod), while the parieto-occipital and calcarine fissures 

 are absent. 



The many types of existing Carnivora fall into natural groups, which 

 are of the grade termed family in zoology. But the distinction of these 

 from each other is not easily accomplished, nor is it easy to express their 

 relations in a satisfactory manner. The primary suborders of pinnipedia 

 and fissipedia ax-e easily defined. Various characters have been considered 

 in ascertaining the taxonomy of the more numerous fissiped division. The 

 characters of the teeth, especially the sectoa-ials, are important, as is also 

 the number of the digits. Turner^ has added important characters derived 

 from the foramina at the base of the skull, and the otic bulla, which Flower^ 



'Proceedings Zoological Soc, London, 1848, p. 63. 

 2 Loo. cit., 1869, p. 5. 



