ON AN EXTINCT TYPE OF DOG FROM ELY CAVE, 

 LEE COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 



The five bones which form the subject of the present paper were found by 

 Professor N. S. Shaler in Ely Cave, Virginia, close to the Kentucky line. 

 They consist of a scapula, a humerus, a femur, and a tibia, all belonging 

 to the right side, and a pelvis. A comparison of each singly with the corre- 

 sponding bones of a dog or wolf shows at once their canine affinities; taken 

 collectively, however, they indicate an animal of very different proportions 

 from any of the ordinary wild Canklce, or fi'om any race of domestic dog. 

 The bones were found together, and appear to have belonged to the same 

 individual. As cave finds are sometimes open to suspicion, especially in the 

 case of remains of animals fi'om or near the surface of a cave floor, my 

 first endeavor, on finding that these bones were not referable to any existing 

 indigenous species, was to identify them with some small stout form of 

 domestic dog; here, however, no nearer approach was found to the type in 

 question than among the wild species. The conviction, therefore, that these 

 bones represent an extinct type of the dog family has gradually become 

 strengthened by the comparisons made until no other hypothesis seems 

 tenable. 



These bones differ from those of ordinary dogs, wild or domestic, in the 

 shortness of the humerus as compared with the scaj)ula, and of the femur 

 as compared with the pelvis, but especially in the form of the pelvis, which 

 is arched to a most remarkable degree, more so than in any other species 

 known to me. Other details in which these bones differ from those of the 

 fox, wolf, and dog are pointed out in the descriptions here following. As 

 regards the relationship of the typo in question with exotic or extinct forms, 

 I can say little, being without means of making the necessary comparisons. 

 In general form it was evidently a very short-limbed, heavy-bodied animal, 

 recalling the proportions of the badger rather than those of a dog. For 

 this reason it would be desirable to compare it with the short-legged Iciicyon 

 venaticus of South America ; in lack, however, of the opportunity, I can only 

 add that the descriptions of this animal do not lead one to expect even here 

 a very close affinity. In regard to extinct species, of few only are the limb- 



