52 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 



the entire bone and the great-sigmoid notch narrow antero-poste- 

 riorly; pelvis articulating closely with the sacrum, ilium with a 

 strong median dividing the gluteal surface into a superior and an 

 inferior concavity, and the pubic ramus of the ischium unusually 

 strong; femur with shaft nearly straight, patellar surface forming 

 an anterior prominence, and a well-marked tubercle above the 

 external condyle as in Felidae; fibula not grooved on the external 

 surface of the head, thick and articulating loosely at the distal end 

 and having a strong posterior tubercle; astragalus only slightly 

 grooved for the tibial articulation and the tibial surface does not 

 extend to the posterior border, an evidence of planitigrade affini- 

 ties; calcaneum short and having the sustentaculum near the 

 anterior end: metatarsals short and curved; claws distinctly 

 retractile. 



DINICTIS PAUCIDENS. 



In a recent paper on the extinct Felidae of North America* Dr. 

 Adams states summarily in a note that D. paiicidens'\ is probably 

 a synonym of D. fortis.\ Such a statement would indicate either 

 that Dr. Adams has not gone far enough into the description of 

 this form to recognize the characters upon which it is based, or 

 that D. fortis is a sufficiently generalized type to include whatever 

 it may be found convenient to place under it. In the latter case, 

 D. felina, the type of the genus, would fall a much easier victim, 

 since D. fortis in becoming synonymous with D. bo)nbifrons\, has 

 so far lost its distinctive characters that its dentition is essentially 

 the same as that of the generic type, leaving as the only specific 

 character a difference in size. However, trusting that this is due 

 merely to oversight, I repeat here that the distinctive characters of 

 D. paiicidcus are: "The absence of a second lower molar, the 

 slenderness of the base, and the concave outer border of the upper 

 sectorial as seen from above, and the presence of but two incisors 

 in the mandible." These, together with the very " slight devel- 

 opment of the postero-internal cusp of the lower carnassial," 

 described as well developed in D. bombifrous (syn. D. fortis) and 

 the "proportionate length and slenderness of the fore-arm," are 

 differences sufficient to satisfy the most exacting. 



♦American Journal of Science. June, 189(5. 

 tRifrKS. Kansas University Quarterly, April. IHWi 

 $.\dams, American Naturalist, June, 1895. 



