DAWKINS ON THE DENTITION OF HY.^NA SPELiEA. 91 



fanged. That this implantation by one or two fangs, putting out of 

 the question tlie evidence of the two specimens from Wookey Hole, 

 is of little zoological value, is proved by the two skulls of S. brimnea 

 in the British Museum, 822, A. B., in the former of which the last 

 molar is supported by one, in the latter by two fangs. It is, there- 

 fore, evident that neither the roundness of crown quoted by M. De 

 Blainville, nor the implantation by one fang, according to Professor 

 Owen, can be cited in favour of the specific distinctness of the fossil 

 cave Hyena from the recent H. crocuta. 



§ 3. E. The incisors of the lower jaw, smaller than those of the 

 upper, progressively increase in size from the first to the third. 

 Their recurved crowns are slightly hollowed behind, and bear a Y- 

 shaped furrow immediately above the Y-shaped cingulum circum- 

 scribing the posterior base. In I. 2 and 3 the furrow passes over the 

 ascending trenchant edge of the tooth on the outer side, insulating a 

 small cusp. The fangs are straight and thicker anteriorly than 

 posteriorly, and traversed by a broad groove on the inner and outer 

 sides. 



The lower canine, stout, conical and slightly recurved, is charac- 

 terized by the stoutness of the cingulum and of the two ascending 

 ridges that divide the inner from the outer portion of the crown, and 

 by the absence of the longitudinal grooves so constant in its Peline 

 homologues. Its fang is twisted slightly outwards to admit of the 

 implantation of the succeeding tooth. 



The crown of Premolar 2, separated by a short diastema from the 

 canine, is composed of a stout obtusely pointed incurved cone, spring- 

 ing from above a very stout cingulum, and divided into two subequal 

 halves by two ascending trenchant ridges. Posteriorly a small cleffc 

 divides it from the small posterior accessory cusp. Anteriorly also, 

 in some cases, a small cleft maps off a rudimentary cusp, the homo- 

 logue of that so fully developed in the Striped Hyena. Of its two 

 fangs the anterior has its tip suddenly reflected by the growth of the 

 fang of the canine, the posterior is the larger. 



In Premolar 3 the crown consists of a stout cone pointing back- 

 wards, and divided into two subequal halves by an anterior and pos- 

 terior ascending ridge. Posteriorly the cingulum is very stout and 

 bears a small cusp, the homologue of that wliich in the next succeed- 

 ing tooth is largely developed. It is thickened also anteriorly. The 

 two cylindrical fangs are slightly recurved, and the anterior is slightly 

 the longer. 



