226 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



Africa. They recall to my mind the conditions, which occur at the 

 famous Agate Springs Fossil Quarries, from which the Carnegie 

 Museum and later the University of Nebraska and the American 

 Museum of Natural History in New York have derived a wealth of 

 mammalian remains dating from the Miocene. The occurrence of 

 great quantities of bones at these spots is attributable not to floods so 

 much as to droughts, which caused the creatures to come age after 

 age to the water-pools, where they died and their remains were buried 

 in the sand and mud surrounding the drinking-pools. Here also they 

 were no doubt often the prey of carnivores, which found at once 

 meat and drink at these places. Some died of old age and disease, 

 others were perhaps mired in quick-sands. Thus from a combination 

 of causes working together these great accumulations of bones were 

 gradually formed. 



It is much to be wished, as Dr. Branner has already intimated, 

 that a careful and thoroughly systematic exploration of all these 

 localities in Brazil may be made by competent paleontologists, pre- 

 pared to collect in a systematic and intelligent manner. Such ex- 

 plorations would undoubtedly result in adding a vast amount of 

 important information to the still exceedingly scanty records which 

 we possess as to the e.xtinct mammalian fauna of Brazil, a region 

 which once possessed a vast and remarkable fauna, which has com- 

 pletely vanished. 



Class MAMMALIA. 



Order CARNI VORA. 



Family FELID.F:. 



Subfamily Mach.-erodin^. 



Genus Smilodon Lund. 



Smilodon neogaeus Lund (?) 



I refer with doubt to this species a fragment (No. 11031) which 

 appears to me to be a bit of the rib of a large carnivore. It is only 

 8 cm. in length. 



