? EQUUS ZEYLANICUS. 275, 
to alluvial deposits ever since the inauguration of the Depart- 
ment in 1903. The same remark applies to other mammalian 
relics which might be expected to occur in river gravels and 
valley silt. The fact is that conditions are not conducive to 
the preservation of bones.* 
There is no obvious reason why horses should not have 
found their way to Ceylon in Pliocene or Pleistocene times, 
for as Dr. Smith Woodward says: “ The earliest remains of 
one-toed horses hitherto discovered occur in the lower Pliocene 
Siwalik Formation of India ;’’+ and on the same authority 
we learn that horses appeared in Europe during upper Pliocene 
and. in America during Pleistocene times.{ Quite recently 
equine remains have been obtained from some later tertiary 
beds of China. 
By the kindness of Mr. Sturgess, I have been able to compare 
the Wellawatta teeth with those of the modern horse. I have 
also been able to compare the grinding tooth with a photograph 
and description of the upper fourth premolar of a new fossil 
species from Ho-nan (China), recently published by Hikoshi- 
chiro Matsumoto in the Science Reports of the Téhoku 
Imperial University, Sendai, Japan.§ Specific distinctions 
between ancient horses are liable to raise vexed questions, 
for ““ None of these species, old world or new, are easily to be 
separated from £. caballus, but many names have been given 
to them. It is, of course, perfectly conceivable that they 
may have differed among themselves, as much as do- the 
existing zebras and asses, the separation of which would be 
hardly possible did we know their bones only.” || 
Woodward, speaking of Pleistocene horses, remarks: “* A 
large proportion of the remains can scarcely be distinguished 
from the corresponding parts of the existing #. caballus.”§ 

* If I recollect rightly, however, Dr. Kelaart somewhere speaks of 
elephant remains in the leaf beds of the Getaheta Valley. I do not 
know on what authority. 
+‘ A Guide to the Fossil Mammals and Birds ” 
Museum. London, 1904, p. 24. 
{ Loc. cit. 
§ Second Series (Geology), Vol. III., No. L., pp. 29, 30. 
|| Beddard, F. E.: ‘‘ Mammalia.”” Cambridge Natural History. 
Vol. X., 1902, p. 240. 
4] ‘‘ Outlines of Vertebrate Palzontology.”’ London, 1898, p. 338. 
14 6(9)16 
Mei tenete British 
