NOTES. Sl 
NOTES. 
Further Notes on the Wellawatta Horse —In a recent publica- 
tion of the Colombo Museum (‘‘ Spolia Zeylanica,’’ Vol. X., 
Part 38) the writer (Mr. Wayland) attempted to establish a 
case in favour of the antiquity and specific distinctness of a 
couple of equine teeth discovered at Wellawatta. In the 
absence of type specimens and paleontological literature, it 
was not possible to compare the remains with any fossil species 
already described, excepting Hquus leptostylus, Matsumoto 
(Science Reports, Tohoku Imperial University, Japan, Second 
Series (Geology), Vol. III., No. I., pp. 29-30), but certain 
structural differences between the Wellawatta teeth and those 
of the modern domesticated horse (Hquus caballus) were noted 
and described in detail. Moreover, it was shown that while 
the remains are younger than the oldest stone implements of 
Ceylon, they almost certainly antedate the historic period. 
Hikoshichiro Matsumoto, the Japanese Palzontologist, in a 
letter to the writer goes into the question of the possible 
affinities of the Wellawatta horse in some detatl. After 
pointing out the more important features of the grinder (7.e., 
very simple plication of the enamel; the great width of the 
bay between the anterior and posterior inner pillars, and the 
concave inner side of the sub-triangular inner pillar), he shows 
that the Wellawatta horse exhibits likenesses to certain 
members of the Ass group (sub-genus Asinus). Next he gives 
some account of the following species: H. sivalensis and EL. 
namadicus (upper Pliocene, India), H. (Asinus) asinus (upper 
Pleistocene, Europeand India), L., hemionus (upper Pleistocene, 
Europe and India), #. hemionus (upper Pleistocene, Europe and 
China, still living in Central Asia, Mongolia, and Siberia), 2. 
onager (still existing in India), and an unnamed species described 
by Lydekker from the Karnul cave near Madras. 
Matsumoto points out the resemblance between the Wella- 
watta molar and the corresponding teeth of #. onager and E. 
hemionus. He maintains it is not impossible that H. hemionus 
and the Wellawatta horse are co-specific, but does not, for 
zoographical reasons, regard this as a probability. He says 
in his covering letter: ‘‘ I have observed the Wellawatta 
il | 6(2)18 
