114 MUSTELID ©. 
evidence against its identity with the Zorille (Zorilla 
capensis), and in favour of its specific relations to the com- 
mon Pole-cat (Putorius vulgaris). The fossil slightly ex- 
ceeds in size the recent skulls of this species, and the canine 
teeth of the fossil are relatively larger, but the correspon- 
dence in every proportion and in the relative position of 
each process, foramen, and suture, is so close, that the above 
specified differences must be referred to the characteristics of 
a large and vigorous male animal. The last tooth—the 
tubercular or first true molar, m, fig. 39—of both upper ~ 
and lower jaws is, indeed, rather smaller in the fossil than 
in the recent skulls: but I find in these that it varies in 
size more than the other molar teeth do. The specimen 
figured in M. de Blainville’s ‘‘ Ostéographie, Mustela,” PI. 
xiil., exhibits the variety in which the tubercular grinders 
are large. 
The differences observable in the dentition of the fossil 
Putorius of the Caves, and in that of the Cape Zorille, are 
much more decisive. The canines are considerably smaller 
in the Zorille : the sectorial, or penultimate teeth—the last of 
the premolars—are smaller, and that of the lower jaw has a 
broader crown in the Zorille : the first two small premolars 
of the upper jaw are further apart, and the corresponding 
teeth of the lower jaw have the hinder margin of the com- 
pressed crown notched, forming two hinder tubercles instead 
of one as in the Putorius vulgaris and in the fossil under 
consideration. 
An almost entire skull of a Pole-cat, in the usual condi- 
tion of fossil remains of extinct quadrupeds, has been found 
in one of the raised beaches near Plymouth. 
The fossil remains of Putorius alluded to by M. de 
Blainville, as cited by M. Keferstein from the ‘* Reliquiz 
Diluvianze,” belong exclusively to the smaller species, the 
subject of the next section. 
