314 LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



existence in that epoch of the Striped Hyaena {Hycena sf?'iata\ 

 of Nortliern Africa and India, as several well-preserved teeth 

 have been obtained from the Red Crag. The occurrence of this 

 species in the Crag, and its replacement in the Forest-bed and 

 Cavern Period by the Spotted Hyaena, is one of those remark- 

 able facts in distribution which we have at present no means 

 of explaining. Both the Wolf and the Fox appear to date 

 from the period of the Red Crag, while the Polecat apparently 

 occurs in the still earlier Coralline Crag. The Common Otter 

 seems, however, to be of more modern origin, since a member 

 of the same genus from the Norwich Crag, and a second from 

 the Red Crag seem to be both extinct. By far the most remark- 

 able of the Red Crag Carnivores is the Giant Panda {y^Iurus 

 a?ignais), at present known only by an upper molar and a frag- 

 menr. of the lower jaw with the last tooth, since the genus to 

 which it belongs is represented elsewhere solely by the Panda 

 or Cat-Bear (^. fiilgens) of the South-eastern Himalaya. The 

 existing Panda, which is an animal about the size of a Fox, 

 with a bright red coat and long bushy tail, is of especial interest 

 as being the sole Old World representative of the Raccoons, 

 and is cliaracterised by the peculiarly complex structure of the 

 upper molar teeth and the remarkably curved form of the lower 

 jaw. Since the Crag fossils present precisely the same charac- 

 ter, there can be no doubt of their having belonged to an ani- 

 mal of the same genus, which was, however, double the size of 

 its existing representative. That a creature so isolated and 

 peculiar as the Himalayan Panda should be represented by a 

 closely-allied but gigantic species which lived in Britain in 

 company with the Wolf and the Fox, is one of the most un 

 expected facts revealed by palaeontological investigation. 



So far as can be determined, there is no evidence of the 

 existence of true Bears in the Crag, and it is probable that both 

 the Cave-Bear and the Brown Bear do not antedate the Forest 



