Article XII. — ON THE SKULL OF BUN.-ELURUS, A 



MUSTELINE FROM THE WHITE RIVER 



OLIGOCENE. 



By W. D. Matthew. 



BnncBlnrits was described by Prof. Cope in 1873' from 

 fragments of the lower jaw, which until now have remained 

 the only representation of the genus. Cope referred it to a 

 position in the Mustelidae near Pntorins and Plcsiogale; Dr. 

 Schlosser in his later revision of the European carnivora^ 

 considered it close to or identical with Palceogale (in which 

 he includes part of Plesiogale). Dr. Wortman has recently 

 suggested' that it might not improbably prove to be a direct 

 descendant of certain of the ViverravidcC. 



A finely preserved skull found by Mr. Thomson of the 

 American Museum Expedition of 1901, in the Upper Oreodon 



beds of East Pawnee Butte, Northeastern Colorado, is the 

 subject of the present description. No lower jaw is with it, 

 so that it cannot be positively identified. But the close cor- 

 respondence in point of size with B. lagophagus , the type of 

 which is from the same horizon and region, and the corre- 

 spondence of the teeth of our skull with the upper teeth of 

 the more carnassial section of the Mustelinae and of the 

 teeth of Bunalunis with the lower teeth of the same group, 



^ Synopsis New Vert. Col., p. 8; Ann. Rep. Hayd. Bur., 1873 (1874). 5°1\ Tert. Vert., 

 p. 946, pi. Ixvii a, figs. 13, 14. 



* Ailen Lemuren, u. s. w. d. Europ. Tertiars, p. 386. 

 ^Amer. Jour. Science, lyoi, Vol. XII, p. 145, footnote. 



[137J 



