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are no IBM than four species of then* great cats, come M Urge u 

 a lion, enumerated by Professor Kaup from the Epplesheim sand 

 near AlUey, about twelve leagues south of Mayrncc. These remains 

 are preserved in the mtueum at Darmstadt The professor name* 

 these Pelit aplunut/a, P. pruca, P. ogytfia, and P. anteJUuriana. In 

 the third and fourth (or Pliocene), ilivitiioni of the Tertiury periods, 

 we find that the number of terrestrial herbivorous quadrupeds become 

 more abundant; and, with their numerical importance, the farm corn, 

 whose agency was required for keeping them down, increase also. 

 Dr. Buck-land in his ' Reliquiae Diluvianm' mentions that Cuvier 

 found the tusks of an extinct lion or tiger in the Breccia of Nice, and 

 that Mr. Pentland had discovered the tooth of the same extinct tiger 

 in the Breccia of Antibes. Bavard, the Abbd Croizet, and Jobert, in 

 the work on ' Fossil Cats,' found, among the remains contained in the 

 Ossiferous Rocks of Aurergne ( 1'uy de D6me) the following species : 

 Ptlit /ttidorimiit, P. brerii-ottrit, P. Pardinentit, P. Arvernentit, and 

 P. .Vryaatrrton. 



The following Fossil Cats are enumerated by Von Meyer : Fclit 

 Iftlaa ; P. antiqua, CUT. ; P. Itriodorentit, Croiz. and Job. ; /'. lircri- 

 msfru, Croiz. and Job. ; P. Pardinentit, Croiz. and Job. ; P. Arvern- 

 auit, Croiz. and Job. ; P. Meganttreon, Brav. ; P. cullritlnu, Brav. ; 

 P. apkaniilet, Kaup. ; F. ogygia, Kaup ; and P. pritca, Kaup. 



Dr. Lund, in his ' View of the Fauna of Brazil previous to the last 

 Geological Revolution,' remarks that the Hunting Leopard (Frlit 

 jukata, Linn. ; Cynailunu, Wagl.), which differs from the rest of the 

 Cats in many essential characters, has been very properly formed 

 into a separate genus ; for its claws are not retractile ; it is gregarious, 

 and of so mild a disposition that it is frequently tamed and employed 

 in the chase. But, he observes, as a remarkable contrast to this, that 

 its dental system is upon a more murderous plan than that of the true 

 Pelt*, not having the fiat projection on the large tearing molar of the 

 upper jaw, which is found in all the other predaceous genera, and the 

 development of which is in inverse proportion to the animal's 

 carnivorous propensities. Dr. Lund recognised this form of dentition 

 in a small animal of the extinct Fauna of the Brazilian region, which 

 was the scene of his valuable labours, not exceeding a domestic cat in 

 size ; and he has named it Cynailuriu minntiu. Besides this he disco- 

 vered the remains of two species of the normal feline form, one as 

 large as the Long-Tailed Tiger-Cat (Pelii macnmra, Pr. Max.), the 

 other larger than the Jaguar (Petit Chi fa, Linn.), and comparable to 

 the Tiger and the Lion, the largest species of the Old World. 



In bis ' British Fossil Mammals,' Professor Owen describes four 

 forms of Pdida:\. Pdit tpdeea, the Great Cave-Tiger; 2. F. Par- 

 doidet ; 3. F. Catut ; 4. Mathairodut latident. 



In his account of the first Professor Owen says : 



" It is too commonly supposed that the Lion, the Tiger, and the 

 Jaguar are animals peculiarly adapted to a tropical climate. The genus 

 Frlii is however represented by species in high northern latitudes, 

 and in all the intermediate countries to the equator ; and there is no 

 genus of Mammalia in which the unity of organisation is more closely 

 maintained, and in which therefore we find so little ground in the 

 structure of a species, though it may most abound at the present day 

 in the tropics, for inferring iU special adaptation to a warmer climate. 

 A more influential, and indeed the chief cause or condition of the 

 prevalence of the larger feline animals in any given locality, is the 

 abundance of the vegetable-feeding animals in a state of nature, with 

 the accompanying thickets or deserts unfrequented by man. The 

 Indian Tiger follows the herds of Antelope and Deer in the lofty 

 Himalayan chain to the verge of perpetual snow. The same species 

 also passes that great mountain barrier and extends its ravages, with 

 the Leopard, the Panther, and the Cheetah, into Bocharia, to the 

 Allan chain, and into Siberia as far as the fiftieth degree of latitude. 

 preying principally on the wild horses and asses. It need not 

 therefore eBcite surprise that indications should have been discovered 

 in the fossil relics of the ancient Mammalian population of Europe, of 

 a large feline animal the contemporary of the Mammoth, of the 

 tichorine Rhinoceros, and of the gigantic Cave-Bear and Hyicno, and 

 the slayer of the oxen, deer, and equine quadrupeds that so abounded 

 during the same epoch. 



"These indications were first discovered in the bone-cavesof Germany; 

 and Cuvier in his usual masterly review of the materials which were 

 accessible up to the period of his ' Memoir' on the Cave Cm 

 in the ' Annales du Musc'urn' for 1806, concludes that the most 

 characteristic of the fossils of the great feline animal could U- . 

 neither to the existing Lion or Lioness, nor tu the Tiger, still lens to 

 the Leopard, or Panther, but that it more resembled in the curvature 

 of the lower border of the under jaw the Jaguar. 



" Mr. Goldfus* having subsequently obtained an almost entire fossil 

 cranium of the large extinct feline animal, descri)>ed it under the 

 name of Felii ipelant, which name Cuvier adopted in the later edition 

 of bis great work, adding to the distinctions which Goldfuss bad 

 pointed out between the fossil and the skulls of the existing rVln.' . 

 including the Jaguar, that the siiborbital foramen appeared to be 

 mailer and placed further from the margin of the orbit than in the 

 rxii>ting Lion or Tiger. Although in the uniform ami gentle curve of 

 the upper contour of the fosxil skull it resemble* more that of the 

 Leopard than acy of the larger Felines, Cuvier subsequently speaks of 

 the extinct species as a lion or a tiger. There Is a constant and well- 



marked character, of which Cuvier appears not to have been aware, by 

 which the skulls of the existing lion and tiger may be distinguished 

 from one another : it consists in the prolongation backwards in the 

 Lion of the nasal processes of the maxillary bones to the same trans- 

 verse line which is attained by the upper ends of the nasal bones ; 

 whilst in the Tiger the nasal processes of the maxillary bones never 

 extend nearer to the transverse line attained by the upper ends of t he 

 nasal bones than one-third of an inch, and sometimes fall short ..f it 

 by two-thirds of an inch, where they terminate by an obtuse or trun- 

 cated extremity, whilst in the Lion they are pointed. It is very 

 desireable that this character should be determined if possible iu the 

 continental specimens of the skulls of the Fclii ijielirn. If the nasal 

 processes of the superior maxillary bones do not extend as far back- 

 wards as the nasal bones, it may be concluded that the species was not 

 a lion ; but as the shorter processes of the superior maxillary bones 

 are present in the skull of the Jaguar and Leopard as well as the Tiger, 

 the approximation of the fossil to the striped or the spotted species of 

 the genus Fclit will depend upon other characters." 



Portions of the skeleton of P. ipclcea, more especially the teeth and 

 jaws, have been found in the caves at Kirk dale, KeutVHole, Sandford 

 Hill, Hutton, Bleadon, and North Cliff in Yorkshire. 



The second species was indicated by Professor Owen from the 

 specimens of a tooth obtained by Mr. Colchester from the Hod Crag 

 of Newbourne, near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Teeth of the Bear, Hog, 

 and Deer have been obtained from the same locality. This species 

 seems to have the same antiquity as the F. iijihimistti and p. anicdiln- 

 viana of Kaup, both of which were discovered by Dr. Kaup, associated 

 with DinotheriuniH and Mastodons in the Miocene of Epplesheim, 



P. Calm, the Wild Cat. Fossil remains of a feline animal about 

 the size of the Wild Cat wore first noticed by Dr. Schmerling in hi- 

 description of the caverns in the province of Liege, where they were 

 found in tolerable abundance. He assigns the right ramus of a lower 

 jaw, which exceeds by a few lines the specimen figured above, to a 

 species or variety which he calls Petit Catut mayna ; and the greater 

 proportion of the fossils, which include some entire skulls, to the Pdi* 

 Catut mm ii/ft. These however do not vary from the standard of the 

 existing Wild Cat, more than the varieties due to age or sex are now 

 observed to do. 



French naturalists have also enumerated a considerable collec- 

 tion of bones of the Wild Cat, discovered in the caverns of Lund 

 Vale. 



" The most authentic specimens of the Pdu Catut, in relation to 

 their autiquity, which appear yet to have been obtained from British 

 localities, are the right ramus of the lower jaw, retaining the canine 

 tooth, discovered in the brick-earth at Grays, Essex, and a corre- 

 sponding part of the lower jaw, almost identical in size and shape, 

 but retaining the three molar teeth, from the cave of Keut'a-Hole, 

 Torquay. The Essex jaw of the Wild Cat, which was found in the 

 same deposit that has yielded so many remains of the Mammoth, wa- 

 in the usual condition of the bones of that period; and the specimen 

 from Kent's-Hole, now in the British Museum, precisely accords in 

 colour and chemical composition with the fossils of the extinct quad- 

 rupeds from the same cave. The outlines of the pre-molor teeth pre- 

 served in this jaw are added above the corresponding empty sockets 

 of the jaw figured, with which they quite agree in size ; and both are 

 undistinguisbable from the analogous parts of the still existing .- 

 of Wild Cat. Wo seem therefore here to have another instance of 

 the survival, by a smaller and weaker species, of those geological 

 changes which have been accompanied by the extirpation of the 

 larger and more formidable animals of the same genus. Our house- 

 hold cat is probably a domesticated variety of the same spen . \\ hj.h 

 was contemporary with the speliicau Bear, Hyrcna, and Tiger. It 

 appears, at least from an observation recorded by M. De Blainvillr, 

 that Grimalkin cannot be the descendant of the Egyptian Cat, a* 

 M. Temminck supposed. The first deciduous inferior molar tooth of 

 the Pela manicvlata has a relatively thicker crown, and in supported 

 by three roots; whilst the corresponding tooth in both the Dun, 

 and Wild Cats of Europe has a thinner crown and two roots. The 

 tail of the Domestic Cat is more tapenmr, ami a little' longer than in 

 the Wild Cat; but the extent to which this partissh"\\n leva . 

 propagated variety of tailless cat to be susceptible of modili. 

 ought to warn us against inferring specific distinction from slight 

 differences ill the proportions of the tail." (Owen.) 



Machairodut latident. In this island, anterior to the dep.i.-i' 

 the I irift, there was associated with the great extinct Tijnr, I '< 

 Hyarna of the caves, in the destructive task of controlling the num- 

 bers of the richly-developed order of the Herbivorous Mn HIM alia,, a 

 feline animal as large an the tiger, and, to judge by iU iustnimcuts of 

 destruction, of greater ferocity. 



In this extinct animal, as iu the Macha.irodu cullridcm of the Vul 

 d'Amo, and the M. Afeyantcreon of Auvergne, tho canines curved 

 backward*, in form like a priming-knife, having tho greater part of 

 the compressed crown provided with a doubly-cutting edge of serrated 

 enamel ; that on the concave margin being continued to the Uisc, the 

 convex margin becoming thicker there like tho back of a knife to 

 jive strength, and the power of the tooth being further increased l,y 

 the expansion of its sides. Thus, as iu the Mcgatotauriu, each move- 

 ment of the jaw with a tooth thus formed combined the power of the 



