436 



THE CAT. 



[CHAP. xii. 



of Professor Gaudry. It is only therefore here noticed among cat 

 remains,* because Professor Cope appears to regard it as a primaeval 

 cat, and it certainly does resemble the cats in the shape of the sectorial 

 teeth, the upper one of which has the internal cusp which, however, 

 we have seen to be wanting in the living Cyncelurus. 



Fig. 188. SKULL OF ArcJiailums deUlis (Cope), FROM OREGON. 



18. A very remarkable miocene fossil, which seems really to have 

 been a kind of primseval cat, is the genus ARCH^ELURUS of Professor 

 Cope.f This has the usual number of incisors and canines, but has 

 four premolars and a tubercular molar in the upper jaw, and three 

 premolars and two molars in the lower jaw. Its feet are very 

 slender. 



The single species of the new genus is described as follows : 

 "Mandible, with the anterior face of the symphysis, separated from 

 the lateral face by an angle which is not produced downwards. 

 Superior sectorial without anterior lobe ; t inferior sectorial with a 

 heel. General structure of the jaws, weak; superior canine, small, 

 little compressed, with an acute posterior edge which is not serru- 

 late ; first premolar in each jaw, one rooted ; second inferior pre- 

 molar, large ; sectorials large ; diastemata very short ; alveolar 

 border below the inferior sectorial and tubercular teeth everted, 

 forming a large osseous callus, which has a free inferior and pos- 

 terior margin, the latter rising into the base of the coronoid pro- 

 cesses ; zygomata slender ; post-orbital processes little prominent ; 

 front wide, convex transversely. About the size of the panther.'* 



This is certainly the most exceptional and uncatlike of all feline 

 skulls. 



* It appears to have had an ali- 

 sphenoid canal, and M. Filhol regards 

 it as perhaps allied to Cryptojrrocta. As 

 to these matters, see the chapter on the 

 Cat's place in Nature. 



f The American Naturalist for Decem- 

 ber, 1879, p. 798a. 



I The upper sectorial appears to me 

 however to have a very large, though 

 little prominent, anterior lobe. 



