222 THE MAMMALIA. 



been shown very recently by the distinguished 

 authority on the Diluvial mammals of Central 

 Europe, Professor Neb ring of Berlin, in his ex- 

 ceedingly interesting studies on the fossil horses of 

 the German Diluvial deposits, and their relation to 

 the living horses. 1 The Italian palaeontologist, 

 Forsyth-Major, had, somewhat previously, in an 

 admirable manner, compared the Diluvial horse in 

 Italy with the present animal. In order to obtain 

 a good starting-point for an investigation of this 

 kind, it is necessary first to understand a few of the 

 principal species of the domestic horse. Of these 

 we require only the two groups in which, according 

 to French investigators, the domestic horse appears, 

 and into which, moreover, the eight races may be 

 subdivided. In the horses of the principal Oriental 

 race, the portion of the skull covering the brain is 

 strongly developed, the facial part of the head is 

 smaller, which circumstance is expressed mainly 

 by the breadth of the forehead. The inner side of 

 the crescents of the molars of the upper jaw 

 (Fig. 37) has a covering of enamel with but few 

 folds ; the bones of the limbs are graceful, but 

 of a very firm structure. An admirable represen- 



1 Nehring, Fossile Pfcrde aus deutschcn Diluvialablagernntjcn 

 und Hire Bcziehungen zu den lebenden Pfcrden Berlin, 1884. 



