1J2 



MUSTELlDyE. 



CARN1VORA. 



MUSTELID&. 



Fig. 38. 



Fossil, nat. size. Cave. 



PUTORIUS VULGARIS. Pole-cat. 



Espece de la grandeur du Putois, 

 Mustela antiqua, 

 Mustela Putorius Fossilis, 



CUVIER, Oss. Foss. iv. p. 467. 

 H. VON MEYER, Palaeologica, 1832, p. 54. 

 SCHMERLING, Ossem. Foss. de Liege 1833, 

 torn. ii. pi. i. figs. 1 and 2. 



FOSSIL remains of Mammalia much smaller than the 

 Badger have been discovered in bone-caves and raised 

 beaches in England, and give equal proof of their contem- 

 poraneity with the extinct species of the Cave epoch : de- 

 monstrating that the Pole-cat and Stoat, for example, have 

 survived, as species, those changes, or catastrophes, during 

 which their gigantic contemporaries perished ; and that they 

 have either been continued down to the present time by 

 uninterrupted descent from generation to generation, without 

 any appreciable alteration of their specific character ; or, 

 that, having perished with the Ursus spelaus, they have 

 again been introduced at a subsequent epoch under the 

 same specific form. 



