428 Miscellaneous. 



of insertion of each filament the perforated plate is traversed by a 

 short canal lined with an epithelial layer, and afterwards dividing 

 into several branchial vessels. Between the filaments the plates, 

 the structure of which is analogous to that of the skin, have nume- 

 rous hairs. The branchial vessels of the two plates all open into a 

 wide and very short canal, which opens into the dorsal vessel. 



In a future communication I will summarize my observations on 

 the vascular and generative systems, the segmental organs, and the 

 embryogeny of this worm. — ComjiL's Rendus, April 11, 18S1, p. 9:21). 



The Bears of tlie Cavern of Lherm. By M. H. Filhol. 



As is well known, the bone-cave of Lherm, in the Ariege, has 

 furnished numerous remains of animals, including Ursus spehi'us, 

 Fdis speliea, Hif ena Sj^ehea, Rhinoceros, Cervus, &c. The most 

 frequent of these is the first-named species, Ursas speheas, of which 

 not less than one hundred crania have been obtained. M. Filhol 

 remai'ks that these numerous crania prove the great fixity of cha- 

 racter of this species, and that Ursas spejceis in its most modified 

 forms has nothing to do with the existing Ursus arctos. M. ]Marty 

 has recently found two skulls of bears difl:erent from any previously 

 met with. One of these, a perfect skull, measuring along its lower 

 surface 35 centim. from the incisive margin to the occipital foramen, 

 has six teeth behind the canine, as in existing Bears, instead of three 

 as in Ursas s^)ckeas, and the form and proportions of those organs 

 are as in Ursas arctos. This applies to the other characters of the 

 skull ; and M. Filhol identifies the animal with the living Brown 

 Bear, which, he considers, cannot have descended from Ursus 

 spdceas, but must have originated in some distant region, perhaps 

 North America, and gradually advanced to take the place of the 

 great Cave-Bear in these countries. 



The second specimen consists of the anterior parts of a bear's 

 head, also differing from those hitherto found in caves. In the 

 upper jaw it had four teeth behind the canine, and the first pre- 

 molar was preceded by a free space of 15 mUlim. Consequently 

 the face was very short, but at the same time it was remai'kably 

 widened. Its transverse diameter behind the carnassial tooth is 

 10-3 centim. The anterior nasal aperture measures 64 millim. 

 across and 51 millim. from front to back. In all other bears the 

 antero-posterior diameter is the larger. The forehead was de- 

 pressed and almost horizontally continuous with the nasal bones. 

 Its elevation above the palatine arch at a point answering to the 

 postorbital apophyses is only 10-8 centim. ; in the Ursus arctos 

 above mentioned this measurement gives 11*8 centim., and in 

 Ursas spelceas lS-3 centim. The width of the forehead between the 

 apices of the postorbital apophyses is 13*9 centim., or only a few 

 millimetres less than in the largest crania of Ursas sp)elceus. These 

 characters lead M. Filhol to regard this skull as representing a new 

 species of bear ; and he proposes to name it Ursus Gaudryi. 



M. Marty has also found in the cavern of Lherm the femur of a 

 fossil lion 46 centim. long. — Coinptes Rendus, April 11, 1881, p. 929. 



