78 MR. G. BUSK ON THE ANCIENT OR 
well-defined anterior talon to the first, second, and third premolar, which is larger, 
however, as, in fact, are all the talons, in H. striata. In H. striata and H. brunnea the 
second and third premolars are placed with their long axis oblique to the line of the 
alveolar border, and the third premolar is obliquely truncated behind, whilst in 
H. crocuta this tooth is square behind. 
The opening of the nares is rounded in H. crocuta, and more or less pyriform in 
H. striata and brunnea, in which also the anterior palatine foramina are very much 
larger in proportion. Dr. Wagner further adduces the form and size of the auricular 
bulla as distinctive marks. In H. crocuta this part is much more developed than in 
H. striata (and to a less extent in H. brunnea); and its posterior wall is convex or flat, 
whilst in H. striata and brunnea it is more or less concave. The extremity also of the 
mastoid process is compressed in both those species and rounded in H. crocuta. 
According to Dr. Wagner the occipital crest curves more backwards in H. striata and 
brunnea than it does in H. crocuta, in which it does not project beyond the level of the 
condyles. 
In my paper above referred to, and also in that of Dr. Wagner, several other points in 
the conformation of the skull and face in which differences are observable are adverted 
to; but as these for the most part refer to parts that are deficient in the Gibraltar speci- 
men, there is no occasion here to repeat them. 
It will perhaps be simply necessary to indicate that in all the main points above noticed 
the Gibraltar cranium and teeth exhibit the characters of H. crocuta as distinguished 
from H. striata and brunnea. 
1. The form of the upper carnassial, in which the posterior cusp forms about half the 
length of the tooth '. 
2. The minuteness, if not absence, of a tubercular molar. 
3. The squareness of the hinder border of pm. 3. 
4, The expansion of the auricular bulla, and the convexity of its hinder wall, and the 
roundness of the mastoid process. 
5. The uprightness of the occipital plane and the wavy outline of the lateral ridges 
by which it is bounded. 
6. And, as distinguishing it more particularly from H. brunnea, the rotundity and 
fulness of the parietal region of the skull. 
These considerations, together with the comparative dimensions given in the Table, 
and those of the teeth, as shown in the odontograms (Pl. XX VII. Nos. 1-5) of the 
maxillary molar dentition of the Gibraltar Hyena contrasted with those of 1. spelea, 
H. crocuta, H. brunnea, and H. striata, will sufficiently demonstrate the identity of the 
Gibraltar Hyena with H. crocuta and H. spelwa, which may be regarded, perhaps, as 
specifically the same. 
1 his will be better seen in the figure, Plate I., than in the specimen itself in its present state, the tooth 
haying suffered injury since the drawing was made, by which the greater part of the enamel has been 
detached. 
