1876.] MR. G. BUSK ON THE FAUNA OF GIBRALTAR. 415 



from which the plate of Ocis polii in the 'Proceedings' (18/4, 

 plate liii.) was prepared, and made the following remarks on Mr. 

 Blanford's criticisms published in the Society's ' Proceedings ' for 

 1875 (p. 540):— 



" Col. Gordon has asked me to lay before the meeting his original 

 drawing of this Sheep, which has not been successfully reproduced 

 by our artist, Mr. Smit. The male here has not the long bushy 

 tail spoken of by Mr. Blanford ; its lower outline is distinct in the 

 sketch, though indistinct in the plate, so that the hair on the left 

 flank may be taken to belong to the tail. This indistinctness has 

 misled Mr. Blanford. 



"Again, the black dorsal line on the female, to which Mr. Blanford 

 objects, is far more prononc6 in the plate than in the drawing, in 

 which, moreover, the colouring of the figures is neither so dark 

 nor so rufous as it has been rendered in the plate. Mr. Blanford's 

 criticism of the coloration of the lower parts of the male and of the 

 drawing of his horns is certainly less applicable to the original 

 drawing than to the plate. 



" As regards the apparent manes on both the male and female 

 figures, it is admitted by Col. Gordon that in the latter this character 

 has been exaggerated. Both Stoliczka and Severtzoff allude to short 

 manes in their descriptions of the animal. The elongated hairs 

 between the shoulders and behind the horns are mentioned by 

 Stoliczka and Blanford, while Severtzoff says, * the neck is covered 

 by a white mane, shaded with greyish brown 1 (cf. P. Z. S. 1875, 

 p. 513). I certainly found no trace of any thing like a mane or of a 

 dorsal line in the specimen lately mounted in the British Museum ; 

 but this character may be variable, and as yet we have comparatively 

 but few skins of this animal. 



" It is quite true that Col. Gordon is no naturalist, and his sketch 

 seems to have been made somewhat in a hurry ; but it was made, he 

 tells me, from the animal described by Stoliczka, who examined it 

 while in progress, and would certainly have pointed out to the artist 

 any flagrant inaccuracies." 



Mr. George Busk, F.R.S., read a memoir on the Ancient or Qua- 

 ternary Fauna of Gibraltar, as exemplified in the Mammalian remains 

 found in the ossiferous breccia which occurs in the caves and fissures 

 recently explored in different parts of the Rock. Mr. Busk, after 

 a preliminary description of the geological features of the Rock and 

 its fossiliferous caverns and fissures, treated specially of the various 

 bones of the Bear, Cat, Horse, Rhinoceros, Stag, Ibex, and other 

 animals, of which the remains occur there, and proceeded to refer 

 them to the species to which they seemed to belong. 



This paper will be published in full in the Society's 'Transactions.' 



The following papers were read 



28 s 



