338 NOTES ON THE CANID#Z OF THE WHITE RIVER OLIGOCENE. 
parallel with the centrum, not diverging so much posteriorly. As in the felines, the ver- 
tebrarterial canal is longer than in the modern dogs, and its posterior opening is not vis- 
ible when the vertebra is seen from the side; the anterior opening is larger and is placed 
farther forward than in the recent Canide. The neural canal is proportionately larger 
than in the latter, both vertically and transversely, nor does it contract so much toward 
the hinder end. The neural spine forms the great, hatchet-shaped plate usual among the 
Carnivora, and in its details of structure it is feline rather than canine. In the latter 
group, the spine is not continued back of the postzygapophyses into a distinct process, but 
its hinder borders curve gently into them. In Daphenus, as in nearly all the cats and 
viverrines, the spine is drawn out into a blunt and thickened process behind the zyga- 
pophyses, from which it is separated by a deep notch. The zygapophyses are rather 
small and do not project so prominently from the sides of the neural arch as they do in 
Canis. 
The other cervical vertebrae are more slender and lightly constructed than in the 
existing Canide of corresponding stature. The centra are long, narrow, depressed and 
very feebly keeled in the ventral median line; in most of the species this keel does not 
terminate in a posterior hypapophysial tubercle, such as is found in the existing dogs. 
In the largest species, however, D. felinus, the keels are more prominent, especially on the 
third and fourth vertebree, and there is some indication of the tubercle. The centra are 
slightly opisthoccelous and the faces are somewhat oblique in position. In very few of the 
specimens are the transverse processes sufficiently well preserved to require description, 
and in such cases as they are present (as, for example, on the fifth and seventh cervicals 
of one individual of D. hartshornianus) they display no noteworthy differences from the 
corresponding processes of Canis. The vertebrarterial canal is, however, somewhat longer 
than in the latter. 
The neural arches are very different from those seen in the modern representatives 
of the family. In them the dorsal surface of the neural arch is very broad and on each 
side projects outward as an overhanging ledge, which connects the prezygapophysis with 
the postzygapophysis of the same side ; ridges and rugosities for muscular attachment are 
well marked and in the large species often yery prominent; the zygapophyses, and 
especially the posterior pair, project but little in front of and behind the arches, and those 
of each pair are separated by notches of only moderate depth. In consequence of this 
arrangement, there are but small interspaces visible between the successive arches, when 
the vertebree are in position. In Daphenus, on the other hand, the dorsal surface of the 
neural arch is relatively narrow, somewhat convex transversely and usually smooth, with- 
out ridges or tubercles ; the overhanging ledge which gives such an appearance of breadth 
to the arch in Canis is little developed ; the zygapophyses project far in advance of and 
