Dainese On the Rhetice Beds. 483 
panying Mr. C. Moore’s paper in the Geological Society’s Journal, 
vol. xvii. pl. 15 and 16. The two latter are found in large numbers 
in the White Lias or upper member, along with Modiola minima. 
The foregoing table gives the range of the Rhetic Fauna in the 
district which I have examined. Its lacune, so far as relates to 
other localities in Britain and Ireland, may be filled up by areference 
to the papers of Dr. Wright, F.G.S., and Mr. R. Tate, F.G.S. 
(Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. and vol. xx.). 
To this list of the Fauna of the district a large addition must be 
made from the collection and the paper of Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S. 
already mentioned. 
Among the mammalia that this gentleman discovered with so much 
diligence in a fissure of the Mountain Limestone near Frome are teeth 
of Microlestes antiquus (Plieninger), or the small mammal first 
found in the bone-breccia of Diegerloch, together with several forms 
which, as yet wanting names, probably belong to diverse Marsupial 
families. On comparing them with the recent Marsupial remains 
in the Hunterian and British Museums, I find that two stout re- 
curved canines, oval in section, bear a striking resemblance in form 
to those of the opossum (Didelphys) or the Myrmecobius ; while a 
third is remarkably akin to the lower canine of Peragalea or Dasy- 
urus. There can be little doubt that these three canines indicate 
the presence of animals of carnivorous or insectivorous habit on the 
land of the Rhetic period. One trenchant recurved tooth, on the 
other hand, compressed parallel to the median line, bears the form of 
the small upper canine of the Kangaroo-rat of Australia. Three 
small procumbent incisiform teeth, also bearing a strong resemblance 
to the upper incisors of Hypsiprymnus, point towards the phytopha- 
gous group of the Marsupials; the Kangaroo-rats (Hypsiprymnide), 
and their allies. Of the tubercular molars one cannot be differen- 
tiated from the second true molar of Plagiaulax minor (Falc.) figured 
by Dr. Falconer, F.R.S., in the Geological Society’s Journal, vol. xviii. 
p- 367, fig. 15), to which genus I have little hesitation in ascribing it. 
The genus Plagiaulax therefore existed on the Secondary continent 
from the period of the deposit of the Purbeck strata down to that of 
the Penarth or Rhetic beds. 
The rest of the mammalian teeth differ from those of any known 
existing or extinct mammal, and possibly may have belonged to the 
Mierolestes of Diegerloch, of which but one tooth is at present known. 
The interest of science demands that this remarkable collection of 
mammalian teeth should be figured and described as soon as possible. 
The above scanty notes from my note-book are merely published 
that they may not lie fallow for years, like a similar collection made 
long ago, for a determination of which we are still anxiously 
waiting. Teeth of Lepidotus are also to be added to the list found 
by Mr. Moore at Beer, Vallis, and Holwell ; together with Anatina 
Suessii, Oppel; Arca Lycettii, Moore; Axinus concentricus, and 
A. depressus, Moore; Discina Townshendii, Davidson; Gervillia 
ornata, Moore; Ostrea fimbriata, Moore; Trochus nudus, and T. 
Waltoni, Moore; Leda Titei, Moore ; Straparolus Suessii, Moore; 
112 
