Dr. C. 1. Forsyth Major — Rodents of W. Mediterranean. 465 



or followed immediately upon, tlie period of the maximum of 

 regression of the Mediterranean, a period the marine equivalents 

 of which are not yet known. 



As to the supposed presence in the Corsican Pleistocene fauna of 

 recent mammalian species, I know none, with the exception of the 

 Cervus corsicanus and Ovis musimon, which last certainly during the 

 Pleistocene was already an inhabitant of Sardinia, and most probably 

 also of Corsica. Deperet gives a list of the species recognised by 

 Cuvier, Lortet, and himself in the "poches a Lagomys" of Corsica^; 

 I myself had also given a list from my own collections.^ Deperet's list 

 includes the following recent species of mammals : Myoxus glis, Mus 

 sylvaticus, "Arvicola groupe d'amphibius," Canis viilpes, Ovis musimon. 



The Ovis musimon of Lortet's list,^ " Mouflon, ou probablement 

 une autre espece aemblable," rests on a rib ! In Sardinian deposits 

 I found some teeth and an incomplete skull, which I found to agree 

 with 0. musimon. The Canis vulpes, given with doubt in Lortet's 

 list, again rests on ' ribs.' 



The vole collected by myself in the Toga breccia, near Bastia, is 

 not an Arvicola of the amphibius group, but an extinct form, 

 Arvicola Henseli, Maj., which frequently occurs in the Sardinian 

 Pleistocene, and of which more will be said hereafter. 



The Mus found by myself at Toga is not Mus sylvaticus, but the 

 extinct ' Mus ' orthodon, Hens. My description of this species * -is 

 partly based on specimens from the Corsican locality, partly on 

 Sardinian specimens (breccia of Bonaria, near Cagliari). 



Monsieur Claude Gaillard has most kindly forwarded to me the 

 remains of a Glis from Toga, preserved in the Lyons Natural 

 History Museum ; they are two left mandibular rami and several 

 bones of the skeleton. There is no doubt that it is the recent species 

 Glis glis { = Myoxus glis), but it is quite as certain also that these 

 remains have a fresher appearance than those of the Frolagus. The 

 difficulty is that, so far as I know, Glis has not been mentioned 

 as a member of the recent Corsican fauna ; that does not, however, 

 imply that it may not exist in the island. 



The fauna of the Corsican breccias, in ray opinion, lends support 

 to the hypothesis that the isthmus spoken of may still have 

 subsisted in older Pleistocene times, but certainly not later. 



A new aspect of the geographical distribution of Prolagus is 

 afforded by the occurrence of this rodent in Pleistocene continental 

 deposits. In a recent notice Deperet reports on the discovery, in 

 a cave at Gracia, close to Barcelona, of a Lower Pleistocene fauna, 

 including Bhinoceros MercM, a small form of Cervus elaphus, and 

 numerous remains of Frolagus corsicanus.^ 



1 Op. cit., p. 122. 



2 Kosmos, vol. vii, p. 6 (1883). 



3 Arch. Mus. Hist. Lyon, vol. i, p. 43 (1872). 



* Atti Soc. Tosc. Sc. Nat. ; Proc. Verb., vol. iv, pp. 139-145 (1884). 



^ Ch. Deperet, " Sur I'origine et la dispersion geographique du Lagomys 

 corsicanus^'' : C. R. Paris, vol. cxxxv, pp. 884-886 (1902). See also Almera & 

 Bofill y Poch, " Consideraciones sobre los Eestos fosiles cuaternarios de la Caverna 

 de Gracia (Barcelona) " : Mem. R. Acad. Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona, vol. iv (3), 

 No. 33, pp. 7, 8 (1903). 



DECADE v. — VOL. 11. — NO. X. 30 



