502 Dr. C. I. Forsyth Major — Rodents of W. Mediterranean. 



fig. 10, of Riviere's well-known publication, • is represented a left 

 mandibular ramus of a " Lagomys d'assez petite taille," according to 

 the explanation of the plate. In the dimensions, which are by no- 

 means small for a member of the family, as well as in the contours- 

 of the ramus, it corresponds with the Prolagus from Corsica ; it 

 certainly belongs to the latter genus, and not to the recent Ogotona 

 (Lagomys). The text makes no mention of this rodent as occurring 

 in the caves of Mentone, so that further confirmation seemed 

 desirable. This has now been obtained in the most satisfactory 

 manner, Professor Boule having found Prolagus in the " Grotte du 

 Prince," near Mentone. In his preliminary notice on the results of 

 the excavations,- this rodent is stated to occur together with the 

 rabbit, etc., in strata underlying an Upper Quaternary fauna [Bhino- 

 ceros tichorliinus, reindeer, ibex, marmot, etc.), and resting on deposits 

 containing a Lower Quaternary fauna (ElepJias antiqims, Rhinoceros 

 MercTci, Hippopotamus). 



The question as to the specific identity of all these remains of 

 Prolagus from different localities must be left to future investigation; 

 the evidence from some of the continental deposits is for the present 

 so scanty that it is only just sufficient to ensure the generic deter- 

 mination, even that remaining still somewhat doubtful with regard 

 to Lagomys from the Nice deposits. 



From the discovery of Prolagus at Barcelona, Deperet inferred 

 a continental origin of the Corsican and Sardinian forms. " II 

 est des maintenant facile de suivre I'emigration geologique de ce 

 rongeur depuis le Pliocene de Perpignan, en passant par le Quater- 

 naire ancien de Barcelone, jusqu'au Quatex'naire recent de Corse et 

 Sardaigne."^ It remains, however, to be seen whether all the insular 

 Pleistocene deposits containing the Prolagus belong to the upper 

 and all the continental to the lower stage of that period. It is also 

 to be borne in mind that not all of the latter deposits seem to have 

 been continental in origin. All of them, from Gibraltar to Mentone, 

 are on or near the seashore ; some of the bone breccias, e.g., 

 Gibraltar, Antibes, Cette, being situated on promontories, which 

 have only recently become connected, or more probably reconnected, 

 with the adjacent continent, and, as in the case of the more eastern 

 ones, may have been part of Corsica, or rather of the ' Tyrrhenis,' 

 to use a term which implies a lai'ger area. 



Deperet assumes that the Prolagus did not exist in Corsica and 

 Sardinia before recent Pleistocene times. Since it existed at Casino, 

 viz., during a period when Corsica and Sardinia, for all we know, 

 were connected with one or more parts of Southern Europe, there 

 is every likelihood that during that period of the maximum of 

 regression of the Mediterranean, it likewise flourished in Corsica 

 and Sardinia. 



^ E. Riviere, " Paleoethnologie." " De I'Antiquite de rHorame dans les Alpes- 

 Maritimes," pi. x^'ii (Faune des gi-ottes de Mentou), fig. 10, Paris (1878) — 1887. 



2 Marcellin Boule, " Chronologie de la Grotte du Prince pres de Menton" : C. E^ 

 Paris, vol. cxxxviii, No. 2, pp. 104-106 (1904). 



' Op. cit., p. 886. 



