244 Dr. C. I. Forsyth Major — Characters of Mammals. 



the fact at tlie time/ and also ventured to transmit the information 

 to Charles Darwin, who embodied it in the second edition of his 

 "Descent of Man." 2 



Unaware of my previous statement, Eiitimeyer announced in 

 1878 as a novel fact the discovery of a hornless fossil member of 

 the Bovinae.' The skull in question, B.M. No. 48,037, from the 

 older Pliocene of the Sivalik Hills, he described and figured as 

 Leptobos Falconeri, Eiit. From the absence of horn-cores, from the 

 great extension of the parietal zone, and from its general slender 

 and elegant build, the skull is considered to be that of a female. 

 But at the same time it is conjectured that part of the horned 

 skulls attributed to the same species might equally be of the female 

 sex ; this on account of their weaker horns.* 



The skull from the Val d'Arno is described and figured in the 

 same memoir, together with the cast of a second equally hornless 

 skull from the same locality, the original of which is preserved 

 in the private collection of the Marchese Strozzi. Eiitimeyer's 

 conclusion is very different from mine ; the hornless skulls from 

 the Val d'Arno are named Leptobos Strozzii, and thus placed in 

 a different genus and group from Falconer's Bos etruscus, which 

 becomes the Bibos etruscus.^ As Eiitimeyer was indisputably the 

 highest authority in this particular branch of palaeontology, my 

 previous most positive statement must have been considered in the 

 light of a rather rash proceeding. 



Years afterwards my excavations at Olivola (Upper Pliocene) 

 brought to light several hornless bovine skulls, and made it in- 

 cumbent on me to reinvestigate the whole matter, the more so 

 as some additional horned skulls from the Val d'Arno had in the 

 meantime enriched the Florence Museum. The result arrived at^ 

 was a confirmation of my former view, that the hornless and horned 

 bovine skulls from the Upper Pliocene of Italy are one and the 

 same species. This species is nearly related to the Sivalik Leptobos, 

 as Eiitimeyer had already shown with respect to the hornless form 

 of the Val d'Arno. The obvious conclusion was to collocate the 

 bovines from the Italian Pliocene in the genus Leptobos : Leptobos 

 elatus (Croiz,).'' 



Stehlin, another pupil of Eiitimeyer, has quite recently studied 

 the Florentine collections ; with regard to the above question, he 

 declares that after repeated examination of the materials he agrees 

 with my view that Eiitimeyer's 'Leptobos Strozzii' is nothing else 

 than the female form of his ' Bibos etruscus.' ® 



I do not think it necessary to enter into the particulars of the 

 case, which are published. For the present purpose it is sufficient 



1 Palajontographiea, 1873, ii, 2 (xxii), p. 123. 2 1874, p, 505. 



3 L. Riitimeyer, "Die Einder der Tertiaer-Epoclie," etc.: Abh. sch-weiz. 

 palaeont. Ges., 1878, p. 162. 



* Op. cit., p. 164. 5 Op. cit., pp. 167-17-5. 



* Forsyth Major, "L'Ossario di Olivola in Yal di Magra " : Proc. Verb. Soc. 

 Tosc. Sc. Nat., March 3, 1890, pp. 71-75. 



' Forsyth Major, op. cit., p. 75. 



* Abh. schweiz. palaeont. Ges., 1900, xxvii, p. 466, note. 



