1902.] ON MUSTELA PALiEATTICA. 109 



Although in a recently published work Mr. Lydekker had 

 suggested the possibility of the Siberian Elk pi-oving distinct, so 

 far as he was aware it had not yet received a name. An Elk 

 with antlers not unlike those of the specimens exhibited had 

 been described in 1847 by Rouillier, in Fischer de Waldheim's 

 * Jubilseum,' under the name of Alces resu2miatus, based on a 

 skull from a Pleistocene deposit in Russia. There did not appear, 

 however, to be any charactei'S by which that specimen could be 

 distinguished from young skulls of the Scandinavian Elk. 



Under these cii'cumstances Mr. Lydekker proposed to name 

 the Siberian Elk Alces bedfordice, in honour of the wife of the 

 President of the Society. This species would be distinguished 

 fi'om both the Scandinavian and American races of Alces machlis 

 by its non-palmated antlers, which caiiied only four or five tines 

 on each side. The complete specimen exhibited would form the 

 type. 



The occurrence in Siberia of an Elk with antlers of the simple 

 type of those exhibited was a fact of considerable interest, since 

 that countiy was probably the centre whence both the European 

 and American races of the true Elk were evolved. 



[P.S. — Since this exhibition took place Mr. Lydekker had seen 

 five othei- pairs of Elk-antleis from Siberia, all of the same foi-m. 

 Three of these specimens, together with the two exhibited, had 

 been acquired by Mi-, Walter Rothschild. 



The following papers were read : — 



L On Mustela jMlceattica from the Upper Miocene of 

 Pikermi and Samos. By C. I. Foesyth Majoe. 

 [Received December 17, 1901.] 

 (Plate YII.^) 



The type of Weithofer's Mustela 2Jcilceattica ^, fi-om Pikermi, is 

 in the Vienna Museum. It is represented by a badly ci'ushed 

 skull (of which, however, the teeth, minus the incisors, are veiy 

 well preserved), by the two almost intact mandibular rami, and 

 by part of the skeleton. The whole was kept together and 

 preserved from total destruction by being lodged between the 

 rami of a Hipparion mandible. 



The characteristic features of this species are furnished by the 

 conformation of the upper and the talon of the anterior lower 

 molar. Whilst the posterior upper premolar {p.\) bears the 

 characteristic features of Mustela, in its elongate outlines and the 



1 For explanation of the Plate, see p. 114. 



- A. Weithofer, " Beitrage zur Keuntniss der Fauna von Pikermi bei Atheu." 

 [Beitr. Pal. Oesterreicli-Ungarus, vi. pp. 226-231, pl.-x. figs. 1-11 (1888).] 



