116 ME. G. BUSK ON THE AJSTIENT OE 



hills ; but no representative of the gemis has as yet been discovered in any of the 

 European Miocene faunas. Nor was it known as belonging even to the Pliocene period 

 until 1859, when Dr. Falconer described the left frontal and horn-core of a large 

 species of Ibex ' found in the White Marl overlying the Tejares Blue Clays of the valley 

 of Guadalmedina, near Malaga, determined by Professor Ansted to be of Pliocene 

 age. And it is of interest to remark, with reference to the Gibraltar Ibex, that in the 

 same deposit the upper jaw of a Ehinoceros, regarded by Dr. Falconer as E. etntscus, 

 also occurred; and subsequently other specimens of both the Ibex and Ehinoceros have 

 occurred in the same locality. 



In 1844 M. Pomel communicated to the Academy of Sciences a notice of a supposed 

 species of Capra (Ibex, Gervais) from the ancient alluvium of Malbattu (Puy-de-D6me), 

 which he provisionally named Capra roseti. The principal specimen was an ambiguous 

 upper jaw of large size, containing four of the molars ; and it seems doubtful, in the 

 absence of further evidence, whether M. Pomel's species may not be an Antelope rather 

 than a Goat. M. Felix Eobert, in 1829, published, under the name of Antelope, a 

 figure of a metatarsal found, along with extinct Deer and other mammals of Pliocene 

 age, at Cassac near Le Puy2; but Dr. Falconer, having examined all these specimens, 

 agreed with M. Gervais that the metatarsal in question was that of a Goat, probably 

 Ibex, and not of an Antelope. 



It appears, therefore, that we have certain evidence of a Pliocene Capra from Malaga, 

 and probable evidence of an allied species from Central France. 



As regards quaternary and later European forms, M. Marcel de Serres, in 1839, 

 described certain remains from the ossiferous cavern of Bize, consisting of upper and 

 lower jaws, which he assigned to C. mgagrus ; but the evidence upon which this identi- 

 fication was made is not given. 



In 1847 M. Gervais communicated to the Academy of Sciences a short notice of 

 certain fossil remains, some of which had been previously attributed to a species of 

 Antelope from the cavern of Mialet, in the Gard, under the name of Capra [Ibex) 

 cebennarum \ and in a subsequent more detailed account^ he endeavours to show 

 that they belonged to a true Ibex, at the same time admitting that he was unable 

 to aflBrm that the species differed from the existing Ibex of the Pyrenees. 



More recently M. Lartet has discovered numerous remains of Ibex, mingled with 

 the crushed bones of the Horse, Aui-ochs, Eeindeer, Chamois, Saiga Antelope, &c., in 

 the Dordogne Caves. But in all these instances the skull has been fractured, seem- 

 ingly for the extraction of the brain, and only mutilated pieces of horn-cores have 

 been met with, together with fragments of jaws and other bones. M. Lartet simply 



' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xv. 1860, p. 602. 



^ Ann. de la Soc. Agricult. Sei. &c. du Puy, 1839, p. 85, pi. ix. fig. 6. 



3 Comptea Rendus, 1847, torn. xxiv. p. 691. 



