122 MR. G. BUSK ON THE ANCIENT OR 



One of these Pyrenean specimens came from the Valle d'Osso, south of Pan, in the 

 Western Pyrenees, whilst two others, with the skin still upon them, were procured in 

 the neighbourhood of Luchon, in the Central Pyrenees. M. Lartet assisted in the 

 comparison. The following dimensions are those given in Dr. Falconer's notes : — 



in. 



No. 1. Least width between the orbits at the lacrymal sulcus . . . 4*5 



Distance between outer rims 6*3 



Length of the molar series 2"88 



Width of maxillaries in front of orbit 3'35 



.Greatest width of palate 2"15 



Length of horn 24-0 



Distance between the tips IS'O 



„ at middle 16"5 



„ at base 0'25 



The horns nearly touched at the base, and then gracefully diverged outwards, and 

 then approached at the tips in an elegant twisted lyrate form. They were broad in 

 front, angular behind and on the inner side. The posterior internal angle by the twist 

 became gradually anterior near the apex. The horn-cores, Dr. Falconer observes, 

 " exactly correspond with those of our young male " (Gibraltar fossil). The female 

 from Toulouse was larger and older than the Gibraltar specimen, but otherwise alike. 

 The mandible of the large male Pyrenean Ibex was 8 inches long and 3"-95 high at 

 the coronoid process. The malar series measured 3"'05. The talon (or third column) 

 of m. 3 very large and rounded (as in our form A'), and it had no step. " The Caj)ra 

 hispanica, therefore," says Dr. Falconer, " ranges from the Pyrenees to the southern 

 mountains of Spain, and it is very different from the true Pyrenean Ibex." The 

 explanation of the last phrase is, that Dr. Falconer had been informed at Toulouse that 

 the true Alpine Ibex also occurred in the Pyrenees — a fact, however, which is, I believe, 

 denied by M. Lartet -. 



' The older jaws we termed " form A." 



- That some confusion exists with respect to the species or varieties of Ilex at present inhabiting the Pyrenees 

 is plain ; and it might in some degree, perhaps, be cleared up by the supposition that Ibexes with crescentic 

 and with lyrate horns both occurred in dillerent parts of the chain. I find it stated in Dr. Falconer's memoranda 

 that M. Lartet had a notion, also coujecturally entertained by Cuvicr, that there was a fertile cross between 

 the common Goat and the Ibex, which might have given rise to the form with lyrate horns ; but this is too 

 extravagant a speculation to be entertained for a moment. Dr. Falconer also mentions that he had been told by 

 M. Filhol, than whom a more acute, careful, excellent observer does not exist, that he had seen skulls of a true 

 Pyrenean Ibex with horns of the legocerine type (that is to say, curved backwards and parallel as in the 

 Alpine Ibex) and quite different from the tragocerine horns of Capra pyrenaka or hispanica. But M. Lartet, 

 than whom no one could be better acquainted with the Pyrenean fauna, had never heard of such an animal, 

 and was always under the impression, with Cuvier, Iloulin, and other French naturalists, that there was only 

 one Pyrenean Ibex, and that with lyrate horns. 



