128 ME. G. BUSK ON THE ANCIENT OE 



Rock from the earliest period of which we have any animal relics, down to a com- 

 paratively recent time, and not improbably into the human epoch, when it appears to 

 have been replaced by the Domestic Pig. We have come to this conclusion from the 

 size &c. of the metatarsals and phalanges, but more especially from the dentition ; and 

 the evidence afforded by the latter will be seen in the odontograms in PI. XXVII. , of 

 which No. 1 represents the maxillary and mandibular dentition of the Gibraltar, 

 No. 2 that of an Italian Wild Boar, No. 3 the maxillary dentition of a fossil Cave 

 specimen at Montpellier, and No. 4 the average upper and lower dentition of Sus 

 domesticus. 



XIII. Lepus. 



The only remains belonging to the class Eodentia are those of two species of Lepus. 

 These are found in the oldest deposits, imbedded in the hard breccia in incredible 

 quantities, or, more loose and not crusted with stalagmite, up to the most superficial parts 

 of the caves and fissures and up to the present day, when the Rock swarms with Rabbits. 

 Of the larger form only a few perfect bones, coiTesponding with those of Hare, have 

 occurred. But specimens of the second smaller species are veiy numerous (in fact they 

 were collected in bushels) in nearly all parts of the Genista cave and east fissure and 

 other caves. They include perfect skulls with the dentition complete, innumerable 

 lower jaws, and entire bones of the extremities. Some of the remains, thoroughly 

 fossilized and imbedded in hard breccia, have been brought up from a depth of from 

 70 to 90 feet. The species was of the size of a small Rabbit, and is in no way 

 distinguishable from the existing species. 



It would thus seem that from the most remote period down to the present time the 

 Rock of Gibraltar, like the rest of the Iberian peninsula and the Balearic Isles, has 

 abounded with Rabbits, and well deserved the appellation of " cuniculosa " applied by 

 Catullus to Celtiberia generally '. 



No trace has as yet appeared in the Windmill-Hill collections, nor in those from 

 Poco Roco or elsewhere that have come under my observation, of the so-called Lagomys 

 which Cuvier ^ describes and figures on the authority of Adrian Camper. 



XIV. Elephas. 

 The only specimen of the remains of Elephant which, so far as I am aware, has ever 

 been met with within the precincts of the Gibraltar promontory is a right upper last 



' Although it is doubtful whether this term may not mean " abounding in mines," Diodonus Siculus never- 

 theless relates that the inhabitants of the Gymnesian Islands sent a deputation to Rome soliciting that a 

 new land might be given to them, as they were quite driven out of their country by the Babbits, and were 

 no longer able to stand against their vast multitudes. These people were in the habit of hunting the Leberides 

 by Wild Cats (yaXds aypias) from Africa (iii. cap. 2. § 1). 



According to Strabo, some supposed that Spalis, or Hispalis, and Spania, or Hispania, were derived from 

 " Saphan," the Phoenician word for Rabbit. ' Op. cit. tom. iv. p. 174, pi. xiii. fig. 4. 



