632 DR. FORSYTH MAJOR OX FOREST-BED MAMMALS. [Juiie 16, 



recent European animal ; and, in fact, his specimens, as well as 

 the specimen in the British Museum Geol. Dept. No. M 7025 

 from East Runton, share with C fiber the characters — so far as they 

 are known in the fossil specimens — which distinguish the recent 

 animal from C. jylicidens. I expect, however, that more complete 

 specimens will reveal differences from the recent form or forms. 



The European Beaver ranges, or ranged, from Great Britain to 

 Mongolia, and from Lapland to Spain (according to Strabo) and 

 Italy. There is therefore every likelihood that more than one 

 form will have to be distinguished in this vast region ; but in 

 order to arrive at some definite conclusion, we require whole series 

 (at least of skulls) from the different countries : this will be no 

 easy task, considering that in most countries the Beaver has 

 become extinct within historic times. 



According to Prof. Matschie*, Desmarest separated the Beaver 

 of the Rhone under the name of Castor gcdlice, while Owen pro- 

 posed the name of C. europceus for the English sub-fossil Beaver. 

 The German wi-iter restricts the Linnean name Castor fiber to the 

 Swedish Beaver, known to him only by the figures of the teeth 

 and the skull in Meves's Atlas t. From the Swedish Beaver that 

 of the Elbe is said to differ by some characters of the skull 

 and the teeth, and is therefore called Castor albicus. The name 

 C. balticus is given to the Beaver which formerly lived in Pome- 

 i-ania and Holstein and is based on two skulls. For a specimen 

 from Western Poland (drainage system of the Vistula) which 

 lived at the Berlin Zoological Gardens, the name of C. vistulanus 

 is proposed, its skull being found to be different from those of 

 " C. albicus" and "(7. balticus.'^ The skull of "6'. vistulanus '^ 

 is declared to differ also considerably from a skull of a Beaver 

 from the Caucasus and from one from Poland in the Kiew 

 Museum, both of them figured by Brandt %. Lastly, a skull 

 from Schwerin a. d. Warthe (Posen), although agreeing in most 

 characters with " C. vistidanus," is supposed to be possibly a 

 distinct species. 



If the Rhone Beaver can be shown to be a distinct form, the 

 name C. gallice will be available for the same ; this was not, 

 however, Desmarest's opinion. From the context and the explicit 

 statement of the latter's notice § it results that he introduced this 

 name for the European Beaver in general, which he wished to 

 distinguish from the American species. 



In the same way Owen applied the name C. europceus to the 

 European Beaver generally, he did not mean to restrict it to 

 the English animal as Matschie assumes. Until further notice 

 " C. gallice" will therefore remain a synonym of C. fiber L., and 

 the same is the case with " C. europceus P 



* Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturf. Fr. Berlin, No. 8, 1907, pp. 215-220, pis. i. & ii, 



t Atlas ofvei- Skandinaviens Daggdjur, Suppl. pi. iii. figs. 1, la, 16 (Stockholm, 



X M^m. Ac. Sc. St. P^tei-sbourg (6) ix. Se. Nat. vii. pis. i. & ii. (1855). 

 § Desmarest, in Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. v. pp. 372, 373 (1816). 



