436 W. Davies — Kew British Eocene Carnicorcs. 



Genets ; he also quotes, in support of this conclusion, a work 

 by M. Lartet, in which he describes certain differences in the form 

 of the brain of V. antiqua and Genetta, founded on casts taken 

 respectively from the fossil and recent skulls, that tend in the same 

 direction. M. Filhol also remarks that the locality of St. Gerand le 

 Puy contains numerous specimens of this mammal (F. antiqua) ; he 

 knew of four nearly perfect skulls, but was not certain whether he 

 had obtained the mandible, although he considered {loc. cit. p. 166) 

 it highly probable that some mandibles described and figured 

 under the name of Herpestes (pi. 24, figs. 5-9) might belong to the 

 same species. This type of mandible is intermediate between 

 Viverra and Herpestes, and accords therefore with the cranium. 

 He has elsewhere figured and given a detailed description of a perfect 

 ramus of a lower jaw which he refers to Viverra ( V. angustidens, Filh.) .^ 

 Describing the carnassial, he says, its anterior portion is formed 

 of three points, more detached and more elevated than in any other 

 living or fossil species of Viverridce ; it is succeeded by an elongated 

 talon, not so large but more erect than in Cynodictis. The structure 

 of the lower carnassial of the Hordwell carnivore corresponds in 

 all particulars with the above description and figure of the Quercy 

 tooth. 



The conclusions of M. Filhol as to the generic position of the 

 above-named fossils, derived from careful study and comparison of 

 many fossil specimens with existing forms of Viverridse, are important, 

 as are also the reasons he adduces for considering them as repre- 

 sentatives of an early and extinct form of the genus Viverra, differing 

 in many points of dental structure from any existing species of the 

 genus. They are also valuable as aiding us in determining the genus 

 to which the Hordwell skull should be assigned ; a matter of some 

 difficulty, owing to the mixed character of the teeth, and open to 

 objection to make, from so imperfect a specimen, a new genus for its 

 reception. 



The specimen has a local interest and importance ; interesting as 

 being the first instance recorded of a Viverrine carnivore from a 

 British locality, and important as being the first placed on record in 

 which the teeth of the upper and lower jaws have been found in 

 natural association ; also as having been found in a deposit, and 

 associated with a fauna, of unquestioned Eocene age ; it is therefore 

 the earliest representative of the Family Viverridas hitherto 

 described. 



The resemblance of the lower carnassial and tubercular molar to- 

 the corresponding teeth in Cynodictis indicates the close affinity of 

 these older forms of Civets and Dogs, and also possibly points to a 

 common ancestry. This affinity is more marked in species of 

 Viverroid Cynodictis described by M. Filhol,^ in which the third 

 lower molar is entirely suppressed or reduced to little more than a 

 point. 



1 "Eecherches sur les Phosphorites du Quercy," 1876, p. 144, figs. 121 and 122. 



2 "Ann. Soc. Sci. Phys. at Nat." Toulouse, 1882, pp. 56-62. 



