318 



FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



are greatly larger tlian the intermediate, which are equal in 

 size. The canines are broken off at their base ; and the sec- 

 tion is seen to be the same as in the Tiger. The cheek teeth 

 had consisted of two false molars, a camassier and a tuber- 

 culous tooth on either side. The tuberculous and the first 

 false molar had dropped out. The socket of the tuberculous 

 tooth is distinct on one side. Those of the first false molars 

 are more ambiguous. In all the specimens of the F. spelcea 

 observed by M. Goldfuss,' this false molar was invariably 

 wanting, and he was induced to consider it as a specific dis- 

 tinction of the fossil. But Cuvier attributes its absence to 

 dropping out at an early period. 



In our fossil we were at first led to think that there was 

 no small false molar, from the very contracted space between 

 the canine and the large false molar not admitting of room 

 for it. In the fossil the space is 0*3 inch, whereas m. the 

 Tiger it is 0*7 inch. But on carefully clearing the interval 

 we have detected on the left side an alveolar cavity. In this 

 respect, therefore, the fossU does not differ from the ex- 

 isting large species.^ The great false molar and the camas- 

 sier tooth resemble in form those of the Tiger exactly. But 

 they differ considerably in two respects, which we consider as 

 distinctive marks of the fossil. First, The length of the two 

 teeth in the fossil is exactly equal to that of the fuU-grown 

 Tiger No. 2, although it measures 10-9 mches in length of 

 head, while the Tiger is 13*1 inches ; Second, The large false 

 molar is directed inwards, so that its long axis makes a con- 

 siderable angle with that of the camassier. This position of 

 the false molar holds in a slight degree in the genus Felis 

 generally, but it is v^y marked in the fossil. 



The obscurity of the sutures and the extent to which the 

 fossil is stiU enveloped in stone do not admit of our deter- 

 mining precisely the limits of many of the bones of the 

 cranium and face. 



The frontal is considerably shorter than in the Tiger of the 

 same size, No. 3, and broader ; so that it has more square- 

 ness of form, at the same time that the ridges stretching 

 from the post-orbital processes, by their prominence and 

 greater convexity inwards, give it an appearance of more 

 sharpness to the rear. These processes are more obtuse and 

 less salient than in the Tiger, and the outline of the frontal 



' Quoted in Cuvier, Oss.Foss., vol. iv. 

 p. 452. 



^ The presence, or absence, botli of the 

 tuberculous and the iirst false molar 

 appears to be very uncertain in aged 

 FeiincB. In a very old Tiger, No. 1 of 

 the measurements, with the canines and 



all the teeth much wom, both the tuber- 

 culous teeth and the small false molar 

 of one side are present. Upon the 

 opposite side all trace of alveolus has 

 disappeared, whereas in younger animals 

 with unworn teeth, we find the turber- 

 culous and first molars less complete. 



