FOSSIL CARKIYOKA. FROM THE SIVALIK HILLS. 119 



11. Undescrihed Possil Carnivora. from the Sivalik Hills in tlie 

 Collection of the British Museum, By P. N. Bose, Esq,, B.Sc. 

 (Lond.), P.G.S. (Read December 17, 1879.) 



[Plate VI.] 



Introduction. 



The able descriptions by Falconer, supplemented of late by Riiti- 

 meyer and Lydekker, have made the Sivalik Ungulates -widely known 

 in the scientific world ; but the remains of the Carnivora, partly 

 on account of their comparative rarity and, perhaps, partly because 

 they mostly belong to forms which do not strike the imagination so 

 forcibly, have had less attention bestowed on them. As long ago as 

 1836, Palconer and Cautley described two of the larger forms under 

 the names of Felis cristata and Ursus sivcdensis*. The latter was 

 afterwards raised to the rank of a genus, called by Falconer, Hyce- 

 oiarctos, evidently in opposition to De Blainville, who, under the 

 designation of Sivalarctos, placed it at the head of his new suborder 

 Subursidoe. Subsequently Dr. Falconer described another novel and 

 highly interesting Carnivore under the title of Euhydriodon sivalensis. 

 AH these descriptions will be found in the first volume of the Palae- 

 ontological ITemoirs t- Owing to the untimely death of Dr. Falconer, 

 science was deprived of the rare advantage of a description of the 

 remaining Carnivora from the pen of that gifted comparative ana- 

 tomist. Host of them, however, had been figured by Mr. Ford for 

 the ' Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis 'J, but were never published. At 

 the suggestion of Prof. Judd and Mr. Etheridge, I undertook an 

 examination of these ; and through the courtesy and liberality of 

 Dr. Woodward, of the Geological Department, every facility was 

 afiforded to me for my investigation. I have also to acknowledge 

 my obligations to Mr. Davies, of the Geological Department, whose 

 thorough acquaintance with the fossils was of great service to me ; 

 and also to the authorities of the Zoological Department for the loan 

 of specimens fi'om the Osteological collection, which, as yet unknown 

 to the public, contains hidden treasures of inestimable value. I am 

 also indebted to Prof. H. G. Seeley for several valuable suggcstious. 

 Besides the three species accurately described by Falconer, Messrs. 

 Baker and Durand ably noticed the remains of several Carnivora in 

 "the pages of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal § ; and lately 



* Asiatic Hesearches, vol. xix. 



t Op. cit. pp. 315, 321, 331. The figures 1-4, pi. xxv., accompanying tlio 

 description of F. cristata in Pal. Mem., are wrongly referred to that species ; 

 <and the index to the unpubhshed pi. K (Pal. Mem. vol. i. p. 548) is, by an error, 

 headed Felis cristata. 



X These figures are contained in the luipublished plates K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, 

 now preserved in the Geological Department of the British Museum. 



§ Op, cit. vol. V. p. 579. 



