128 r. N. DOSE ON FOSSIL CARNIVORA. 



and more prominent than in Felis cristata, and stands vertically on 

 the roof of the cranium. Its height anteriorly is six times greater 

 than the corresponding height in the Tiger. The ridges which 

 originate from behind the postorbital processes of the frontal are 

 stronger and run obliquely to a greater distance than in any other 

 large forms of Felis ; and these, instead of perfectly blending to 

 form the sagittal crest, run parallel nearly as far as the occi- 

 put, forming a narrow and shallow groove along the median line of 

 that crest. The triangular valley included between the frontal 

 ridges in front of the parietal crest, as well as the frontal fossa 

 between the postorbital apophyses, slopes anteriorly, as in Felis 

 cristata, and not posteriorly, as in other large Felidae. The depth 

 of the mesopterygoid fossa, as well as the length of the basicranial 

 axis, is very nearly the same as in the larger individuals of Tiger ; 

 but the breadth of the cranium at the zygomatic arches is propor- 

 tionately much smaller than in the latter. 



inches. 

 Length of basicranial axis to the anterior ex- 

 tremity of the mesopterygoid fossa .... 5*075 



Depth of the mesopterygoid fossa 1*025 



Extreme breadth at zygomatic arches 8*125 



Greatest breadth between outer surfaces of 



the occipital condyles 2*775 



Further evidence is necessary before the species can be clearly 

 separated from F. cristata. If it should prove a distinct species, as 

 I am inclined to think it will, I propose to call it F. grandicristata. 



Ht^na sivalensis, Falc. et Cant. ? et nob.* 



The specimens consist of a tolerably perfect cranium and portions 

 of palate and of upper and lower jaws f. These indicate an animal 

 of about the same size as the living Indian Hyaena {H. striata). One 

 of the specimens shows the incisors and the canine in situ, the 

 former being much better developed than the corresponding teeth in 

 the living Indian Hyaena. The crown of the second premolar, which 

 is proportionately larger than in any of the living species, is formed 

 by a stout cone ; the anterior accessory cusp, so well marked in the 

 living Indian Hyaena, is entirely absent ; but the posterior accessory 



* Dr. Mui'chison heads the indices to the plates L & M as Hi/cena sivalensis 

 (Falc. & Cautl.) (Pal. Mem. vol. i. p. 548); but in the same page he says: — 



*' Unfortunately no account of it is to be found among Dr. Falconer's 



notes. This species is, no doubt, that designated Hycena sivalensis by Messrs. 

 Baker and Durand in the brief description given by them in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society for October 1835, toI. iv. p. 569." If it were so, the specific 

 designation would be due to Baker and Durand, and not to Falconer and 

 Cautley. But I have not met with it anywhere except in the Palceontological 

 Memoirs, and on the unjDublished plates L and M of the F. A. Siv., where the 

 name occurs in pencil writing, which Mr. Davies identified as Dr. Murchison's. 



t B. M. nos. 37133, 37137, 37138, 37139, 16583, 16578, 39731, 37141. 

 Figs. 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, unpub. pi. K; figs. 2, 2a, 2b, 6, 6a, 7, 7a, 8, 8rt, unpub. 

 pi. L ; figs. 5, ba, 7, 8, 8a, unpub. pi. M. The cranium has been refigured in 

 Pal. Mem. vol. i. figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, pi. 25, under the title of Felis cristata. 



