3 86 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



science for nearly thirty years. The lithographs also which had been originally made to 

 illustrate a work on ' Cavern Researches,' which was never carried out, were published in 

 part in 1859 by the permission of Mr. F. Buckland, into whose hands the stones of seven- 

 teen out of the thirty plates to which Mr. MacEnery refers in his prospectus had passed 

 at his father's death, and now even these cannot be traced. Two more plates were fortu- 

 nately added to these in the year 1869 ; and a third plate, which had not been known to be 

 extant, was added subsequently, through which additional evidence as to the sojourn of the 

 Machaerodus in the Cave was obtained. 



Nor were the remains of the animals which Mr. MacEnery discovered, more fortunate. 

 At his death they were sold by auction and divided up among private collectors, and for 

 the most part irretrievably lost. Out of the seven teeth of Machaerodus we are able only 

 to trace five. The canine in the Oxford Museum was purchased by Dr. Lovel Phillips at 

 the sale, and given to Dr. Buckland ; that in the College of Surgeons, and figured by 

 Professor Owen, was presented by Lord Enniskillen to Professor Owen ; a third, the 

 original of pi. f', figs. 4, 5, found its way into the Museum of the Geological Society ; the 

 fourth, figured pi. f', figs- 1, 2, 3, is in the British Museum; and the fifth (pi. f', fig. 7) 

 is in the Collection of Sir Walter Trevelyan, Bart., to whom it was given shortly after its 

 discovery by Mrs. Cazalet. 1 We are unable to trace the two incisors, one of which is 

 figured in the fossil mammals (fig. 70). 2 



§ 4. Relation to Machaerodus cultridens. — All the canines which had the above eventful 

 history belong to the upper jaw, and are remarkable for their width as compared with the 

 length of the crowns. That in the College of Surgeons, which Professor Owen takes as 

 the type-specimen of M. lalidens measures 6-5 inches along the outer curve, and 1*2 inches 

 across the base of the crown, while in the Italian Macharodus cultridens the corresponding 

 measurements are 8'5 inches and 1*5 inches. If the proportions of the Italian specimen be 

 constant, it is obvious that the British specimen in question must belong to another species, 

 since the basal measurement of the crown is so much greater. Professor Owen attaches a 

 specific value to this greater width, while Dr. Falconer, after carefully weighing the 

 evidence, believes that the difference has merely a varietal importance. The size of the 

 canines is, to a certain extent, a sexual character, and therefore liable to variation in 

 different individuals of the same species. And to what an extent this variation may take 

 place within the limit of a species may be gathered from the comparative measurements of 

 canines of the Cave-Lion in our Monograph on the animal. But although the character in 

 question be not of specific value, the strongly marked serration in the incisors (woodcuts 

 1, 2, 3) differentiates, as M. Gervais remarks, the British from the French species of 



1 Letters to W. Boyd Dawkins, dated 11th and 26th May, 1869. 



2 Mr. Pengelly has given a full account of the teeth in question, and of their singular history, in his 

 series of ' Essays on the Literature of Kent's Hole,' published by the Devonshire Association. 



