58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [NoV. 4, 



perfect caudal vertebrae (the 8th and 9th) of the fossil (fig, 5), and 

 of their homologues in the large Fox (fig. 6), the teeth of which 

 were compared with the fossil. There are some other differences 

 between the bones of the fossil and those of the Common Fox, in 

 the relative strength of the ulna and fibula, for example ; but they 

 are of minor importance to those above detailed. The characters 

 founded upon those differences not only establish the specific di- 

 stinction of the fossil from the Common Fox, but afford as good 

 ground for its subgeneric distinction from Canis or Vulpes as any 

 that can be pointed out in the skeleton of Lycaon ; the excess of 

 development of the pollex being as remarkable in the fossil as 

 its defective development is in the Cape Hunting Dog {Lycaon 

 pictus) ; and the CEningen fossil tends as much to diminish the inter- 

 val between Canis and Viverra, as the Lycaon does that between 

 Canis and Hycena. 



Vulpes communis, nat. size. 



The foregoing notes were written before I received the fasciculus 

 of the * Fauna der Vorwelt ' of M. H. von Meyer (184<5), in which 

 he has copied the reduced figure of the fossil from the ' Geological 

 Transactions ' (/. c. pi. 33), with some criticism of Dr. Mantell's de- 

 scription, and some remarks on characters exhibited by the figures, 

 which indicate the specific distinction of the fossil from the Canis 

 Vulpes communis, for which name, as applied to the fossil, M. von 

 Meyer cites Dr. Mantell as the authority, in both his present work 

 (p. 4) and in his * Palaeologica ' f8vo, 1832, p. 50*). 



M. von Meyer first observes that the skull of the fossil appears to 

 be rather short in comparison to the Canis lagopus, and rather high 

 in proportion to its length as compared with the skull of the Com- 

 mon Foxf . Dr. Mantell however, after remarking, " The skull ap- 



* Canis Vulpes {communis) fossilis, H. von Meyer, ' Palaeologica,' 1832, p. 50. 

 * Vulpes des schistes d' CEningen,' De Blainville, 1843, p. 157. 



t " Mir scheint der Schadel des fossiler Thiers gegen Canis lagopus (Isatis) 

 wuniger stumpf und gegen den gemeinen Fuchs im Vergleich zur Lange etwas 

 61 hoch," loc. cit. p. 4. 



