90 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



pophyses, though broken, projects too much forward to be restored as the same part in 

 any of the larger bears. The posterior angle of the same process closely resembles the 

 same part in tiger, of which animal we have seen specimens with the neural spine [ns), of 

 precisely the same form as our fossil. The sweep of the curve formed by the di- and 

 neur-apophyses is more open than usual in Felis, and in this the fossil resembles bear, as 

 also in the greater inclination of the zygapophysial articulations ; but we have met with 

 feline (and especially tigrine) vertebrae which have quite as great an inclination. 



We have already indicated the principal muscles which connect the head with the 

 neck in Felis, as also those which belong to the atlas. 



The posterior portion of the " longus colli " in man is represented in Eelis by a 

 powerful muscle, which has its origin on the centra of the six anterior dorsal vertebrae, 

 and its insertion on the strong ligament called the " cord of the sixth cervical," which 

 connects the anterior with the posterior process of the pleurapophysis of that vertebra. 

 Other heads unite the centrum of the first dorsal with the pleurapophyses of the third, 

 fourth, and fifth cervicals. The anterior part of the " longus colli " is represented by a 

 series of small muscles, which pass diagonally inwards from the anterior edges of the 

 cervical pleurapophyses to the centra of the vertebrae anterior to those from which they 

 take their origin. The " rectus anterior capitis" may be considered to represent the first 

 of this series. These muscles are the principal direct flexors of the head, and their power 

 may, to a certain extent, be estimated from that of the pleurapophyses to which they are 

 attached. They are aided indirectly by others, acting also as lateral flexors, which are 

 analogous to the scalene muscles in man, and are divided by Straus-Durckheim into two 

 series ; the " isosceles," equivalent to the " anterior scalene," and the " scalene," 

 equivalent to the "middle and posterior scalene" in man. The former unite the dia- 

 pophyses of each vertebra with the pleurapophyses of those posterior to them, and the 

 latter uniting in the first place the diapophyses together, thus representing the " cervi- 

 calis descendens " in man ; and secondly, these processes, with the ribs, answering, as far 

 as the neck is concerned, to the "scalenus anticus," "posticus," and " medius," in man, 

 but succeeded in the back of Felis by others, which are simply a continuation of the 

 series passing from the ribs, as far back as the eighth pair, to the diapophyses of the 

 cervical vertebrae. 



The " inter-transversales colli" are stout muscles which pass from one diapophysis to 

 that immediately succeeding it, and similarly the " intercostals " pass from one pleura- 

 pophysis to another. All these aid as lateral flexors. 



There are other muscles which have both their origin and insertion in the diapophyses 

 of the vertebrae. They form one series in the cat ; the anterior portion of them, which 

 pass from the diapophyses of the different vertebrae to those preceding them, and also to 

 the anterior dorsals, equivalent to the " transversalis colli " of man ; and the second portion 

 more particularly belonging to the back, are equivalent to the " latissimus dorsi " in human 

 anatomy. The " interspinales " are between the neural spines, and are necessarily very 



