FELIS SPEL^A. 107 



§ 10. Literature. — We know of the following figures of the vertebrge of Felis 

 spelcBa. M. Schmerling, * Oss. Foss. de Liege/ a mutilated atlas, torn, ii, pi. xvii, fig. 14 ; 

 a first dorsal, pi. xviii, fig. 1 ; a sixth lumbar, figs. 2 and 3 ; an entire sacrum, pi. 

 xvi, fig. 1 ; a fourth caudal, pi. xviii, fig. 4 ; an eighth caudal, fig. 5 ; and one of the 

 smaller caudals, fig. 6. These are all of large size. The under side of a second sacrum, 

 of the size of that of the lion, is in the figure of the entire pelvis, in pi. xix, fig. 2. 



MM. Marcel de Serres, Dubrueil, and Jean Jean (' Oss. Foss. de Lunel Viel') figure the 

 tenth dorsal (?), pi. viii, fig. 7 ; the second and third lumbars, fig. 8 ; the entire sacrum, 

 under side, fig. 9 ; a second sacrum rather smaller than that of the lion, fig. 1 5 ; a fourth 

 caudal, fig. 13 ; and a smaller cylindrical caudal, fig. 14. 



§11. Sternum. — The number of sternebers in the genus Felis, including the manu- 

 brium and xiphoid, is eight, as is usually the case with the Carnivores generally. Some 

 species, however, such as the Glutton, have nine. We do not describe the manubrium or 

 xiphoid, as we have met with no fossil specimens of either. The intermediate sternebers are 

 more or less rectangular in form, flat, or slightly concave on the ventral surface, flat or 

 slightly convex vertically on the sides, and rounded on the inferior or thoracic surface, 

 which is traversed by a slight, irregular keel, bifurcating distally like the letter Y. They 

 are smaller in the middle than at their ends, which are roughened for the cartilaginous 

 epiphyses, to which the ribs are attached. Sometimes the epiphyses are wanting, and, as 

 in a lion in our own possession, two or more sternebers may be anchylosed together. 

 They are distinguished from each other by their proportions. The anterior or second is the 

 longest, most compressed, and deepest, and the seventh, or that next the xiphoid, is the 

 shortest, widest, and most depressed. The intermediate bones present a regular gradation 

 from the one to the other of these forms. 



There is a very great variation observable in the size and form of these bones when 

 two or more individuals are compared together, even of the same species oi Felis ; and 

 they seem to be abnormally affected by captivity. Those of the lion for the most part are 

 more depressed than those of the tiger, and the latter more so than those of the jaguar. 

 It is, therefore, difficult if not impossible to ascertain with absolute accuracy the exact 

 position of any given feline sterneber unless the whole series from one animal is perfect. 



We cannot, therefore, accurately determine any of the fossil sternebers. We have met with 

 four perfect and one imperfect feline sternebers in the Taunton Museum ; they were obtained 

 from Bleadon Cave. They do not exactly resemble those of any lion or tiger with which 

 they have been compared, being longer than in those animals, and the shortest presenting 

 the same proportion as the longest of those of the tiger. Three of them assume the pro- 

 portions of the third, fourth, and sixth of a small jaguar in our possession, though they 

 exceed the corresponding bones of a large tiger in size ; the remaining two, of somewhat 

 smaller dimensions, also assume the proportions of the fourth and fifth of the jaguar. Their 

 large size, indeed, is the only point that separates them from those of that animal. They are 



