FELIS SPEL.EA. 113 



CHAPTER X. 

 Humerus. PI. XVHI, figs. 1, 2, 3. 



CONTENTS. 



§ 1. Introduction. \ § 2. Description. 



§ 3. Measurements. 



§ 1. Introduction. — The well-known inverse proportion which is found to exist in all 

 animals between the lengths of the humeri and metacarpals is well exemplified in the 

 comparison of the larger with the smaller Feles. In the smaller animals of the genus the 

 metacarpals are comparatively short, and the humeri long: in the larger, both are of 

 moderate length, and, as may be expected, of immense strength. 



The fossil humeri of Felis are only known in Britain by fragments. At Gailenreuth, 

 however, the perfect bone has been found by Sir Philip Egerton and Lord Enniskillen, 

 and a cast of it is preserved in the British Museum. The well-known figure also of the 

 humerus found by Dr. Schmerling in the cavern of Liege enables us to estimate propor- 

 tions of the entire bone in Felis spelaa. This we have copied in light tint in our figure 

 (fig. 1), and on it we have represented in a darker tint the distal portion of a slightly 

 darker specimen from Bleadon Cave (fig. 1, cm) ; and on this again we have drawn a 

 large part of a shaft from Oreston Cave, in the British Museum {d, e), which offers some 

 peculiarities to be described presently ; and finally, in full tint, we give the proximal 

 articulation {a, a), and the distal ends (/,/', m) of large specimens from Bleadon. In 

 this way we have completed, so far as the materials at our disposal allow, a figure of the 

 posterior aspect of the humerus from British specimens. 



The figure of the anterior aspect of the distal end (fig. 2) is taken from a specimen in 

 the possession of the Rev. H. H. Winwood, found in the river-gravel at Larkhall, near 

 Bath, and that of the distal articulation (fig. 3) is from the largest specimen we have met 

 with from Sandford Hill Cavern. 



M. de Blainville states that the humeri of the Tiger are wider distally than those of 



