218 The Kent's Hole Machairodus. [April, 



Dr. Falconer, who says, " The length of the Italian tooth 

 is 8*5 in., and the breadth of the crown at the base 1*5 in., 

 while the corresponding measurements of the English speci- 

 mens are 6 and 1*2 in. The breadth of the English tooth 

 ought to be only i*o6in., were the proportion to the length 

 the same as in the Italian. Owen says these differences are 

 constant and well marked. But are they sufficient for a 

 distinction of species, or are the materials sufficiently abun- 

 dant to affirm their constancy ? I think not. In my opinion, 

 the English Machairodus latidens is probably the same as the 

 Italian M. cnltridens." * 



It has always struck us that in this passage the case is 

 not stated with the author's well-known usual fairness. 

 Professor Owen named his species, no doubt, from the 

 greater relative breadth of the crown of the canine, but he 

 separated it from the Italian, not on this account only, but 

 also because of the difference in actual dimensions, the greater 

 relative compression of the English specimens, and the 

 sharper anterior edges of their crowns. Be this as it may, 

 Messrs. Boyd Dawkins and Ayshford Sanford, having stated 

 Dr. Falconer's objection, say, " We consider the British 

 Machcerodus latidens, Owen, to be distinct from the M. cul- 

 tridens of the Continent ;"t and they call attention to Pro- 

 fessor Gervais's statement that the incisors in the almost 

 entire skull found in Auvergne by M. Bravard, and admitted 

 by all to be M. cidtridens, are not crenulated as in M. 

 latidens. i 



In 1844, Dr. Franz Xavier Muniz found near Lujan, 

 12 leagues west of Buenos Ayres, the almost complete 

 skeleton of a beast of prey, a contemporary of the 

 Megatherium, Mylodon, Glyptodon, Taxodon, and Mas- 

 todon. Finding nothing like it in Cuvier's Ossem. Foss., 

 he described it under the name of Munifelis bonaerensis, in 

 the " Gaceta Mercantil " of 9th Oft., 1845. 



It proved, however, to be the skeleton of a species of Ma- 

 chairodus, and in October, 1865, Dr. Herman Burmeister,who 

 in 1861 took the management of the State Museum of Buenos 

 Ayres, succeeded in securing the specimen for his museum, 

 through the munificence of Mr. William Wheelwright, con- 

 tractor of the Argentine Central Railway from Rosario to Cor- 

 dova. Dr. Burmeister proposes publishing a full description in 

 the " Anales del Mus. publ. de B.A.," but in the meantime he 

 has sent to his friends in Germany a brief notice of the 



* Palasont. Memoirs, 1868, vol. ii., p. 459. 



f Brit. Pleist. Mam., Part IV., 1872, p. 187. 



\ Zoologie et Palaeontologie Francaises, 2nd. Ed., 1859, p. 231. 



