NOTES ON THE CANIDiE OF THE WHITE RIVER OLIGOCENE. -'577 



The third cervical vertebra is markedly different from that of Daphcenus and quite 

 like the corresponding vertebra of Canis. The centrum is moderately elongate (though 

 shorter with reference to the axis than in most of the modern dogs), quite depressed and 

 slightly opisthocoelous, and has a stout, prominent ventral keel, which is better developed 

 than in Daphcenus, or even than in Canis, and ends behind in a tubercle. The ante- 

 rior face is broad, depressed, quite convex and very oblique in position with reference 

 to the fore-and-aft axis of the centrum, while the posterior face is more nearly circular 

 in outline. The transverse process is, in general character, quite like that of Canis, 

 but has a relatively smaller extension from before backward, and is less obviously 

 divided into anterior and posterior projections, the ventral margin of the process being 

 nearly straight. The vertebrarterial canal is proportionately much longer than in Canis, 

 being nearly as long as the entire centrum. The neural canal is relatively larger and 

 especially wider than in the modern genus, while the neural arch is long and broad and 

 but slightly convex on the dorsal surface. One noteworthy difference from Canis con- 

 sists in the fact that the arch does not project over the sides, or pedicels, as an overhang- 

 ing shelf, or does so but slightly. The neural spine is represented only by an incon- 

 spicuous ridge. 



The zygapophyses are small and extend but little in front of and behind the neural 

 arch, which constitutes a very marked difference from Daphcenus. In the latter, it will 

 be remembered, the neural arches are deeply emarginated between each transverse pair 

 of zygapophyses, so that when the vertebrae are placed in their natural position, large 

 vacuities occur between the successive neural arches. In Cynodictis, as in Canis, these 

 interspaces are very narrow and in certain parts of the neck they are hardly at all visible. 



The fourth vertebra is somewhat shorter than the third, but is otherwise very much 

 like it and also like the corresponding vertebra of Canis. The transverse process is some- 

 what larger and heavier than on the preceding vertebra, and the greater antero-posterior 

 extension of its outer portion makes the vertebrarterial canal relatively longer than in 

 Canis ; the inferior lamella is very thin and light. The neural spine is short and slen- 

 der, but is relatively better developed than in most of the modern representatives of the 

 family. 



On the fifth cervical the neural spine is higher but more slender than on the fourth. 



The sixth is not preserved in connection with any of the specimens. 



The seventh cervical is almost a miniature copy of the same vertebra in Canis ; the 

 neural spine is relatively higher, more slender and more pointed than in most species of 

 the existing genus, and the transverse jn'ocesses are proportionately longer and thinner, 

 but otherwise the resemblance is very close and detailed. 



The number of thoracic vertebrce cannot, as yet, be definitely stated, because in 



