420 PALEONTOLOGY. 



The finest examples of the large pleistocene lion (Felis 

 sjoelcea) have been discovered in bone-caves — e.g., in those of 

 Banwell, Somersetshire, and of Belgium. The production of 

 the apex of the nasal process of the maxillary, as far back 

 as that of the nasal bone, proves this species to have been a 

 lion, not a tiger. It roamed over pliocene and post-pliocene 

 Europe, and has left its remains in many stratified deposits 

 of the former period in Britain. 



Under similar circumstances have been found, more 

 abundantly in Germany, the remains of the gigantic bear 

 (JJrsus spelmus); and, more abundantly in England, those of 

 the great hyaena (Hywna spelcea), probably a spotted one, 

 like the fierce " Crocuta" of the Cape. Wolves, foxes, badgers, 

 otters, wolverines, and martin-cats, foumarts and weasels, 

 have left their remains in the newer tertiary deposits and 

 bone caves. Bats, moles, and shrews, were then, as now, 

 the forms that preyed upon the insect world in Europe. The 

 majority of these Carnivora, like the hares, rabbits, voles, and 

 other Bodents, are not distinguishable from the species which 

 still exist. These smaller unguiculate Mammals, like the 

 smaller pliocene Buminants, seem to have survived those 

 changes during which the larger species perished. It is pro- 

 bable that the horse and ass are descendants of species of 

 pliocene antiquity. There is no certain character by which 

 the present wild boar can be distinguished specifically from 

 the Susfossilis, which was contemporary with the mammoth. 



Order Rodentia. 



This order includes an extensive series of small Mammals 

 in which a single pair of large, curved, ever-growing incisors 

 in each jaw is associated with many other peculiarities of 

 structure. These incisors (fig. 165, i) separated by a wide 

 interval from a short series of molars, characterize the 

 whole order of Bodents ; the single exceptional family, Lepor- 



