﻿MUSTELUL.E. 5 



while Herisel 1 (1881) gave full figures and measurements of large recent skulls. 

 Boule and Chauvet 3 (1899) alluded to the occurrence of the remains of a large 

 polecat among an Arctic fauna described by them from the Charente. 



All these authors agree in referring the large skulls to the recent species of 

 polecat, Mustela putorius. 



Newton was the first to propose a distinctive name for this large form. He, 

 however, thought it possible that the Ightham form might be the same as that 

 to which Meyer 3 gave the name Mustela antiqua. The latter author's use of 

 the name is, however, unaccompanied by any description, and he does not 

 indicate that he intended to apply it to large forms of the polecat. 



The splendidly preserved cranium figured in the present memoir (PI. T, figs. 

 7 — 9) was obtained by Mr. W. J. Lewis Abbott from the Ightham fissure in 1907. 

 A comparison of this skull with skulls of Mustela martes in the British Museum 

 and Bristol University collection shows that there are a number of obvious points 

 of difference. Mustela robusta differs from Mustela martes in (1) the width and 

 shortness of the palate ; (2) the shortness antero-posteriorly of m. 1 ; (3) the 

 absence of pm. 1; (4) the less inflated character of the auditory bulla; and (5) 

 the somewhat more flattened character of the cranial roof. The skull is clearly 

 that of a polecat, the only appreciable difference from Mustela putorius being 

 in point of size. 



Mustela putorius, the Polecat. 



The records of the occurrence of the polecat in British Pleistocene deposits are 

 very scanty. Owen 4 figured a skull from Berry Head, and mentioned that an 

 almost entire skull had been found in a raised beach near Plymouth. Falconer 5 

 recorded it from Bacon Hole, Long Hole, and Spritsail Tor, Grower, and Newton 6 

 from the Ightham fissure. The British Museum contains a considerable number 

 of bones from the Brixham cave, and a few have been obtained by the Rev. E. H. 

 Mullins at Langwith. 



Of the continental records the following may be alluded to : Cuvier described 7 

 some musteline bones which de Blainville s referred to the polecat. ■Schmerling 9 

 figured a good cranium and mandible from Liege. Kriiger 10 referred to polecat 



1 " Craniologische Studien," 'Nova Acta Acad. Caes. Leop.,' xlii (1881), pi. vi, figs. 1, 2. 



2 ' Coinptes Kendus,' cxxviii (1899), p. 1188. 3 ' Palseologica,' 1832, pp. 54, 130. 

 4 'Brit. Foss. Manim. aud Birds,' p. 112. 5 'Pal. Mem.,' ii, p. 525. 



6 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' lv (1899), p. 425. 



7 ' Ann. Mus.,' xx, p. 437, and subsequently ' Oss. Foss.,' ed. 2 (1823), p. 467. 



8 ' Osteographie — Mustela,' p. 57. 9 ' Recherches Oss. Foss. Cavernes de Liege,' ii, pi. i. 

 w ' Geschichte der TJrwelt,' p. 851. 



