﻿FELIS SPEL.EA. 21 



CHAPTER V. 



Hind Paw, PL V. 



The metatarsals of the carnivora are so well known, and so much resemble each other in 

 the digitate forms, that comparative anatomists are generally content to refer to the figures 

 of those bones rather than to attempt to discriminate them by descriptions, which must all 

 very closely resemble each other. If we attempt the course which, in nearly all other 

 portions of the skeleton, is held to be absolutely requisite, it is with the view of doing 

 what we can to render the descriptive portion of our work as perfect as we can, rather 

 than to trust to bare figures. 



Metatarsal 1, fig. 1. 



It is well known that the first metatarsal of the genus Felis is rudimentary. In fact, 

 it would be difficult for one not acquainted with the bone in question to recognise it as a 

 metatarsal at all. 



In Felis spelcea it is a small wedge-shaped bone, the wedge thinning off anteriorly 

 to an edge, and distally to a blunt point. The internal surface is slightly rounded ; but 

 the external is flat, and the posterior is irregular. The articulation for the endocuneiform 

 is slightly concave transversely and convex vertically; and, as we suppose, from the 

 corresponding bone in the lion, it would be furnished with a small hook-shaped process 

 on the external 1 and posterior edge. This part is mutilated in our only specimen (fig. 1, 

 a). In other respects it does not differ appreciably from that of the lion, except that in 

 that animal the articulation is flatter. 



The specimen figured is from Bleadon, and is in the Taunton collection, and is reversed 

 from the left paw. 



We have to repeat what we have written respecting other specimens of various 



1 Internal and external, in these descriptions, are invariably used in reference to the position of the 

 ■whole limb in the skeleton, and not to the position of the bone as to the joint. 



