﻿FELIS SPELtEA. 43 



skulls we have examined, a thin probe passed through this foramen passes directly into 

 the orbit without showing itself on the nasal surface of the bone, while in all, except in 

 one or two extremely small skulls of the tiger, it passes freely into the nasal cavity. In 

 both these points Fells spelaa agrees with lion. 



To these M. de Blainville would add a third point of difference between lion and tiger : 

 that in the lion the posterior border of the horizontal plates terminates in sharp cusps, which 

 form a somewhat deep notch at the interpalatal suture, while in the tiger it ends in a point 

 without a notch (en pointe mediane sans echancrure). 1 We have carefully tested the 

 value of this point of difference in a large series of recent skulls. In leonine skulls the 

 notch is variable in size, and in some almost obsolete. In those of tiger on the other hand 

 the median point often disappears, leaving the posterior border straight, and sometimes 

 well defined cusps are present, and the notch more distinctly marked than in some 

 leonine skulls. Although, therefore, M. de Blainville has rightly indicated the tendency 

 of the two species in this respect, we cannot suppose that we have in this the means of 

 absolute distinction. The only skull of Felis spelaa which gives us information on this 

 point is that from Sundwig. It shows in its present state an affinity to the tiger. The 

 bone, however, is abraded at the point where the cusp would be, had it ever existed, and 

 on the other side the palatine is restored in plaster. We therefore do not consider 

 the evidence afforded by it of any value as to the leonine or tigrine character of the 

 animal. 



Erom the postero-external surface of the horizontal plate rises the vertical or optico- 

 nasal, articulated by a slightly convex vertical suture to the inner side of the base of the 

 malar process of the maxillary, and to the lower and posterior edge of the lachrymal, to 

 the frontal above by a long horizontal suture, and to the lower edge of the orbito- 

 sphenoid, and the anterior of the alisphenoid by a descending suture en echetton. The 

 upper surface is slightly concave vertically and horizontally; the lower is convex ver- 

 tically. It is pierced by two foramina, the larger of which is the spheno-palatine for the 

 maxillary branch of the fifth pair of nerves ; the smaller, situated more in front and at 

 lower level, conducts the palatal nerve to the small posterior palatal foramen in the palato- 

 maxillary suture. These two foramina are erroneously called by Straus-Durckheim 

 " trous gustatifs." 2 To the lower part of the orbital surface, and throughout the whole 

 length of the horizontal process, is attached the Eallopian 3 muscle, or external pterygoid of 

 human anatomy, which is among those which elevate the lower jaw, and is inserted at the 

 infero-exterior border of the horizontal ramus below the coronoid process. In man this 

 muscle is inserted into the neck of the condyle and the meniscoid fibro- cartilage, and is 

 a pretractor or rotator, while in Eelis, being inserted much lower down, it serves merely 

 for an elevator. 



1 'Ost. Felis,' p. 28. 2 Op. cit., vol. i, p. 426. 



3 'Straus-Durckheim,' vol. ii, p. 217. 



