﻿44 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



The only point of difference of specific value in this bone is in respect of the palatal 

 foramen. In every case Felis spelcea agrees with lion in a most decided manner, the 

 space between the foramen and the postero-exterior border of the palatine being even 

 smaller in it than in the lion. In all the specimens of the panther and jaguar that 

 we have examined, it is proportionally greater than in the tiger. Felis spelcea, then, is 

 isolated from these two smaller species by this characteristic. 



8. Mamillaries (Plates VI, VII, VIII, X, XI, No. 21).— The maxillaries of all the 

 larger species of Eelis resemble each other very closely, and yet it is in these very bones 

 that we find minute differences which are specifically constant. Their surfaces may be 

 described as the vertical or facial, the basal or palatine, the posterior or orbital, and the 

 internal or ethmoidal. The first of these presents a roughly triangular outline, bounded 

 behind by the malar, lachrymal, and frontal articulations; in front by those of the frontal, 

 nasal, and intermaxillary, and below by the alveolar border. At its upper angle it is 

 slightly concave ; at the infero-anterior convex, for the reception of the fang of the canine, 

 and at the infero-posterior flat. The concavity immediately behind the canine is the 

 canine fossa, the muscle of that name passing along it from the malar to the upper lip. 

 The upper angle forms the " frontal process," which is received into a deep notch in the 

 frontal bone. It is truncated in the tiger, rounded in the jaguar, pointed or very 

 rarely rounded in the lion and panther. 1 If a line be drawn joining the apices of the 

 frontal processes, in the two former animals it falls below the extreme point of the frontal 

 processes of the nasals, while in the two latter it falls above the nasals, and rests entirely 

 on the frontals. 2 In two skulls of Felis spelaa, that figured in PI. VII, and that from 

 Sundwig, the frontal process is pointed, and the line rests on the frontals; in the third 

 (PI. X) the processes of the maxillaries are unfortunately abraded. If, however, the 

 outline were restored, it would be impossible to make it otherwise than pointed; and if so, 

 the line drawn from the frontal processses would also rest on the frontals without 

 touching the nasal suture of these bones. Immediately opposite the superior portion of 

 the malar suture is the great suborbital foramen, separated from the malar and the orbit 

 by a stout bony arch, and giving passage to the suborbital nerve and artery. It is 

 smaller, according to MM. Goldfuss, Cuvier, and de Blainville, 3 in tiger than in lion, and 

 the arch is thicker ; and those authors consider that in these respects Felis spelaa is 

 tigrine in character. The specific value of these points is by no means confirmed by the 

 study of a large series of skulls of lion and tiger, in which we find great variations in the 



1 "We have seen some skulls which are said to be those of the panther or leopard from Eastern [ndia 

 and the peninsula of Malacca, in which the formation of the frontals and maxillaries resembled that of a 

 tiger. The Western panthers, as far as our experience goes, all resemble the lion in this respect. 



2 This was first pointed out by Professor Owen, 'Proc. Zool. Soc.,' Jan. 1834, p. 1. 



3 Goldfuss., 'Nov. Act. Nat. Cur.,' vol. x; Cuvier, 'Oss. Foss.,' vol. iv, p. 453, ed. 1825; de Blain- 

 ville, 'Ost. Felis,' p. 108. 



