﻿FELIS SPEL^A. 73 



F.prisca, 1 are not sufficiently well preserved to warrant an accurate comparison. PM 4, how- 

 ever, appears comparatively smaller, and the cusps (b) and (c) are more nearly of the same size 

 and shape than in Felis spelcea, and PM3 is proportionately much larger. It also closely 

 resembles PM4 in shape, which is not the case in the more recent large Feles. Although 

 in Felis arvernensis* Ml is nearly of the same size as in the smaller Felis spelma, the 

 summits of the blades are closer together, so that the tooth assumes a more pyramidal 

 aspect, and the remainder of the dentition is proportionately of much smaller size. The 

 species is considered doubtful by M. Gervais, 3 but he does not indicate its probable 

 affinity. The distinctions between the teeth of Felis and Machairodus will be noticed in 

 our description of the latter genus. 



§ 3. Milk dentition (PL XIII). — The materials we have for describing the milk 

 dentition of Felis spelcea, all obtained from the bone caves of Somerset, enable us to give 

 the characters of all the teeth, except the upper incisors and the two inner incisors of the 

 lower jaw. 



The specimens we have examined are the following : 



A left upper maxillary (PL XIII, fig. 1) that belonged to an animal of rather more 

 than three months old, as far as we can estimate the age by a comparison with the skull 

 of a lion's whelp in our own collection, which was about four months old when it died. 

 It retains DM 3 and 4 , with the alveolus of DM2 , while germs of premolars 3 and 4 are 

 imbedded in their alveoli in the substance of the bone. It was found in Hutton cave, in 

 the Mendip. We also figure the anterior portion of a maxillary from Bleadon 

 (fig. 2), which retains DC and DM2 . The vertical aspect of the latter tooth is given in 

 fig. ]", in order to save space, and give, as far as possible, the natural arrangement of 

 the milk molar dentition. We have a pair of maxillaries of a very young animal from 

 Sandford Hill, one with DC and DM 3, and the other with DM 3 ; of this latter tooth we 

 give a separate figure (fig. 6). We have also from Bleadon cave a crushed maxillary 

 with DM 3 , and two other detached upper deciduous molars, 3. We are uncertain 

 as to the exact locality whence came four upper canines, one of which we figure 

 (fig. 5). 



Of the lower jaw we have two nearly complete rami from Hutton, apparently belong- 

 ing to the same animal as did the maxillary which we have figured. One of these, 

 represented in fig. 3, possesses the deciduous molars 3 and 4, the fang of the deci- 

 duous canine, the alveoli of the deciduous incisors, and shows the germ of the true molar ; 

 the other has the fangs of the milk dentition and the germ of the molar. From the cave 

 in Sandford Hill we have a pair of very young rami, which apparently belonged to the 



1 Kaup, 'Oss. Fobs, de Darmstadt, Carnivora,' pi. ii, fig. 1, 16, 2. 



2 MM. Croizet et Jobert, 'Oss. Toss, du Puy de Dome,' pi. v, fig. 3. 



3 *Zool. et Palseont. Franchises,' ed. 1859, p. 228. 



