﻿FELIS SPEL^EA. 147 



parietals and part of the occipitals of a Lion, while those underneath may be the fore part of 

 the upper and lower jaws, of the same animal ; but it is very possible that the originals 

 may have belonged to the Bear. The whole are referred to in the text as " vera elephan- 

 tium ossa," the upper part of the head being taken for the " tibia" of the Elephant. The 

 fragment of skull is compared by Soemmerring 1 with the skulls of Lion and Ursus spelaus. 

 He considers that it differs in no respect from the former animal ; but he adds that in 

 most of the points relied upon it resembles other species of the genus Eelis. He gives a 

 more exact figure than that of Leibnitz. 



In 1774 Esper 3 published an account of the mammals found in the Margraviat of 

 Bareith, in which he figures an upper jaw from Gailenreuth. He obtained also detached 

 teeth and bones. He believes them to belong to an unknown animal, more closely allied 

 to the Lion than any other species. Rosenmuller/ in 1804, states that he is about to 

 publish a work on an unknown fossil animal of the genus Eelis, and he adds that its bones 

 differ in some respects from the Lion. Dr. Goldfuss 4 published, in 1810, a small work 

 on the environs of Muggendorf, in which a nearly perfect skull from the cave of Gailen- 

 reuth was figured and described under the name of Felis spelaa, which was adopted by 

 Cuvier, an d became the recognised specific name of the animal. In 1 821 5 he republished his 

 determination of the species, and gave a full-sized figure of the skull, which he considered 

 to belong to an extinct species, more closely allied to the Panther than to Lion or Tiger. 



Drs. Pander and D'Alton 6 state, in 1822, that Felis spelaa differs specifically from 

 Felis leo, and refer to their figures in support of this conclusion. The figures, which are 

 those of a skull and lower jaw, exhibit no sutures. The second premolar of the upper 

 jaw is bifanged, as in the skull from Sanclford Hill Cave (PI. XI, fig. 1). There are no 

 measurements of the skull given in the text, nor is any information afforded as to the 

 museum in which it is preserved. 



Baron Cuvier, in the second edition of the 'Ossemens Eossiles/ 7 published in 1823, 

 does not pronounce a decided opinion on the relation of Felis spelaa to the large existing 

 members of the genus, because he was unable to make a personal inspection of the type 

 specimens described by Dr. Goldfuss ; but he states his belief that the real affinities of 

 the animal are neither with the Lion nor the Tiger, but with the Jaguar (Felis ojica), giving 

 as his principal reasons the gentle curve of the profile and the form of the lower jaw. 8 



1 'Magasin pour l'Histoire Nat. de l'Homme' de M. C. Grosse,' t. iii, cab. 1, No. 3, p. 60; Cuvier, 

 op. cit. We cannot verify this reference. 



2 ' Description des Zoolithes, &c, dans la Margraviat de Bareith,' folio, Nuremburg,' 1774, tab. ix, xii, 

 p. 53. 



3 'Abbildungen und Beschreibung der fossilen Knochen des Hb'hlenbaren,' folio; fig. 1, pp. 11, 19; 

 Weimar, 1804. 



4 'Die Umgebungen von Muggendorf,' Erlangeu, 1810. 



5 ' Nova Acta Physico-Medica Acad. Caes.-Leop. Cur.,' torn, x, p. 489, tab. 45, 1821. 



6 'Die Skelete der Raubtbiere,' tab. viii, a, I, c, d, 1822. 



7 Tom. iv, pp. 451—455. s See 'Felis spelcea,' cap. i; cap. vi, § 20. 



