﻿182 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



seem to us to imply the existence of two species, one the Felis coffer of Africa, and the 

 common Wild Cat, which is now rapidly being exterminated in our island. But on the 

 very fragmentary evidence before us we do not attempt to define with absolute certainty 

 the former existence of the Felis coffer in Britain. Nevertheless, the exact agreement in 

 every particular of the lower jaw figured in PI. XXIV, fig. 6, 6', 6", with that of the latter 

 animal, and its disagreement in the same points with those of other animals, renders 

 the specific identity almost certain ; and with regard to the classificatory value of the 

 points themselves in the recent lower jaws, we have found that they are present 

 in all those of the former, and absent from all those of the latter which we have 

 examined in the British Museum, the College of Surgeons, and elsewhere. 



§ 2. Felis coffer. — The right lower jaw from Bleadon Cave in the Mendip Hills, 

 figured PI. XXIV, fig. 6, 6', 6", differs from the jaws of all the smaller Leopardine Cats of 

 both the Old and New Continents, as well as from the Lynxes, by the smaller size of the 

 molar series as compared with the depth of the jaw, while the jaws in these animals are 

 thicker in proportion to their depth. 



These smaller feline jaws being thus proved to be unlike that in question, there 

 remain for comparison two groups of Cats, the larger, represented by the Felis chaus 

 of India, which appears to have had a large share in the production of the Domestic 

 Cat of that country ; and the smaller, or that which is represented by the Wild Cat of 

 Europe, and the F. maniculata, the latter probably having a share in the breed of the 

 Domestic Cat of Europe. Intermediate between these groups are two species, the 

 F. coffer, distributed at the present day throughout Africa, and the F. torquata of the 

 Himalayas, which are closely related together, and are probably representative forms in 

 their respective districts. In the series represented by Felis chaus the lower true molar, 

 ot i is larger in proportion to the premolars than in our fossil. 



There remain, therefore, for comparison the Wild Cat of Europe, the F. maniculata, 

 and the F. coffer. In all the well-authenticated specimens of Wild Cat which we have 

 examined, as. well as in those of the large domestic cats with brownish-grey fur, which 

 have run wild, the posterior inner alveolar border is much thickened (PI. XXIV, fig. 8, c), 

 and rises higher than the outer border, so that the last true molar, and to a certain extent 

 premolar 4, are thrown to the outside of the jaw. These characters are not to be found 

 in our fossil, the molar series being set on the middle of the alveolar edge of the 

 mandible. The ramus also in the fossil is deeper and transversely narrower than in the 

 Wild Cat. 



In the Felis maniculata, and the smaller specimens of Domestic Cat, the jaw is much 

 less deep in proportion to its thickness than in the fossil. The jaw of Felis coffer, on the 

 other hand, agrees with our fossil in the minutest detail, as well as with that figured by 

 Dr. Schmerling, and measured by M. de Serres ; and it is therefore impossible to resist 

 the conclusion, that a species of Wild Cat most closely allied to the F. coffer lived in 

 Britain, Belgium, and France, in the Pleistocene Period. There is indeed nothing unrea- 



