On some Fossil Bovine remains found in Britain. 79 



base of of the cranium, a portion of a rib, and the left innomi- 

 nate bone. Of these, it is probable that the first-named only 

 has belonged to a bovine animal. This consists of the basilar 

 process, occipital condyles, and the remaining portion of the 

 ring of bone which surrounds the foramen magnum. It is 

 difficult to say with absolute certainty what animal the other 

 bones had formed a part of. The rib scarcely appears to be 

 bovine, for it is thicker and more massive ; the ridge upon its 

 outer surface is proportionally much stronger, and there is 

 only a trace of a groove upon its inferior margin. 



The innominate bone is much more slender than the pelvic 

 bones of the existing species of Bos. On comparing it with the 

 corresponding innominate bone in the skeleton of the Mega- 

 ceros in the Natural History Museum, so many points of simi- 

 larity were found between them, that I felt inclined to pro- 

 nounce it to be the innominate bone of the great extinct Irish 

 elk ; but, on closer inquiry, I learnt that it is very doubtful if 

 many of the bones in that skeleton are genuine bones of the 

 Megaceros, no less an authority than Cuvier, in the fourth 

 volume of the " Ossemens Fossiles," stating, in some critical 

 remarks which he makes upon an engraving and measurements 

 of the skeleton transmitted to him by the late Professor Jame- 

 son, " that it is doubtful whether the pelvis is well authenti- 

 cated, seeing that it is not so altered as the rest of the bones." 

 I find that the innominate bones have been painted dark brown, 

 so as to give them the same colour as the other bones of the 

 skeleton ; and on scraping off the paint, a clear white osseous 

 surface is seen beneath. 



It is probable that this innominate bone belonged to an 

 animal of the genus Equus, for both in size, shape, and osseous 

 markings, it corresponds most closely with the left pelvic bone 

 of the horse. If this be the case, it adds another to the loca- 

 lities, cited by Professor Owen, in which the remains of this 

 animal have been discovered, and from having been found in 

 the same stratum as, and in the immediate neighbourhood of, . 

 the frontal bone of the Bos primigenius, it establishes the co- 

 existence of these different genera in our island. 



Mr David Page stated instances of the occurrence of the 



