MAMMALIA. 
15 
of Kangaroos, namely, — Halmaturus giganteus ; two smaller species, 
of which Petrogale hrachyotis is one, and a Kangaroo Rat. Also a sort 
of Opossum, as he calls it, or a Flying Marsupial ; two species of Dogs, 
one of which agrees with that of Timor ; besides Rats and Mice. He 
twice followed the track of an animal with cleft hoofs, whose size, 
judging from the footsteps, must have exceeded that of the Butfalo. 
Gray mentions an unknown domestic animal, which perhaps might have 
been a Cow, escaped from some earlier expedition. In the appendix are 
found contributions to the knowledge of the geographical distribution 
of the Australian Mammalia, with notices upon some newly discovered 
species (already mentioned in the Archives, 1842, p. 339). Gould has 
added a list of Birds, comprising 182 species. 
A more general index of the contributions to the knowledge of the 
remains of antediluvian Mammalia must be mentioned at a future 
period. 
Sur les Cavernes et les Breches a Ossements des Environs 
de Paris. Par M. J. Desnoyers. (Compt. Rend. xv. p. 522, 
with a note in the “ Annal. des Sc. Geolog. 1842.”) 
Cuvier had to undertake his first labours on the fossil cavernous ani- 
mals, chiefly from materials collected in Germany. A considerable 
period elapsed till similar bone caverns were discovered in the South of 
France ; and ten years after the death of that great naturalist, Desnoyers, 
along with C. Prevost, collected a great many of such remains in the 
immediate neighbourhood of Paris. They found them in excavations of 
Gypsum (Gipsschloten), of which one at Montmorency, a few metres in 
width, alone contained more than 2000 bones of more than 300 indivi- 
duals, and of about twenty species, generally of great size. The list 
enumerates the following genera: — 1. Shrew-mouse, two species, of 
which one resembles the Sorex tetragonuxus, the other the S. fodiens 
(very abundant) : 2. Mole, of the common species (abundant) : 3-6. 
Badger, Weasel, Polecat, Martin, not difiering from those of the present 
day (few) : 7. Field-mouse, of 4-5 species (most abundant) : 6. Marmot, 
not differing from those of the present day (pretty common) : 7. Sper- 
mopJiilus, agreeing with Sp. superciliosus of Kaup : 8. Hare, bigger than 
the common one : 9. Lagomys, two species (rather few) : 10. Wild Swine, 
teeth (few) : 11. Horse (abundant) : 12. Reindeer (antlers and bones) : 
13. Stag, of a small species. Along with these remains of Mammalia, 
were found some bones of Birds, very like those of the Common Land 
Rail ; besides some small Batrachia of the size of a Frog, and several 
species of Helix and Pupa. Some time afterwards, to the south of Paris, 
at Corbril, a cavern was discovered in sandstone, containing bones of the 
Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hyaena, Cavern-Bear, Horse, Ox, and an antlered 
ruminating animal. 
59 
