368 
Analyses of Books . 
| June, 
Vol. XV., Part i. 1882. 
In this issue Mr. Lydekker, F.Z.S., gives a note on Hycena Si- 
valensis , and shows that the skulls discovered cannot well be 
referred — as is done by Mr. Bose and Dr. Falconer' — to two spe- 
cies, and that the H. felina of Bose must be given up. The 
author, however, holds that Mr. Bose was justified in his opinion 
by the few specimens before him. 
Mr. Lydekker has studied the limb-bones and cervical vertebras 
of the fossil Siwalik giraffe-like and sivatheroid animals in the 
Calcutta Museum. The fossil giraffe of the Siwaliks was very 
like the existing African species in the proportions of its limbs. 
Nearly approaching this giraffe is a long-limbed ruminant, — per- 
haps a V ishnutherium , — whose leg-bones are shorter than those 
of the true giraffe. Next follows Hydaspitherium , with leg-bones 
shorter and stouter than those of V ishnutherium, but longer and 
slighter than those of Sivatherium, in which the proportions are 
those common among ruminants. Mr. Lydekker, whilst pointing 
out this instructive gradation of forms, is not prepared to assert 
that such is the adtual line of evolution of the giraffes. He 
considers that the families Camelopardalidae and Sivatheridas 
should be united. The skull of a large hornless ruminant 
from the Siwaliks, hitherto supposed to be the female of Siva - 
therium giganteum, is now referred to Helladotherium , and is 
probably the H. Duvernoyi. The right scapho-lunar bone of a 
large cat has been found in the alluvium of the Jamna. It is 
slightly larger than that of the Bengal tiger, but presents so little 
difference that it may belong to the same species. Mr. Lydekker 
is not disposed, without further evidence, to admit that the 
Pleistocene tiger was the same as that of the present day. 
