219—42 INDIAN TERTIARY AND POST-TERTIARY VERTEBRATA. 
Genus II. : HYiENARCTOS, Falc. and Cant. 
Syn. Agriotherium , Wag. Amphiarctos, Sivalarctos, Blain. 
History . — In 1836 there appeared in the XIXth volume of the “Asiatic 
Researches ” a paper by Messrs. Falconer and Cautley, describing, without 
illustrations, the cranium and mandible of a large bear-like animal from the Siwaliks, 
under the name of TJrsus sivalensis. In the following year Herr Wagner 1 proposed 
that this form should be referred to a new genus under the name of Agriotherium. 
Five years later (1841) M. de Blainville, apparently ignoring Wagner’s name, also 
came to the conclusion that the Siwalik animal was generically distinct from TJrsus , 
and proposed for it in one place 2 the name Sivalarctos , and in another 3 * Amphiarctos. 
In 1842 Dr. Falconer wrote a notice, which, however, was never published till 1868, 
after his death, 1 in which he reiterated his original conclusion that the animal in , 
question was not generically distinct from TJrsus. It appears, however, that soon 
after that note was written Dr. Falconer must have changed his opinion, since Prof. 
Owen, in describing this form in his “ Odontography,” 5 published from 1840 to 
1845, states that “ the term Hycenarctos sivalensis has, however, been provisionally 
assigned by its Discoverers to the extinct species, which, from the modification of 
its molars, ought to be regarded as subgenerically distinct from the true UrsiJ The 
original specimens were figured by Prof. Owen (pi. CXXXI.) under the above- 
mentioned name. The present writer has been unable to discover the authority for 
Professor Owen’s statement ; and it appears, indeed, that the passage quoted from 
his work is the one in which the name Hycenarctos first appears. In plate 0 of the 
supplemental plates of the “ Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis,” stated by Dr. Murchison 6 to 
have been executed about 1848, the species is designated TJrsus ( Hycenarctos ) 
sivalensis. In a manuscript note of Dr. Falconer’s written in 1857 7 the specimen is 
alluded to simply as Hycenarctos. In 1859 Prof. Gfervais 8 described under the name 
of Hycenarctos certain species belonging to the same genus as the Siwalik form, 
observing “Le nom de Hycenarctos n’est pas le soul qui ait ete donne au genre de 
grands Carnivores ursiformes, qui a pour type 1’ TJrsus sivalensis ; il n’est pas davantage 
le plus ancien Toutefois le nom Hycenarctos a prevalu.” In 1877 
Professor Flower, in describing 9 some molar teeth, also adopts the same generic name. 
It thus appears that Wagner’s name of Agriotherium clearly has the priority 
l ‘Munchn. gelerten Anzeigen,’ 1837. 2 ‘ Compt. Rend.,’ 1841, p. 165. 
3 “ Osteographie,” vol. II., pp. 96-113. 4 “ Paleontological Memoirs,” vol. I., p. 328. 5 p. 505. 
6 “Palaeontological Memoirs,” vol. I., p. 321. 7 ilnd, p. 329. 
8 “Zoologie et Paleontologie Franchises,” 2nd od., p. 208. 9 ‘ CJuar. Jour. Geol. Soc.,’ vol. XXXI., p. 534. 
