289—112 INDIAN TERTIARY AND POST-TERTIARY VERTEBRATA. 
teeth are sufficient for specific determination ; while even if H. felina and II. sinensis 
are really the same it seems doubtful if the former name ought to stand, as in that 
case it should never have been separated from II. sivalensis in the sense in which it 
was employed by Prof. Owen. 
It appears, therefore, that the species of hyaena distinguished by Mr. Bose 
under the name of li. felina cannot be identified with any other species, with the 
possible exception of H. sinensis ; and as it seems hazardous to identify the two, the 
former may receive a separate name. The name applied by Mr. Bose, as indicative 
of affinity with the cats, of which there is not the slightest trace (unless the occasional 
suppression of pm. 1 , as in II. eximia , could be so interpreted 1 ) is a misleading and 
therefore objectionable one, but as the substitution of a fresh one would probably 
only entail confusion, it seems better to retain the name of II. felina. 
It should be observed that the Chinese teeth are said to have been obtained in 
company with teeth of Elephas ( Stegodon orientalis , Owen—? S. bombifrons), Tapirus , ' 
Chalicotherium , and Rhinoceros , and are considered by Prof. Owen to be probably of 
upper pliocene, or pleistocene, age. The existence of Siwalik strata in China is 
probably indicated by the occurrence of Elephas (rf.) clifti(S. sinensis, Owen) “in 
marty beds near Shanghai,” and by the discovery of nlammaliferous beds, and the 
lower molar of Elephas ( S. ) insignis , by Herr von Loczy in the province of Kansu on 
the upper Hwangho river ; while the occurrence of Siwalik and Narbada elephants 
in Japan indicates the extension of the same strata to that country. If the Chinese 
cave hysena be the same as one of the Siwalik species, it would seem probable that 
the cavern deposits of Sechuen, lying between the Siwaliks of the Irawadi in Burma 
and those of Kansu, may also belong to the Siwalik epoch : the less complete 
degree of mineralization of the Sechuen fossils perhaps being accounted for by the 
different conditions under which they have been preserved. 2 It is, however, highly 
probable that both the Chinese and Japanese deposits contain representatives of 
the Narbadas, as well as of the Siwaliks. 
The occurrence of a species of hysena in the Siwaliks of India, showing 
considerable affinity to a species so prevalent in Europe in the pleistocene period, 
and now living in South Africa, and presenting no well-marked affinity to the other 
group of existing hy senas, one of which is now found in India and the adjacent 
countries, is a very remarkable fact ; and one pointing to the conclusion that Asia, 
rather than Africa, should probably be regarded as the original home of the hyaenas. 
Eistribution. — Remains of. H. felina have been found throughout the sub- 
Himalayan Siwaliks, from the Ganges valley to the Punjab. The mandible from 
1 Even if this tooth were invariably absent, there would he no indication of feline affinity. The hyaenas and the cats 
must probably he regarded as divergent branches of a common stock, in which the" fullest dentition, known in any member 
of these two groups must have been present. The suppression of a tooth in one of the hyaenas can only, therefore, he 
regarded as a specialization in a line jjarallel to that of the cats. The presence of a tooth above the normal number in the 
latter group might be regarded as indicative of affinity with the hyaenas, or rather with the common stock of the hyaenas and 
the cats. 
2 See a paper by the .writer on the Siwaliks of China and Japan in 1 Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind.,’ vol. XVI., p. 158 : the 
elephant tooth mentioned as not improbably belonging to E. (S.) clijti appears to he E. [S.) in&ignis. 
