321—144 INDIAN TERTIARY AND POST-TERTIARY YERTEBRATA. 
teeth ; and has also sustained some minor damages, sufficiently apparent in the 
figures. The incisors had dropped out before the specimen was fossilized ; but it 
appears from Dr. Falconer’s memoir that the crowns of the cheek-teeth were 
originally present, since he alludes to them as indicating that the skull belonged to 
an adult, though not an aged, individual. 
An inspection of the plates will show that the reference of the specimen to the 
genus Fells is correct ; and as its large size separates it from all existing cats with 
the exception of the tiger, the lion, and the jaguar, comparisons may be in the main 
restricted to those three species. It will simplify these comparisons to take them in 
the order here mentioned, after first giving the dimensions of the fossil, which are 
compared below with those of skulls of the tiger and lion. The skull of the latter 
is a small Asiatic specimen in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons ; the first 
tiger skull (a) is an unusually small specimen from Burma, and the second (b) a 
medium-sized one from India ; both in the writer’s 
collection : 
F. cristata. 
F. 
tigris. 
F. leo. 
Length from inferior margin of foramen magnum to incisive alveoli . 
8-95 
a. 
9-2 
b? 
9-6 
9-92 
Extreme zygomatic width 
7-6 
7-3 
816 
7-54 
Length from anterior border of nasals to occipital crest 
9-2 
10-2 
,, ,, base of foramen magnum to summit of occipital crest 
4-1 
3-56 
,, ,, incisive alveoli to postorbital process of frontal 
5-6 
6-08 
6-55 
6-7 
,, ,, postorbital process of frontal to hinder border of condyle 
6-36 
6-2 
5-9 
Interval between inferior border of foramen magnum and posterior 
border of palate 
4-5 
4-05 
4-32 
Interval between posterior border of palate and incisive alveoli 
4-45 
515 
5-28 
,, ,, outer borders of coqdvles 
2-2 
205 
2-2 
Vertical diameter of condyle 
1-29 
1-15 
1-25 
Width behind canine 
30 
305 
33 
306 
,, at pm. 4 .......... 
4-5 
4-6 
5-05 
4-62 
Length of nasals 
2-8 
3-2 
3-3 
31 
Width of frontals across postorbitals 
31 
2-9 
3-95 
3-38 
Height of orbit 
2-05 
2-19 
2-25 
2-11 
Interval between canine and pm. 3 
0-32 
0-6 
0-46 
06 
Length of pm. 4 
1-5 
1-3 
1-39 
1-44 
United length of pm. 3 and pm. 4 
2-2 
203 
2-22 
2-32 
Antero-posterior diameter of canine 
0 95 
0-93 
106 
0-87 
Commencing with the tiger, pm. 3 and pm. 4 are described by Dr. Falconer as 
having the same structure as in that species ; the length of the latter tooth being, 
however, considerably greater. It is also stated that these two teeth were set at a 
more marked angle. The canine and pm. 3 are placed nearer together than in any 
tiger : the alveolus of pm. 2 exists on the left side. The measurements show that 
the fossil is slightly smaller than the lesser tiger’s skull ; and, therefore, below the 
average size of that species. It differs from the same skull, and also from the lion’s 
skull, in being proportionately wider ; but in this respect its proportions are nearly 
similar to the larger tiger’s skull. It also differs very markedly in that the length of 
the facial is considerably less than that of the cranial portion, whereas in the tiger 
the former diameter exceeds the latter. 1 The same relations are exhibited by the 
1 Occasionally in very large tigers, when the parietal region is greatly developed, these two diameters are sub-equal. 
