Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/228

128 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 12. Lepus cuniculus (Linn.). With regard to this animal, we think that, without more exact evidence than we have as yet met with, considerable doubt must exist as to its having been really contemporaneous with the Mammoth in these islands. Professor Owen, in the 'British Fossil Mammals,' merely refers to several instances of the occurrence of its bones in caves, without any further notice of their state or position in the deposit; and the same remark may be made with regard to the notice of the animal by Dr. Buckland, in 'Reliquiae Diluvianae,' p. 19. The burrowing habits of the animal are such that, unless the bones are found imbedded in such a position, and in such condition, that there cannot be any reasonable doubt of their date, we must be most cautious as to admitting the rabbit as an undoubted member of the Mammoth-fauna. We have examined a very large number of bones from different British caves, but have never found those of the rabbit in breccia or in old stalagmite — in fact, in anything but the soft cave earth, and that extremely rarely. Now, in the more recent deposits in the caves, i. e. in those which contain domestic animals, the rabbit is one of the most abundant fossils; and when its known fecundity is taken into account, it is extremely difficult to imagine why, if it coexisted at all with the Mammoth, its bones are not more abundant in the deposits which contain that animal. Yet with the evidence we have from Wookey Hyaena-den, from Hutton, and, in a single instance, from Kent's Hole, it is necessary for us to insert provisionally, as it were, the rabbit as one of the rarest members of the Mammoth-fauna; for from each of the above it occurs in our collections, although very rarely, in apparently the same state as the remains of extinct animals. Still, without actual examination and notes taken at the time, we are without evidence as to the possibility or otherwise of the animal having burrowed into the place in which its bones occurred.

13. Genus Spermophilus. — The insertion of Spermophilus citillus in a list of the Pleistocene Mammalia, published some time since by Mr. Boyd Dawkins and myself, was founded on a mistake which it is necessary to explain: —

A late curator of the Taunton Museum altered the label on one of the specimens of Spermophilus erythrogonoides, which had been described by Dr. Falconer, to S. citillus. We, supposing that he had the authority of Dr. Falconer for the determination, placed the species in our lists without further examination. When, however, we came to examine the collection, specimen by specimen, we at once discovered our error; and on the publication of Dr. Falconer's posthumous Memoirs, we found that Dr. Falconer had attributed both jaws to S. erythrogonoides. A third jaw, among bones from Bleadon cave, which, had belonged to Mr. Williams, has since been discovered.

14. Genus Cricetus. — The last species we shall notice is Cricetus (Mus) songarus (Pallas). It is known that Mr. Williams discovered in the Hutton cave what he considered to be the bones (including parts of the skulls) of mice. No such occur in his collection; but we find that which he might have easily mistaken for them — the