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Show 1896.J SKELETAL REMAINS OF THE NORWAY LEMMING. 305 Kola Peninsula, it does not seem to habitually appear so far eastward as Archangel. Thus the present southern range of the animal does not extend below about 58|° North latitude. W e know, however, that in recent geological times it had a much more southern distribution, extending at least as far as the south of England and Saxony, since its remains have been found in the Somersetshire caves, six lower jaws from which, now in the Taunton Museum, were identified by Sandford1. These bones are said to be slightly smaller and to have the condyles more slender than those of recent specimens, but to agree very closely with them, especially with the skulls of young animals 2. The only other locality where, so far as I a m aware, the bones of this species have been found is at Quedlinburg, in Saxony, where Hensel3 found it, together with M. torquatus, in 1855, among fossils from the diluvium. The present discovery will therefore show that the range of the Norway Lemming extended formerly to at least nearly the south of the Iberian Peninsula, and that, too, judging from the fresh appearance of the remains, in quite recent geological times. The present skulls resemble those of receut Lemmings very closely indeed, but, like the specimens found in the Somersetshire caves, they are smaller than those of large adult recent animals. I cannot, however, find any characters sufficiently important to enable m e to separate the two specifically. In conclusion, I should like to draw attention to the following statement, which is to be found on pages 147 and 148 of Messrs'. Abel Chapman and W . J. Buck's work on ' Wild Spain' (chapter xii.). Writing of Ibex-shooting in the Sierra de Gredos of Old CastUe, these authors remark :-" One day, close to the snowline, we came across a fat, blue-grey, little beastie, apparently of the Dormouse tribe (Liron, in Spanish), but he got to earth, or rather rock, ere we could capture him." This description is too vague to enable m e to do more than to make a suggestion, and the suggestion that Lemmings exist in Spain at the present day is ton startling to be lightly brought forward; but I should like to point out that the description would apply very well to Myodes schisticolor-a species which (if it really be a good species) is, I believe, only distinguishable from M. lemmus by its bluish-grey colour. At all events, in view of Dr. Gadow's remarkable discovery of fresh-looking Lemming bones on comparatively low ground, it would be interesting to know what is the true nature of the " fat, blue-grey, little beastie "; and I venture to express a hope that this animal will be found to be a Lemming or a Vole, and 1 W . A. Sandford, in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. (1870), p. 125, pi. Viii. fig. 3; and Dove, Somerset. Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. xv. (1870), p. 55. 2 H. P. Blackmore and E. R. Aston, in P. Z. S. 1874, pp. 460-171. 3 Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Gesell. vii. (1855), pp. 458-501; also at Wolfen-buttel, A. Nehring in Zeitschr. far ges. Naturwis. Bd. xlv. p. 1 (1875), and in Kent, E. T. Newton, Geol. Mag. 1890, p. 452, and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. 1. p. 188 (1894). PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1896, No. XX. 20 |