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Show 1903.] ON AN EXTINCT GENET FROM CYPRUS. 121 its recognition as a subspecies ; and he therefore proposed the name of Gazella g. robertsi, in honour of the donor of the specimens to the National Museum. The type would be the finer of the two males sent home by Messrs. Roberts and Blaine, B.M. No. 3.6.12.1. In this specimen the horns measured 23| inches along the (morphological) anterior curve, their tips were 23? inches apart, and the basal length of the skull was 9f inches. Mr. Roberts quoted other examples having horns 24^ inches lon^, with a spread of 27f and 28 inches. The following papers were read :- 1. On an Extinct Species of Genet (Genetta rple$ictoides, sp. from the Pleistocene of Cyprus. By D O R O T H Y M. A. BATE *. [Received May 12, 1903.] (Plate X.f) In October, 1901, I began my search for Pleistocene bone-caves in the island of Cyprus, and for the next few months confined my attention to carrying on some work near the Monastery of Aghios Chrysostomos in the north, and to excavating in several caves in the south-east of the island. In the following January I first discovered Dikomo Mandra, a cave containing an extensive deposit of Hippopotamus remains, and the largest found in the Kerynia range of limestone-hills, in the north of the island. However, it was not until April 1902, after receiving a grant from the Royal Society, that I was enabled to begin work here. This proved to be the only cave in which the remains of any carnivorous animal were found, other than those of the Fox still living in Cyprus. The remains obtained appear to be those of an extinct species and consist of a few limb-bones, a small piece of a right mandibular ramus with the posterior half of the car-nassial, and a left mandibular ramus in which the incisors, the canine, and the last molar are missing. These portions of jaws, differing somewhat in size and wear, are evidently those of two individuals. At the back of the cave, and some feet above the floor, was a mass of rock and earth containing a number of Hippopotamus bones. Work was begun here, an attempt being made to extricate a skull of this animal which could be seen embedded in the matrix. As soon as some of this rock had been broken away, several rents and fissures were found filled, partly with earth which must have been there since the time when the cave was inhabited by these * Communicated by HENRY WOODWAED, LL.D., F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. f For explanation of the Plate, see p. 124. |
