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Show 1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ALUROIDEA. 161 Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and the Philippine Islands. They all agree in having the pollex and hallux well developed, with the metatarsus bald beneath, and also the tarsus, save beneath the heel, where the hair extends across in an evenly curved line. The claws are at least as sharply curved and retractile as in the Genets (cf. fig. 14 B, p. 192). The tail seems to be, at any rate in some species, slightly prehensile. The best description I know of the genus is in Temminck's ' Monographie de Mammalogie,'vol. ii. p. 312. As illustrations of this genus we have :-some plates in Cuvier'3 * Mammiferes,' vol. ii. ; Ogilby, Zool. Journ. iv. tab. 35, suppl. ; Horsfield, Zool. Research, in Java (Viverra musanga); Buffon, Suppl.iii. pl. 47(Genette de France) ; Gray,' Indian Zoology,' tabulae 7, 8, 10, and 11 ; (P. typus) Otto, Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. xvii. 2, tabulae 72 & 73 ; Temminck, Monographic de Mammal, ii. pis. 64- 66 (skulls); Marsden's ' Sumatra,'t. 12 (the Musang); Jacquinot & Pucheran, Voy. au Pole Sud, Zool. iii. p. 25, pl. 6 ; P. Z. S. 1856,. pis. 47 & 48, and P. Z. S. 1877, pl. 71. Skull: in Brit. Mus. Cat. (1869), pp. 07 (fig. 9), 70 (fig. 10), 71 (fig. 11); Cuvier, 'Planches des Mammiferes,' Le Pargoune and Paradoxure de Nubie; De Blainville's ' Osteographie' (Viverra), pl. 2 (skeleton), pl. 6 (skull), pl. ? (skulls), pl. 9 (parts of axial skeleton and hyoid), pl. 10 (fore limb), pl. 11 (hind limb), pl. 12 (teeth), adult and young. In this old and well-known genus the skull is less elongated than in Viverra. The auditory bulla is, as Prof. Flower has remarked1, shaped more like that of Viverra than that of Genetta. It is "conical, broad, and truncated behind, pointed ia front, and rather compressed at the sides, which meet in a ridge." The anterior part of the bulla is very small indeed. The opening of the auditory meatus is not large ; and its hinder lip is slightly the more prominent. The postorbital processes are generally (not always) rather long and pointed ; and the skull is much pinched in laterally behind them. The condyloid foramen is quite covered in and concealed. The paroccipital process is depending; and the mastoid is much as in the Civet. There is an alisphenoid canal. There is a distinct but short carotid canal, the hinder end of which opens near the anterior end of the inner wall of the hinder (and larger) chamber of the bulla. The teeth, as is well known, are less sectorial in character than are those of the genera as yet noticed; but there are considerable differences in different species. On comparing the teeth of what seems to be an average specimen T> o of Paradoxurus with those of Viverra, I find -*- broader in proportion to its length and less vertically extended, with a well-developed cingulum ; '-1- with its postero-outer cusp very much smaller and its inner cusp more massive. -1- is more quadrate, and 1 L. c. p. 19. He says also:-" The inner or posterior chamber presents, some species at least, the peculiarity of being permanently distinct and moveable, not only from the other axial bones, but also from the tympanic portion of the bulla." PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1882, No. XI. 11 |