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Show 1882] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ALUROIDEA. 175 (1) Auditory bulla ossified and in one piece. (2) Bulla narrowing and much flattened anteriorly. (3) Palate not much prolonged behind last molars. (4) Mastoid rather prominent. (5) Caecum very small. (6) Teeth suited for catching fish ; anterior premolars very long. (7) Margins of palate nearly parallel. (8) N o supracondyloid foramen to humerus. (9) N o median groove on upper lip. (10) Tarsus hairy; metatarsus naked. (11) Tail short. The following characters are common to the Viverrina :- (1) Claws strongly curved, sharply pointed, and more or less deeply retractile. (2) Orbits never enclosed by bone. (3) Llinder chamber of auditory bulla never everted outwards. (4) Posterior margin of the external auditory meatus as prominent as, or more so than, the anterior or inferior margin. (5) Floor of external auditory meatus and adjacent part of bulla neither fissured nor with a foramen ora deep pit on its surface. (6) Angle of mandible never everted. (7) Mastoid rarely prominent. (8) Paroccipital processes almost always depending. (9) Aperture of external auditory meatus not triangular. (10) Alisphenoid canal generally elongated. (11) Carotid canal notching the sphenoid, and not showing as a conspicuous foramen in the basis cranii. (12) Prescrotal scent-glands generally present. (13) Anus opening on the surface, and not into a cutaneous invagination1. (14) Only a pair of anal glands. (15) A supracondyloid foramen to humerus, save in Cynogale. (16) A n alisphenoid canal present, save generally in Viverricula, where, when absent, its place is not indicated by bony processes. (17) Both pollex and hallux present. (18) Caecum sometimes absent. (19) Tarsus and metatarsus hairy or bald. The very large and polymorphic genus Herpestes was divided by Dr. Gray (P.Z.S. 1864, and Cat. Carnivora, p. 154) into the genera Athylax, Calogale, Galerella, Galictis, Ariela, Ichneumia, Urva, Taniogale, Onychogale, and Helogale. Not one of these, save possibly the last, can be maintained as a distinct genus. Mr. Oldfield Thomas, who has been working with great care at these animals, told me he had come to this conclusion; and m y examination of the skins and skulls in the British Museum has only served to confirm the justice of this view. 1 I give this character with hesitation, from wbat I have (as before said) observed in a living Paradoxurus. |