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Show 190 PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ALUROIDEA. [Feb. 7, external form and part of the skull of an adult have been figured by Dr. Gray from a specimen now in the national collection1; and the whole adult skeleton, skull (though not the basis cranii), and dentition have been described and figured by Paul Gervais2. It has been abundantly shown that this animal is not, as was at first supposed, an Insectivore, but really a Viverrine Carnivore. Externally Eupleres is remarkable for its small head, very long, slender, and pointed snout ; but its dentition is the most anomalous part of its organization so far as yet known. The body is clothed with woolly annulated fur of a uniform general olive tint above, minutely punctulated with yellow. It appears, from Doyere, that the young has black bands across the shoulders, which are wanting in the adult. The ears are large; the pollex and hallux are well developed ; the tail is rather short, but bushy ; the feet are very slender; the tarsus and metatarsus are covered with short hair beneath. The length of the head and body is about 52", that of the tail 17"*7. The nose and upper lip have a median groove beneath. The claws are elongated and Herpestiform (cf. fig. 14, L, p. 192). There are two skins, several skulls, and one good skeleton in the British Museum ; and there is a good skeleton in that of the College of Surgeons. The skull is remarkable for its extraordinary length and slender-ness. The shape of the auditory bulla is intermediate between that of the Herpestine and that of the Viverrine sections of the Viverrida : its most prominent portion is at its postero-external part; and so far it inclines towards Herpestes. There is no pterygoid fossa. The opening of the external auditory meatus is generally rather small and more or less oval; it is the hinder portion of its margin which projects slightly the more. There is no fissure or foramen in the floor of the auditory meatus ; nor is there a depression in the adjacent part of the bulla as in Galidia and Hemigalidia. The anterior part of the bulla, however, is well marked off by a groove from the posterior part. There is no alisphenoid canal, nor any postorbital processes. Cranial ridges are very faintly marked, save the lambdoidal ridge. The paroccipital is long, but does not depend. The mastoid is not more prominent than in Genetta. The condyloid foramen is exposed. The carotid canal is as in Herpestes; and the artery enters the cranial cavity through a foramen or deep notch in the sphenoid. The zygomata are very slender ; and there is a very small glenoid cavity and postglenoid process. The palate is very little prolonged behind the last molars. There is a very conspicuous and exceptional prominence in the middle occipital region to shelter the middle part of the cerebellum. The dentition is especially remarkable for the small size of the canines, the canine-like character of the anterior premolars, the resemblance of the true molars to the premolars, and tbe wide diastemata between the three most anterior premolars both above and below. 1 P. Z. S. 1870, p. 824, pl. 51. 2 Journal de Zoologie, vol. iii. (1874), p. 237. |