OCR Text |
Show 1869.] CLASSIFICATION OF THE CARNIVORA. 19 The anterior chamber is rather more developed, and less distinctly marked off externally from the posterior. The orifice of the meatus is very large, and opens directly into the tympanic cavity. The carotid enters by a distinct groove near the middle of the inner wall of the bulla, partially concealed and converted into a canal by the lip of the basioccipital. The paroccipital process is smoothly expanded over the posterior part of the bulla, but does not project beyond it. The mastoid process is not very distinct. The condyloid foramen is much overhung by the ridge from the paroccipital. The glenoid foramen is very minute. Fig. 7. Civet ( Viverra civetta). 8. Paradoxure (Paradoxurus bondar). (The letters as in the preceding figures.) Mr. Turner remarked that in this species the alisphenoid canal is not developed ; but I find, on examining a series of seven skulls in the M u s e u m of the Royal College of Surgeons, that in one this canal exists on both sides, and in another on one side only ; in the remainder it is absent. In the true Genettes, which otherwise closely correspond to the Rasse in cranial characters, the alisphenoid canal appears to be always In the Paradoxures (fig. 8) the external form of the bulla is more like that of the Civet than the Genette; but the inner or posterior chamber presents, in some species at least, the peculiarity of being |