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Show 1869.] CLASSIFICATION OF THE CARNIVORA. 29 The anterior lip of the meatus is considerably prolonged and thickened, as in the Hyaenas. Its floor is not split as in Rhyzeena and Urva. The carotid foramen (car) is very minute, placed near the middle of the inner side of the bulla. The paroccipital (p) and mastoid (m) processes are smoothly spread over the posterior dilated end of the bulla, and form no projection beyond it. The condyloid foramen (c) is concealed. There is no glenoid foramen ; nor is there an alisphenoid canal. I need scarcely comment upon the value of these characters as affording a satisfactory solution to the guesses that have hitherto been made as to the affinities of Proteles. In the first place they are thoroughly iEluroid, but they do not exactly agree with either of the families of that group as hitherto defined. On the whole they approach nearest to the Herpestine section of the Viverridce, but deviate from this, and approximate to the Hycenidce, in two points- the development of the anterior rather than the lower portion of the lip cf the meatus, and the absence of the alisphenoid canal. These, in conjunction with the general characters of the skeleton and exterior, appear to be sufficient, as in the case of Cryptoprocta, to warrant the formation of a distinct family, intermediate between the Viverridce and the Hycenidce, approaching nearest to the former. If Cuvier had called Proteles a Hyaenoid Ichneumon, instead of a Hyaenoid Genette, exception could scarcely have been taken to the description. Another genus, whose characters were omitted in their proper place, on account of the great difference of opinion that has existed upon its true position, is Arctictis, the Binturong of the East Indies. Ever since its discovery this animal has oscillated between the Viverridce and the Ursidee without any conclusive reasons having been given for either position. F. Cuvier, Mr. Turner, and Dr. Gray assign it a place among the former group, while De Blainville, Wagner, Van der Hoeven, Giebel, Gervais, Carus, and Owen include it in the Ursine or "Subursine" group. Dr. Cantor has published some details of its anatomy, including the statement that it possesses a short caecum; but no mention is made of the structure of the generative organs*. The pattern of the teeth when closely examined is clearly that of the Paradoxures-modified, it is true, but forming, as it were, a third term of a series of which a Civet and an ordinary Paradoxure are the first and second terms. Their resemblance to the teeth of Cercoleptes, so often insisted on by zoologists, appears to me only superficial or adaptive, and affords an instance of the difficulty of diagnosing the family characters of the Carnivora by teeth alone, which I mentioned at the commencement of this paper. Fortunately an examination of the base of the cranium (fig. ] 5, p. 30) gives no uncertain indication of the animal's position. The auditory bulla and all its surrounding parts are decidedly and essentially Viverrine, most resembling in form those of Paradoxurus, though the walls of the tympanic and inner chambers of the bulla are completely fused together as in nearly all the other members of the * Journal of the Asiatic Society, 1846, p. 192. |
