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Show 1885.] DR. ST. G. MIVART ON THE ARCTOIDEA. 351 limbs, compared with the length of the spine. It has also the longest radius, tibia, metacarpals and metatarsals, and palate. In the skull the alisphenoid joins the parietal1, but the ascending process of the premaxilla does not attain the descending process of the frontal2. The palatine bone joins the orbito-sphenoid, and the postaxial process of the premaxilla is separated mostly, if not always, from the preaxially extending process of the frontal, by the junction of the nasal with the premaxilla. The malar joins, at least sometimes 3, the lachrynal bone, and forms part of the margin of the infraorbital foramen. The maxillary bone forms a floor to the orbit much as it does in Canis, and therefore to a less extent than in Felis. The palate extends back much beyond the last molars. The postorbital processes are very small; the subangular process of the mandible is rudimentary. The form of the basis cranii has been described and figured by Professor Flower (P. Z. S. 1869, p. 9, fig. 3, p. 10). The scapula has a remarkably large supra-spinatus fossa, and its metacromion is, as a rule, developed much as in the Civet. The humerus is perforated by a small supra-condyloid canal. The femur has the upper part of its posterior surface somewhat flattened. The ungual phalanges are somewhat intermediate in form between those of the Civet and those of the Dog. Molar formula = P. \, M . J. The teeth remind us rather of those of some of the Paradoxures than those of any other iEluroids or Cynoids, but the non-sectorial character of the Paradoxurine teeth is here carried still further. The last, or fourth, upper premolar and the two upper molars have each three roots. The second and third upper premolars have each two roots. All the lower grinders except the first premolar have also each two roots. The fourth upper premolar is not at all sectorial in character. It has three external cusps (the middle one of which is much the largest) continuous with a small external cingulum, and two internal cusps placed opposite the interspaces of the three external cusps. The first upper molar differs from that of every iEluroid or Cynoid in that it is no broader anteriorly than it is posteriorly. It has four large cusps, whereof the two outer ones are of equal size and rather more distant from the external cingulum than in the fourth upper premolar. There is also a minute cusp developed from an internal cingulum, and situated inside the postero-internal cusp. The second upper molar has four cusps. Two of these are externa], the anterior one of the two being the larger. Of the 1 In this matter Procyon agrees with Felis, Viverra, Paradoxurus, Arctictis, Cynogale, Herpestes, Suricata, Hycena, and Crocuta, as well as many forms of Canis, though I find that sometimes in Gams the squamosal joins the frontal, as in the Wolf and Kit Fox. 2 I have noticed this junction to occur in Hycena, except H. brunnea, Crocuta, Herpestes, Arctictis, sometimes in Felis, and most markedly so in Suricata, where the summit of either premaxilla ascends a little the inner side of the descending process of the frontal. In Viverra, Paradoxurus, Cynogale, and generally in Felis, the premaxilla and frontals do not meet. 3 Cuvier, Leijons d'Anat. Comp. vol. ii. |
