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Show 1885.] DR. ST. G. MIVART ON THE ARCTOIDEA. 373 which is common to Asia and Africa, one species being found in Western and Southern Africa and another in India. Badger-like in figure, with stout body, short limbs, and plantigrade extremities, they have also a short tail, and external ears so small as to be rudimentary. The pinna has indeed no free edge, but an obtuse thick hinder margin, whence the transverse ridges proceed inwards. There is no distinct tragus or antitragus. There is a rather pointed muzzle. The palmar and plantar surfaces are naked. In their peculiar coloration (grey above, black below) they afford an instance of that tendency to longitudinal markings which appears again and again in Arctoid genera. There are 14 dorsal, 4 or 5 lumbar, 4 or 3 sacral, and 15 or 16 caudal vertebrae. Here the cervical region attains its greatest relative length in any Arctoid, while the lumbar region is shorter than in any except Melursus; and the fore and hind limbs are more equal in length than in any others except Taxidea and Mydaus. All the neural spines of the vertebrae, from the 15th to the 4th sacral inclusive, are vertical. The lumbar transverse processes are very small. The humerus has a large olecranal perforation, but sometimes the internal condyloid canal is absent. Sir Richard Owen says that there is no medullary cavity in the tibia \ The cranial characters have been described by Professor Flower2,- but it may be further noted that the paroccipital and mastoid processes do not make a continuous ridge or wall. The latter process hardly depends below the external meatus. The aspect of the skull is very like that of Meles, but the forehead is more rounded transversely, and the sagittal ridge is much smaller, though the zygomata are not so strongly arched and the infraorbital foramen is much smaller. The angle of the mandible is less conspicuous than in Meles, hardly more so than in Arctonyx. The margin of the mandible below it is roughened and somewhat everted, so as to form a sort of slightly defined subangular process. The palate is less prolonged and its hinder part is bounded laterally by a very strong plate-like ridge, which continues on to the hamular processes of the pterygoids, which descend below the level of the palate in a very exceptional manner. There is no malar postorbital process, and that of the frontal is very blunt. Molar formula = P. |, M . \, The third upper premolar is like that of the Civet, except that the posterior cusp is more developed. The fourth premolar has the external cusps (whereof the anterior is the larger) and a large internal cusp, as in the Civet, opposite the principal external one. The first upper molar is a short but wide tooth, considerably wider vail, Kong. Vet. Akad. Handl. 1841, p. 211 ; Sclater, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 98, pi. 8; Wagner, Supp. ii. p. 207; Sparrmann in X. Vetensk. Acad. Handl. (1777) p 49 pi. 4 ; P. Gervais, Mamm. ii. p. 109. » P. Z. S. 1869, p. 12. 2 Anat. of Vertebrates, vol. ii. p. 509. P R O C ZOOL. Soc-1885, No. XXV. 25 |