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Show 380 DR. ST G. MIVART ON THE ARCTOIDEA. [Apr. 21, The angle of the mandible is hardly more marked than in Arctonyx. Molar formula=P. |, M . \. The cusps are somewhat sharper than in Mustela. The upper sectorial has its inner cusps less anteriorly placed and the lower sectorial has its inner cusp more rudimentary. The brain1, though very little convoluted, as is the rule in the smallest mammals of each group, shows a distinct, though minute, Ursine lozenge. The crucial and calloso-marginal sulci run into one another. The sulcus separating the sagittal and parietal gyri is less produced posteriorly than in other Carnivora. The Sylvian fissure is oblique and relatively long. Pcecilogale.-This small South-African genus, coloured like the Zorilla, has been founded by M r . O. T h o m a s 2 on the Mustela albinucha of Gray3. Its molar formula: P. g. M . -v rarely ^ It has the smaller number in all the British Museum specimens examined by M r . Thomas, but the second minute lower true molar is present in the specimens in the Paris Museum. The auditory bullae are perfectly flattened. Lyncodon4".-This and the last genus are the Arctoids with the smallest number of teeth and most feline dentition, whence the name of this genus. The animal comes from Patagonia. Mr. O. Thomas considers that it may merely be an aberrant southern form of Putorius brasiliensis. Its skull is quite like that of Putorius, but the bullae are unusually inflated. Molar formula = P. §, M . \. Its external form has been unknown till recently. C. Vogt describes as follows skins from Patagonia preserved in the Museum of Geneva :-"L'animal est une vraie belette un peu plus grande que l'hermine. Le corps a 30 cent, de long, la queue 9 cent. La fourrure est rude, grossiere, formee de longs poils clairsemes d'un brun rouge clair avec des pointes blanchatres sur le dos, les flancs et la queue. Le dessus de la tete est d'un blanc jaunatre sale, et cette teinte se continue en arriere des deux cotes par-dessus les oreilles en deux pinceaux-pointus, forme's de poils tres longs couches sur les cotes du cou. L'animal a l'air de porter un baschlik a coins rejetes en arriere. La nuque et le dessus du cou sont, c o m m e la gorge et les pattes, d'une teinte brune assez fonce'e. La queue porte des poils tres longs reunis au bout en pinceau. " La tete est courte; le museau tronque, les oreilles tres petites, arrondies et larges, les pieds pentadactyles, a courtes griffes tres 1 L. c. p. 17. 2 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (1883) p. 370, where see the woodcuts of skull and dentition. 3 See Cat. Cuvier, B. Mus. p. 91; also P. Z. S. 1864, p. 69, pi. 10; and P.Z.S. 1865, p. 114. 4 See d'Orbigny, Amer. Merid. ; also P. Gervais, Mus. ii. p. 115; A. Doering, Zoologia, Buenos Ayres, 1881 ; O. Thomas, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (1883) p. 370; and Carl Vogt, Mammiferes (1884), p. 244. |
