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Show 1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE JELUROIDEA. 137 Subfam. FELINA (of general geographical distribution). No alisphenoid canal. Division of auditory bulla slightly or scarcely perceptible. Canalis caroticus indistinct or not perceptible. True molars on each side j ; premolars on each side -. Felis. The genus Arctictis is placed in the above list amongst the Viver-rina without any observations in the text. It should be noted that this subfamily is divided, by horizontal lines, into three sections, the two genera Genetta and Viverra standing nearest to the Hyaenas, and Herpestes and Ryzcena remote from them. Certain genera are not enumerated; and on this subject Mr. Turner tells usl, " The lists of genera include only those whose crania I have examined ; and therefore I must not be considered as rejecting any that I have omitted, nor do I pledge myself to adopt all that are inserted." The third paper on the classification of the Carnivora is that of our president, Professor Flower2. Therein he refers to the paper by Mr. Turner, which he supplements by a number of new and original observations and inferences of great value, intentionally confining his remarks, however, to existing terrestrial (fissipedal) genera. He conclusively establishes the true Procyonine nature of Bassaris and the Paradoxurine affinity of Arctictis ; while as to Cryptoprocta, he regards it as the type of a distinct family3, though he considers it " as a perfectly annectent form, as nearly allied to the Viverridce on the one hand as to the Felida on the other." Proteleshe also constitutes the type of a distinct family, which he interposes between the Suricates and the Hyaenas, as he interposes Cryptoprocta between the Civets and Genets on the one hand and the Cats on the other. He fully adopts Mr. Turner's threefold division of the fissipedal Carnivora, but raises each of Mr. Turner's families to the rank of a suborder. Professor Flower's A R C T O I D E A and C Y N O I D E A correspond respectively to Mr. Turner's Ursida and Canida, while Mr. Turner's Felida is divided by Professor Flower into the five families Felida, Cryptoproctida, Viverrida, Protelida, and Hyanida-these five families being united into one suborder, for which he first instituted the term .ZELUROIDEA, the affinities of which are suggested by his diagram4 (fig. 1). The following characters common to the .ZELUROIDEA may be gathered from this paper:- 1. Bulla greatly dilated, rounded, smooth, thin-walled, with one exception osseous, and almost always divided by a septum into two distinct portions. 2. Bony meatus short or with its inferior wall imperfectly ossified. 1 Loc. cit. p. 85. 2 " On the Value of the Characters of the Base of the Cranium in the Classification of the Order Carnivora, and on the Systematic Position of Bassaris and other disputed forms," P. Z. S. 1869, p. 4. 3 Loc. cit p. 23. 4 Loc, cit. p, 37. |