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Show 1882.J PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ALUROIDEA. 153 of the tarsus and metatarsus being hairy as in Viverra and Viverricula, or with the small bald spots as in Fossa, there is a long, narrow bald strip of skin running up beneath the median part of the metatarsus, towards or to the tarsus. This bald strip, however, is separated from the plantar pad by an intervening hairy portion ; and the toes are hairy beneath at the sides. A hairy patch in the manus also separates the proximal part of the palmar pad from its distal portion. All the Genets are of a brownish-yellowish or greyish tint, with black or brown spots on the flanks, and a black line in the middle of the back (thus differing from Fossa). There are brown or black stripes behind the ears, extending downwards and backwards over the shoulders. The paws are blackish or whitish; the belly is light-coloured with a few spots; and there is a lightish patch over the eye, and a white spot beneath the eye, separated by a black mark from another white spot beside the nose. The tail is ringed with black. The characters of skull and teeth by which the Genets differ from the Civets and the relations of this kind presented by Viverricula and Fossa are as follows :- The auditory bulla in Genetta is not so triangular in form as in Viverra, but more equal in width anteriorly and posteriorly, as we have seen to be the case in Viverricula (where it is also more laterally compressed) ; but in Genetta the anterior part is more swollen and bullate. The alisphenoid canal is constantly present in Genetta, but is small in calibre. In both Genetta and Viverricula the auditory opening is relatively larger than in Civetta. The paroccipital process, which descends down below the bulla, is a depending process in Viverral, and slightly so in Genetta, but does not so extend at all in Viverricula. In the last named the skull is extremely compressed behind the postorbital processes, its breadth there being to the total cranial length as but 11*5 to 100, instead of 14*1 as in the Civet, 14*4 as in Fossa, and 18*7 as in Genetta. In all the four genera Viverra, Viverricula, Fossa, and Genetta the alisphenoid canal is generally (even in Viverricula when it is present) long, its hinder opening being often in close proxmity to the foramen ovale, the opening of that foramen and the hinder aperture of the alisphenoid canal appearing respectively at the hinder and anterior ends of a common depression in the cranial surface. The teeth of Genetta2 differ from those of Viverra in that -- 1 Very slightly so in V. tangalunga. 2 As Genetta appears to be (at least after Prionodon) the genus of existing Viverridce which comes nearest to the Felidce, it may not be useless to denote precisely the differences .between the permanent and milk dentitions of the Genet and the Cat. In the Genet the outermost upper incisors are larger in proportion to the innermost (length as 3 to 2). Each outermost lower incisor has a bilobed crown with nearly equal lobes. The canines are relatively shorter, not longitudinally furrowed. The upper canine compared with the base (i. e. with the interval'between the basion and ovalion) taken at 100, is 46*1 in the Cat, 42'8 in the Genet. By "ovalion" I mean the centre of a horizontal hue connecting the hindmost points of the margins of the oval foramina. |