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Show 186 PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ALUROIDEA. [Feb. 7, (3) Hinder chamber of auditory bulla always everted. (4) Anterior margin of opening of external auditory meatus more projecting than the posterior margin. (5) Floor of external meatus or adjacent part of bulla with a foramen and fissure in a deep pit. (6) Angle of mandible sometimes everted. (7) Mastoid always prominent. (8) Paroccipital processes depending below bulla. (9) Aperture of auditory meatus small and triangular. (10) Alisphenoid canal always very short. (11) Carotid artery perforating or notching the sphenoid, there being a conspicuous carotid foramen in the basis cranii. (12) Never any prescrotal glands1. (13) Anus very generally not opening on the surface of the body, but in a sac or cutaneous invagination. (14) Anal glands sometimes in several pairs. (15) A supracondyloid foramen to humerus. (16) An alisphenoid canal, in rare instances not completely enclosed by bone, but then its place indicated by bony processes. (17) Pollex alone, or both pollex and hallux sometimes absent. (18) Caecum always present, but small or moderately long. (19) Tarsus and metatarsus hairy or bald. A very different animal from any hitherto here reviewed is that to which the generic name Galidictis was given in 1837 by Isid. Geoff. St.-Hilaire2, and again by him in the Magasin de ZooL 1839- 1841, where the external form and skull, including the basis cranii, are well represented, and a full description given in a long note beginning on page 32. It is also the Mustela striata of Geoffroy St.-Hilaire (Cat. des M a m m . p. 98), and the Putorius striatus of Cuvier (Regne &c. 2nd edit. p. 144). The external form has been figured in our P. Z. S., 1848, pl. 1, with a short description and notes as to habits on page 21. The skull is also given by De Blainville (Osteog., Viverras) on pl. 5, and the dentition on pl. 12, under the name Mangusta (Galictis) striata. There are two species, both from Madagascar-one the original G. striata of Isid. G. St.-Hiliare, and the other G. vittata, described and figured by Gray (P. Z. S. 1848, p. 21, pl. 1) the skin and the (immature) skull of which are in the national collection, where are also four skins and two skulls of the former species. The length of the head and body of the latter is about 35"* 5, of the tail 33". In each species the body bears longitudinal dark stripes on a lighter ground. The claws are long, but considerably curved (cf. fig. 14, i, p. 192). The claw of the pollex reaches to the end of the proximal phalanx of the index, and that of the fifth digit to the end of the proximal phalanx of the fourth digit, which is slightly longer than the index, the median being the longest. The claw of the hallux reaches nearly to the end of the proximal phalanx of the index, and that of the fifth digit of the pes nearly to the 1 The nature of the prominence in Suricata has to be seen. 2 Comptes Bendus, 2nd semestre de 1837, p. 578. |