1G8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1819. 



ON THE GENERA OF FELIDiE AND CANIDJE. 

 BY E. D. COPE. 



FELID.E. 



The discovery of extinct species from time to time, renders it 

 necessary to re-examine the definitions of the families and genera 

 into which living forms naturally fall. We thus learn the charac- 

 ters of their primitive types, and the successive steps through which 

 they passed in attaining their present characteristics. The Felidae 

 are known as that family of Carnivora in which the feet and 

 teeth are most specialized for the functions of seizing and lace- 

 rating living prey. The number of living species enumerated by 

 Pr. Gray is sixty-four, which he throws into a number of genera. 

 The extinct species yet known are less numerous, but they present 

 a greater variety of structure than the former. Two types or 

 series may be recognized among the genera, namely those repre- 

 sented by the genera Felis and Mach&rodus respectively. All of 

 the latter are extinct. 



The greater number of the genera allied to Macochrodus are 

 distinguished by the great development of the superior canine 

 teeth, whose crowns are generally compressed and trenchant. 

 The corresponding part of the mandible is expanded downwards 

 so as to furnish a protection to the slender crown from fracture 

 by lateral blows when not in use, but in some of the genera, e. g. 

 Mmravus, this flange is not developed The only definition 

 which can be used to distinguish these sections of the family, is 

 found in the angular separation of the anterior and lateral planes 

 of the ramus of the mandible, and this character cannot be ex- 

 pected to remain unaffected by future discovery. Forms will 

 doubtless be found in which the angle is obsolete, and in which 

 the lateral and anterior faces pass gradually into each other. 

 Other characters which distinguish the extinct o-enera are found 

 in the numbers of molar teeth, and, what has been heretofore 

 neglected, the number of lobes of the molars themselves. 



As regards the existing genera, Dr. Gray 1 has brought out their 



1 Catalogue of Carnivorous, Pachydermatous, and Edentate Mammalia 

 in the British Museam. By John Edward Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., 

 etc. London, 1869. 



