FELIDAl 523 



some of which were as large as a Leopard. /•'. utrnx and /•'. augusta, 

 of the Pliocene of the United States, were of the dimensions of the 

 Lion. 



Cyncelurus. 1 — The Cheeta or Hunting Leopard (C. jvfiatus) is dis- 

 tinguished from the other Felidce by the inner tubercle of the upper 

 carnassial, though supported )>y a distinct root, having no salient 

 cusp upon it ; by the tubercular molar being more in a line with 

 the other teeth : and by the claws being smaller, less curved, and 

 less completely retractile, owing to the feebler development of the 

 elastic ligaments. The skull is short and high, Avith the frontal 

 region broad and elevated in consequence of the large development 

 of the frontal air-sinuses. The head is small and round, the body 

 light, the limbs and tail long. Its colour is pale yellowish-brown 

 with small black spots. The Cheeta is less savage and more 

 easily tamed than most of the Cats. In Asia it has been trained 

 for the chase of the Antelope. It has rather an extensive geo- 

 graphical range from the Cape of Good Hope, throughout Africa 

 and the south-western parts of Asia, as far as Southern India. 



Extinct Genera. — A number of forms are gradually becoming 

 known, especially through the researches of American palaeonto- 

 logists, which, though evidently animals of the same general type, 

 and therefore to be placed in or near the family Felidce, depart so 

 much in various details of structure that they must be referred to 

 different genera. As one of the points in which Fells manifests its 

 specialisation is the reduction of the number of the molar series of 

 teeth, with concomitant shortening of the jaws, it might be 

 supposed that in the earlier and perhaps ancestral forms these 

 teeth would be more numerous and approach more nearly to the 

 primitive or typical number of the heterodont mammals, viz. seven 

 on each side. This is actually the case. Similarly we find that 

 many of these forms exhibit a less sjoecialised structure of the teeth 

 themselves, as is shown by the absence of the anterior lobe of the 

 upper carnassial, and the retention of the hind talon in the corre- 

 sponding lower tooth. Again, some of them have an alisphenoid 

 canal in the skull ; while the femur may have a third trochanter, 

 and the claws be very imperfectly retractile. 



An extremely generalised form is the small Procelurus, from the 

 I pper Eocene and Lower Miocene, "with p £, m |, an alisphenoid 

 canal, and a third trochanter to the femur. Dinictis, of the North 

 American Miocene, is a larger allied form, with p |, m ^ ; the upper 

 carnassial having no anterior lobe, and the ungual phalanges being 

 devoid of bony sheaths. The characters of the base of the skull, 

 and the form and relations of the astragalus, differ very consider- 

 ably from Felis. Pseudcelurus, from the French Miocene, is another 

 very generalised Feline, in which there may be either three or four 

 1 Wagler, Syst. Amphib. etc. p. 30 (1830). 



