118 AnalT/tical Notices of Books. 



Art. XV. Analytical Notices of Books, 



Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. 1824. Parts 4 and 5. 



Of the Zoological contents of these parts the most important is 

 the " Description of a new genus of carnivorous Mammalia," by 

 M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire. MM. F. Cuvier, Desmarest, and 

 Geoffroy St. Hilaire, had already given the principal characters; 

 of this very interesting animal, which was brought from the Cape 

 of Good Hope by the unfortunate Delalande; and G. Cuvier had 

 assigned to it provisionally the name of Civette^ or Genettey hye- 

 noide^ thus pointing out its close affinity with the Civets and the 

 Hyaenas. The external resemblance which it bears to the latter 

 group, and particularly to the Hyaena of the East, is eminently 

 striking ; it possesses the same ground of colouring, and the same 

 system of transverse rays ; it exhibits also a similar mane, and an 

 equally evident shortness of the hinder members. But it deviates 

 from them in the characters of its physiognomy, which bring it 

 nearer to the former group, and even to the animals of the genus 

 Cam's, Instead of the obtuse and apparently truncated snout 

 terminating the broad and compact head of the Hya;na, this animal 

 possesses a rather slender and elongated one, terminating a head 

 of elegant proportions, approaching more nearly to that of the 

 Foxes; a difference which is principally produced by th*e zygo- 

 matic arch being less distant from the cranium. From this organi- 

 zation it results that the mass of the muscles of the lower jaw is 

 less than in the Hyaena, and that the cerebral cavity and conse- 

 quently the brain is increased ; a fundamental distinction, which 

 produces the necessity of forming a new genus to receive it, and 

 to which M. Isidore St. Hilaire has given the name of Proteles^ 

 changing the trivial name of M. Cuvier into Lalandit, The new 

 generic appellation is intended to point out a very striking pecu- 

 liarity of this animal, implying, on a principle previously adopted 

 by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, its perfectness with respect to the number 

 pf toes of the anterior feet, which are five, in opposition to those 



