74 DESULTORY SKETCHES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



in genera not especially allied together. Thus, the Hyaenas and 

 Cats present a somewhat analogous dentition, in consequence of the 

 abbreviation of the muzzle, coincident with a development of the 

 scissor-teeth, displacing the tuberculous molars, so that one only is 

 retained above and none below, and that single one is much reduced 

 in size, presenting a narrow transverse form at most. The Hyaenas 

 and Cats have, accordingly, been erroneously approximated, as they 

 possess little else in common that does not apply to the Digitigrada 

 generally. The Hycenas, moreover, pertaining to a natural family 

 — the Viverridce — the members of which are only partly carnivo- 

 rous, retain a vegetable-feeding propensity, notwithstanding the loss 

 of the tuberculous portion of their grinders ; which renders it ne- 

 cessary to modify another general proposition, to the effect that the 

 teeth determine the regimen: the truth being, that the ordained 

 regimen determined the modification of the teeth in the first in- 

 stance, though, to whatever extent that modification may be carried, 

 in species framed on any particular sub-type, a hankering after the 

 normal regimen of that sub-typical group generally will still be 

 manifested ; of which the Hysenas afford, perhaps, as remarkable an 

 example as could be adduced.* 



• The foregoing descriptions of the HyoeniruB are somewhat abridged from 

 a manuscript general work on the Mammalia, by the author of the Sketches^ 

 which is now in a very forward state, and will be published in a single thick 

 octavo volume, as soon as he has sufficiently studied the contents of the prin- 

 cipal continental museums. A similar work on Birds is likewise in progress, 

 which will probably extend to two volumes. 



[Page 52, last line, for jBw^/^<?s, Jourdan, read EupIeresj'Doyere; and append, 

 as a note, the following : Since writing the above, we have seen the figure and 

 description of this animal published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles 

 (new series, vol. iv, p. 270), and are satisfied that it is a true member of the 

 InsecHvora, Cuv. allied to Tupaia and Gymnura. In approximating it to 

 Cryptoprocta, we were misled by Prof, de Blainville's arrangement of the Car- 

 nivora, in vol. viii. of the same work, p. 279.] 



