Section I. CAT-FOOTED CARNIVORA {^LUROPODA). 



Toes short and regularly arched ; the last phalange bent up, 

 withdrawing the claws into a sheath. Claws sharp. 



* Head short, rounded. Tvhercular f/rmdo's 1 . 1, odi/ in the upper Jaw ; 

 false grinders 1 or '2 in each Jaw. Nose simple, Jlut, and naked, beneath 

 with a central loni/itiidinal t/roure. 



Fam. 1. FELIDtE. 



Head short, rounded. Tubercular grinders small, one on each 

 side of the i;pper, and none in the lower jaw. The flesh-tooth with 

 a well-marked, prominent internal lobe on the front part of its 

 inner side. Legs moderate. 



Tribe I. Felina. Head oblong ; face slightlj- produced. Legs 

 moderate, nearly square. 



Tribe IT. Li-ncina. Head short, subglobose ; face short. Legs 

 elongate, hinder longest. Ears with a pencil of longer hairs. 



The examination confirms the separation of several of the genera 

 that have been proposed, and shows the distinctness of some species 

 which it has been suggested should be united. 



The British Museum Collection contains the skulls of a large 

 number of species of Felida — the largest series of skulls of that 

 group, I believe, that has ever been brought together — nearly twice 

 as man}' as are figured in M. de lilainville's ' Osteographie,' which 

 embraces figures of all the species contained in the French collec- 

 tions, in Paris and elsewhere. Of most of the species there are 

 several examples, and almost all of them are obtained from the skins 

 of the specimens in the collection : therefore there can be no doubt 

 of the accuracy of their determination ; and should any doubt arise, 

 it can be solved by the examination of the skin fj-ofn which the skull 

 was obtained. Reference is made to the work in which the best 

 figures of the skuJl of each species is to be found, and figures are 

 added of some of the more interesting forms, which are now pub- 

 lished for the first time. 



The peculiarity in the formation of the skull, which separates the 

 Lynxes from the Cats, is not veiy striking ; but as it is coinmon to 

 the skulls of all the species of Lynxes, both from the eastern and 

 western hemispheres, it shows how important it is to observe even 

 slight differences. 



In the Felidee generally the upper processes of the intermaxilla 

 and the front edge of the frontal bone on each side are provided with 

 a more or less elongated conical process, which separates a part of 

 the nasal from the maxilla ; and in the Lynxes these processes are 

 very slender and so much elongated that those of the intermaxilkc 

 and the frontals nearly or quite unite and entirely separate the nasals 



