306 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



For the dentitioD, a young subject is preferably selected, in 

 wbicb the teeth are fully formed but entirely unworn. The 

 back upper molar is quadrate in general contour, as in Meplii- 

 i'vKv (cf. Melina\ MustcUn(c), but rather lozenge-shaped, the inner 

 posterior and outer anterior corners being less than a right 

 angle, while the opposite ones- are obtuse. All the corners are 

 rounded oft". The tooth is, if anything, a little smaller than the 

 next one. Its face presents an exterior, narrow, longitudinal, 

 raised portion, in the closed jaw svholly external to the anteiior 

 lower molar. The exterior moiety is divided across by a sulcus ; 

 its inner border is deeper and more trenchant than the outer ; 

 Its front part is also deeper than its back part. The rest of the 

 face of the tooth is depressed, and presents a general slight 

 excavation, with a very prominent acute tubercle antero-inte- 

 riorly, and a general raised border; this portion is applied against 

 the similar depressed back part of the anterior lower molar. 

 The back upper premolar is essentially triangular in contour, 

 but with a bulge of the postero internal border, which nearly 

 gives it a trapezoidal shape. It consists of the outer deep por- 

 tion, made up of a single very prominent acute cusp, connected 

 by a trenchant edge with a smaller posterior cusp, which ends 

 the tooth behind, and of an inner low portion presenting a 

 general slightly excavated surface marked with a slight central 

 prominence and bounded by a well-developed shari) edge. The 

 great development of this inner moiety along the whole of the 

 tooth is the strongest dental character of the species in com- 

 parison with L. vulgaris. The cuspidate part of the anterior 

 lower molar abuts against this portion. The next upper pre- 

 molar is a stout two-rooted conical cusp, with a cingulum and 

 well-developed heel fore and aft, and, in addition, a postero- 

 internal depressed part, against which the apex of the posterior 

 lower premolar is apposed. The next premolar is altogether 

 similar, but smaller. The anterior x^remolar is single-rooted, 

 very small, and in peculiar position, altogether internal to the 

 canine, with which it is in close apposition; both of the ante- 

 rior premolars, in fact, are in close relation with the canine ; the 

 first one being thrown entirely to one side of the general dental 

 axis. This small tooth not seldom aborts on one side ; but I 

 have not happened to find it absent altogether. The upper 

 canines are not peculiar ; they are i)erhaps shorter and stouter 

 for their length than usual in this family. The lateral pair of 

 incisors moderately surpass the rest in size ; the otliers are on 



