EXTINCT CATS. 2^9 



ing link between the preceding one and Eusmilns. The fore- 

 foot is remarkable for the small size of the first toe, and the 

 scapho-lunar bone of the carpus, or wrist, still retains traces of 

 its dual origin which are totally lost in all existing Cats. The 

 femur has a third trochanter, the hind-foot resembles that of 

 DinictiS) and the tail is of unusual length. The genus is re- 

 presented by five species, two of which occur in the White 

 River beds of Nebraska and Colorado, and the other two in 

 the overlying strata of the John Day River in Oregon. All 

 are about the size of a Lynx. 



XL GENUS PSEUMXURUS. 

 Pseudcelurus, Gervais, Zool. et. Pal. Fran 5. vol. i. p. 127 

 (1848-50). 

 The present is the first of two genera from the Midd'e 

 Tertiary deposits differing so remarkably from all the forms yet 

 noticed, that it is a question whether they have any right to a 

 place in the present family at all, and whether their affinities 

 are not rather with the Viverrine Cryptoprocta. If, as some 

 writers consider to be the case, they are the direct ancestors 

 of the typical Felidce^ there will be no question that the latter 

 Family is clcsely connected with the VwerridcB, and has not 

 been independently derived from the primitive Creodont Car- 

 nivora (see p. 22). In these genera there are three or four 

 pairs of pre-molar teeth in each jaw, while in the upper jaw there 

 is one pair, and in the lower two pairs of molars, the lower car- 

 nassial tooth having a cutting posterior heel. The slender 

 lower jaw differs from that of the preceding group in that its 

 lower border is highly convex instead of straight, and the front 

 surface rounded in place of being squared. The limbs are 

 relatively long, and the five-toed feet partially digitigrade. The 

 dentition is more Cat-like than in all living Viverridce, in spite 

 of the presence of four pre-molars in both jaws, and of a second 

 lower molar. The skeleton, however, presents so many primitive 

 7 u 



