40 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
VIVERRAVIDA. 
Type: Viverravus, skull etc. Table-case. 
The Viverravide resemble the modern Civets more nearly than 
any other modern Carnivora. They differ from them in fact in vari- 
ous primitive characters not very noticeable. The brain-case is much 
smaller in proportion; the scaphoid and lunar bones are sometimes 
not united; but the form and number of the teeth and proportions 
of the body were not different from those of modern Civets, except 
that the skull was larger and the limbs were shorter. They were 
probably the ancestors of the modern Carnivora, except the Cat 
family. (See Fig 8.) 
VIVERRID&, OR CIVETS. 
A few specimens of fossil Civets from Europe are shown in the 
collection. They are not found fossil in America, but it is probable 
that they are descended, without much change in character, from the 
Viverravide shown in the opposite side of the same table-case. 
MuSTELIDA. OR MUSTELINES. 
Types: Bunelurus, Plesictis, Mustela, Conepatus, skulls. 
The Mustelines are mostly small or of medium size, savage 
and blood-thirsty, solitary and forest-loving or aquatic. The 
Otters are aquatic and live mainly on fish; the Badgers are bur- 
rowing animals, and live mainly on burrowing rodents etc.; the 
Martens, Ferrets and Skunks are arborea! and terrestrial. 
These different kinds of Mustelines seem to have separated 
as early as the Oligocene epoch, for even then we find Martens, 
Skunks and Otters distinguishable. But they were much more 
alike then than now, and all of them have many characters link- 
ing them with the Civets, indicating that the two families had a 
common origin. Compare the difference in teeth between Bune- 
lurus and Potamotherium with the difference between their modern 
descendants the Marten and the Otter; also compare the Bune- 
lurus teeth and skull with those of a civet. Note also the com- 
paratively small brains of the Oligocene Mustelines as Bunelurus 
and Plesictis. Their Miocene descendants (e. g., Mustela ogygia 
