624 CARXIVORA. PINXIPEDIA. 



Lower Miocene. Mustela and Lutra make their appearance in the Middle 



Miocene. 



Sub-fam. 1. Lutrinae. Otters. With webbed toes, and lobed 

 kidneys, aquatic. Lutra 111., i ^ c \ p % m ^ ; 11 sp., Neotrop. 3. 

 Ethiop. 2, Orient. 3, Nearct. 2, Pal. 1 ; feed on fish ; L. vulgaris the 

 common British otter. Latax Gloyer (Enhydra), i ^ c \ p ^ m k. 

 the first lower incisor being absent : pes fin-like, phalanges flattened. 

 1 sp., L. lutris the sea otter, Nearctic, on the shores of the N. Pacific 

 Ocean, feed on shell fish. 



Sub-fam. 2. Melinae. Badgers, etc. Feet elongated, claws non- 

 retractile, terrestrial and fossorial. Mephitis Cuv., skunks, i ^ c \ 

 p I TO I ; with largely developed anal glands, the secretion of which 

 is extremely offensive, 5 sp. Nearctic, mainly insectivorous. Conepa- 

 tus Gmy, Neotrop. 3 sp., Nearct. 1 sp. ArctonyxF. Cuv., Oi'ient. 1 sp.. 

 Pal. 3 sp. ; Mydaus F. Cuv., Orient., 2 sp. ; Meles Storr, badgers, i |, 

 c \ p ^ m i- ; 4 sp.. Pal. ; M. taxus, the common badger of England, 

 Europe and N. Asia, omnivorous. Taxidea Waterh., badgers of N. 

 America, Nearct. 2 sp. ; Mellivora Storr, the ratel, Ethiop. 1 sp., 

 Orient. 1 sp. ; Helictis Gray, Orient. 5 sp. ; Ictonyx Kaup, 4 sp., 

 Ethiop. 3, Pal. 2. 



Sub-fam. 3. Mustelinae. Weasels, etc. Toes short, parti alh- 

 webbsd ; claws short, sharp, often semiretractile ; terrestrial and 

 arboreal. Galictis Bell, 2 sp., Neotrop. ; G. vittata, the grison ; 

 Mustela L., martens and sables, * f c i /j | m i ; 10 sp.. Orient. 4, 

 Nearct. 3, Pal. 5 ; M. martes pine-marten, arboreal, British 

 N. Eur., Asia ; M. zibellina the sable, E. Siberia ; M. americana, the 

 North American sable. Putorius Cuv., about 47 sp., Neotrop. 9, 

 Orient. 15, Nearct. IG, Pal. 10 ; p |, includes the minks, weasels, 

 ermines, stoats, ferrets, polecats ; P. vison, ixiink of N. Amer. ; P. 

 putorius, the polecat, of which the ferret is a domesticated variety, 

 British and European ; P. vulgaris, the weasel, reddish-brown above, 

 white below, British, Eur., Asia. N. Amer. ; P. erminea, stoat or 

 ermine, reddish brown above, white below, in some localities chang- 

 ing to white in winter except black tip of tail, larger than the weasel, 

 British Eur., Asia, N. Amer; P. hibernicus, the Irish stoat, confined 

 to Ireland. Poecilogale Thos., S. Afr. 1 sp. ; Lyncodon Gervais, 

 1 sp., Patagonia ; Gulo StoiT, the glutton or wolverine, 1 sp., circuni- 

 polar, Nearct. and Pal., has a habit of secreting articles which are of 

 no use to it, mainly feeds on carcasses. 



Order 17. PINNIPEDIA.* 



Aquatic Carnivora ivitli pentadactyle fin-like limbs, the digits 

 of which are united by a rnernbrane. The brain is large and 

 the cerebrum complexly convohited. 



These animals are closely related to the Carnivora, from 



* Allen, History of North American Pinnipeds, 1880. Mivart, Notes 

 on the Pinnipedia, P.Z.S., 1885, p. 484. van Beneden, Ossem. fossiles 

 d'Anvers. Mem. Aead. Roy! Belgigue, 1, 1877. Turner. Report on the 

 Seals of the " CA\i\Mengev;'''ChaU. Reports, 20, 1887. Balkwill, Geograph. 

 Dist. of Seals, Zoologist, 12, 1888, p. 401. 



