60 Notices respecting New Books. 



complete the series which is still interrupted. In the Viverrine 

 animals, which are apparently better known, the series is more 

 regular. According to the relative development of the grinders, 

 it has been arranged above in the following order : Genetta, 

 Vivena, Suricata, Mangusta. The proportional development 

 of the anal folliculi also confirms this disposition: in Genetta, 

 it constitutes a simple excavation ; in Viverra it is a pouch, 

 divided into two sacks ; in Suricata, and particularly in Man- 

 gusta, it consists of an extensive portion of integument, with 

 numerous folds, which passes over and incloses the anal aper- 

 ture. 



" These observations, which show the regularity of the Vi- 

 verrine series, and the interruption still existing in the Feline 

 series, were necessary to my conclusion, that although the Felis 

 gracilis agrees with the Mangusta javanica in its relations of 

 analogv, the aggregate of its characters, which constitute its 

 relations of affinity, associate it with Felis. In illustration of 

 these observations, I shall introduce Mr. MacLeay's words : 

 ' The test of a relation of affinity is its forming part of a trans- 

 ition continued from one structure to another, by nearly equal 

 intervals; and the test of a relation of analogy is barely an 

 evident similarity in some one or txvo remarhahle j)oints of for- 

 mation, which at first sight give a character to the animal, and 

 distinguish it from its affinities. As a relation of analogy must 

 always depend on some marked property, or point of struc- 

 ture, and as that of affinity, which connects two groups, be- 

 comes weaker and less visible as these are more general, it is 

 not at all surpi'ising that what is only an analogical corre- 

 spondence in one or two particulars, should often have been 

 mistaken for a general affinity.' — Horce Entom. vol. i. pt. 2. 

 p. 364'. — These remarks explain at once, and lemove the dif- 

 ficulties which have occurred in the classification of the Felis 

 gracilis. By regarding its relations of analogy alone, which 

 I presume I have observed in the grinders, and particularly 

 in those of the lower jaw, it has (as far as appears to me) im- 

 properly been classed w-ith Viverrine animals ; and it has there- 

 fore been my endeavour to show that its relations of affinity 

 associate it with Feline animals. 



" Directed and confirmed by these views, I shall in future 

 consider the Felis gracilis as the type of a distinct genus in the 

 family of Feline animals, and designate it by the name of Pri- 

 onodoii, which has already been jiroposed for a section of the 

 genus Felis. This name accords with the character of the 

 teeth. Comparatively with those of other Feline animals, the 

 teeth are not only more numerous, but they are more com- 

 pressed and elongated : their crowns arc more strongly notched 



or 



