480 CARNIVORES. 



their height than in the Fox ; and the posterior basal ridge is more 

 developed : the fifth tooth or first true molar, which is the lower 

 sectorial, approaches still nearer to that in the Fzi;em^<^— the anterior 

 part answering to the trenchant portion in the Fox is tri-cuspid, the 

 inner cusp forming the most prominent point of the crown ; the 

 posterior bicuspid portion of the tooth is smaller than in the Fox. 

 The second true molar is quadri-cuspid ; the third and fourth resemble 

 the last two in the Fox. 



180. Viverridcs. — This family of Carnivora which compre- 

 hends the Civets, Genets, Ichneumons, Musangs, Surikates, and 

 Mangues, is characterized, with few exceptions, by the following 

 formula : — 



3-3 



m. — ; c 



, ^. — : pm. — ; m. — : == 40. 



3—3 ' 1— 1 ' •'^ 4—4 ' 2—2 



It principally difi'ers from that of the genus Canis by the absence 

 of a tubercular tooth on each side of the lower jaw : but, in 

 thus making a nearer step to the typical Carnivorous dentition, 

 the Viverridfs, on the Other hand, recede from it by the less trenchant 

 and more tubercular character of the sectorial tooth ; as will 

 be seen in the figures of the teeth of the Viverra indica, in PI. 126, 

 fig. 1, 2 &3. 



The canines are more feeble, and their crowns are almost 

 smooth ; the premolars, however, assume a formidable size and 

 shape in some aquatic species, as those of the sub-genus Cynogale, 

 (fig. 4) in which their crowns are large, compressed, triangular, 

 sharp pointed, with trenchant and serrated edges, like the teeth 

 of certain sharks, (whence the name Squalodon, proposed for one 

 of the species), and well adapted to the exigencies of Quadrupeds 

 subsisting principally on fish : the opposite or obtuse, thick form 

 of the premolars is manifested by some of the Musangs, as 

 Paradoxurus auratus. The upper sectorial tooth is a * dent de 

 remplacement,' and the last of the premolars ; its inner tubercle is 

 larger than in the Dog, and is bilobate in the Bassaris astuta; 

 the middle conical division of the blade is thicker and the pos- 

 terior one is smaller than in the genus Canis. This tooth ad- 

 vances to beneath the ant-orbital foramen in the Musangs {Para- 



