484 CARNIVORES. 



ascending upon the fore as well as the back part of the strong 

 rounded cone : the third premolar {p 4) is proportionally less in 

 the Hycena crocuta than in the H. vulgaris • its posterior ridge is 

 developed into a small cone. The last tooth (m I) is the sectorial 

 and consists almost entirely of a blade divided by a vertical fissure 

 into two sub-equal compressed pointed lobes : the points are less 

 produced than in the Felines, but the lower sectorial of the Hyaena 

 is better distinguished by the small posterior basal talon, from which 

 a ridge is continued along the inner side of the base, and is slightly 

 thickened at the fore-part of the crown. According to the relative 

 position of the crowns of the premolars, the third below ought to 

 be the last, being analogous to the fourth in the Viverridcd, and 

 the sectorial should be the first true molar : we shall find this view 

 confirmed by the test of the mode of succession of the permanent 

 teeth. But the mode of implantation of the premolar and molar 

 teeth may first be noticed. The first upper premolar has but one 

 fang ; the second and third have each two ; the sectorial tooth has 

 three, the two anterior ones on the same transverse line, the inner 

 one supporting the tubercle. The lower premolars and sectorial 

 have each two fangs, there being none truly answering to the first 

 above : the anterior root of the lower sectorial tooth is very strongly 

 developed in the great extinct Cave-Hysena. 



The deciduous teeth approximate, as usual, to the typical 

 dentition of the Carnivora ; they consist of : — 



Incisors — : canines — ; molars — : = 22. 



3—3 ' 1—1 ' 3—3 



The figure of the skull of the young Hyana crocuta in the posthu- 

 mous Edition of the * Ossemens Fossiles,' 8vo. 1836, pi. 190, fig. 3, 

 shows that stage when the correspondence with the formula of the 

 genus Felis is completed by the appearance, in the upper jaw, of 

 a small premolar in the interspace between the canine and first 

 molar of the deciduous series : but this appearance is due to the 

 apex of the first permanent premolar which cuts the gum before 

 any of the normal deciduous teeth are shed : whether it is pre- 

 ceded, as in the Dog, by a deciduous germ-tooth in the foetus I 

 know not. The first normal deciduous molar is two-fanged, and 

 has a more compressed and consequently more carnivorous crown 



