494 CARNIVORES. 



thus accords with the peculiarly destructive character of the 

 upper canine teeth, and manifests permanently that super-car- 

 nassial character which is temporarily typified in the dentition of 

 the cubs of the Lion and Tiger; and the Machairodus thus yields 

 another example of a lost primaeval form which retained throughout 

 life structures that are transitory in the present races. 



184. MustelidcB. — Of this family the Stoats. Ferrets, and 

 Weasels {Putorius) are the most carnivorous, predaceous and blood- 

 thirsty : their canine teeth are long, slender, and very sharp- 

 pointed ; the incisors small, gradually increasing from the internal 

 one, with the crowns in zigzag series in the lower jaw, the second 

 incisor being posterior to the first and third. The dental formula 

 of the genus Putorius is : — 



Incisors — ; canines — ; premolars — ; molars — : = 34. 



3—3 ' 1_1 ' r 3_^ ' 2-2 



The only diastema is in the upper jaw, between the incisors and 

 canine. The first premolar is very small; the second is twice the 

 size of the first, and the third twice the size of the second : 

 in the sectorial tooth the blade consists chiefly of one com- 

 pressed pointed lobe ; the tubercle is small : the true molar is 

 relatively larger than in Felis, and consists of an outer and 

 an inner tubercle ; the latter being the broadest. In the lower 

 jaw the last premolar is twice the size of the first ; the se- 

 cond is intermediate in size, as it is in position : but it has no 

 inner tubercle to match that of the analogous tooth above ; and in 

 general the lower molars are narrower transversely than the upper 

 ones. The first true molar below has a sectorial crown with a 

 bilobed blade and a posterior tubercle ; but no internal one : the 

 second true molar has a small round obtuse crown. The Cape- 

 Stoats {Zorilla) have an inner tubercle on the same transverse 

 line with the posterior lobe of the blade of the lower sectorial 

 tooth, which thus begins to deviate from the true Carnivorous type 

 and to acquire the tubercular character which is proper to it as a 

 true molar. 



The Orison {Galktis) and the Taira {Gal. Barbara, PI. 128, fig. 1.) 

 repeat the characters of the dentition of the Zorille, with a greater 



