172 ORDER V. 



der to buttocks ; six narrow black rings on the tail ; 

 tip white ; feet black. Inhabits China. 



Although from the time of Boddaert and Sonne- 

 rat, certain species of Vwerridce were occasionally 

 classed with cats, because they had, like them, 

 retractile claws, while their lengthened form, and 

 prolonged jaws, with a different dentition, seemed 

 to deny the justness of the arrangement, systema- 

 tists persisted in not feeling the necessity of an inter- 

 mediate genus; latterly, however, Dr. Horsfield's 

 Prionodon led the way, and other forms, likewise 

 with retractile claws, have since been established. 

 The generic names of Hemigalea, which, with the first 

 mentioned, we place after the digitigrade civets, hav- 

 ing left, as may have already been remarked, the other 

 cat-toed species, Cryptoprocta, Galidea, and Galidic- 

 tiS) all partially plantigrade, with the Paradoxuri, so 

 that from a genus they now appear to constitute a 

 small family. The greater part bear liveries so 

 exceedingly like Genets, that it may be suspected 

 there are among the last named, some at least which 

 will ultimately pass into the present, if not already 

 so located; and, among others, the Musang of 

 Marsden ; the Cape Cat of W. Daniel, figured in his 

 sketches of native tribes, animals, &c., of Southern 

 Africa ; and the following species, which we leave at 

 present undetermined, because its precise dentition 

 cannot be ascertained. 



