CHAP, xni.] THE CAT'S PLACE IN NATU&E. 



475 



It also contains a third small family, Ailuridce, containing only the 

 Panda (Ailurus), and, perhaps, Ailuropus* It comprises, fourthly 

 and lastly, the large family of Weasels and Otters, called Mustelidce. 



The third sub-order of Carnivora is termed ^LUROIDEA, and it 

 contains four families. One of these is the large family of Civets 

 Vicerridce ; another HycenidcB is made up of the Hyaenas, with 

 the aberrant Hyaena-like form Proteks. The third Cryptoproctidce 

 contains the singular Madagascar animal the Foussa, and the 

 fourth and last family is the family of Cats, Felidce. 



22. If we compare the cat's SUB-ORDER JEluroidea with the 

 Arctoidea, we find that some Arctoids differ strangely from the cat, 

 especially the aquatic kinds, such as the otter, and above all the sea- 



rig. 192. SKULL OF THE BEAR (Ursus arctos). 



otter. Many, like the bear and badger, are completely plantigrade. 

 Some have teeth which are not at all sectorial, as the bears, coati 

 and Ailurus; while others, as the glutton (Gulo), have teeth which 

 much resemble the cat's in structure. There is at least one hinder 

 tubercular molar above and below, so that there are two true molars 

 in the lower jaw.f In size the Arctoidea range from the smallest 

 weasel to the grisly bear. Some Arctoids are frugivorous animals, 

 as the sloth bear ; others are most blood-thirsty, as the weasels, 

 ferrets, and glutton. 



With such varieties of form and habit, it is not surprising that 

 good positive characters by which the species of a group so various 

 may be united together, and at the same time divided off from the 

 other sub-orders, are difficult to find. Rather, perhaps, is it sur- 

 prising that any should be found at all. Yet good distinctive 

 characters of a more or less recondite kind have been established. } 



* See Milne-Edwards's Recherches des 

 Mammiferes, 1874, p. 321, plates 50 and 

 56. " Ailuropus " is a curious mammal 

 (intermediate in some respects between 

 the Panda and the bears), which was dis- 

 covered in Thibet by the Rev. Pere 

 David, the well-known French Lazarist 

 Missionary. 



f With the exception of the Pata- 

 gonian weasel, called Lyncodon. 



t Partly by the late Mr. H. N. 

 Turner (too soon lost to science a victim 

 to a dissecting wound), and secondly by 

 Professor Flower, F.R.S. See the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society for 

 1848, p. 63 ; and for 1869, p. 4. 



