45 



CARNIVORES. 



feet, each of which is furnished with five claws, are very similar to those of a cat, 

 except that the whole sole of the hind pair is naked, and applied to the ground in 

 walking. The fossa has a total of thirty-six teeth, of which the hinder ones, both in 

 form and number, closely resemble those of the cats. Thus the flesh-tooth in each 

 jaw is cat-like, while there is but a single small molar tooth behind the flesh-tooth 

 in the upper jaw, and none in the lower jaw, the number of molars being therefore 

 \. Unlike the cats the fossa has four premolar teeth on each side of both jaws, 

 and thereby resembles the typical civets, although the first of these teeth is 



THE FOSSA ( nat. size). 



generally shed at an early age. It is a purely nocturnal creature, of a fierce dis- 

 position, but scarcely anything is yet known of its habits. It was exhibited in 

 the London Zoological Gardens for the first time in 1891. 



THE TRUE CIVETS. 

 Genus Viverra. 



The true civets, or typical representatives of the family, are at once distin- 

 guished from the fossa by the number and form of their cheek-teeth; the 

 total number of the teeth is forty, of which on each side of both the upper and 

 lower jaws three are incisors, one a canine, four premolars, and three molars. The 

 flesh-teeth, of which the characters have been already briefly mentioned, are 

 like those of the dogs, and thus different from those of the cats ; the upper 

 flesh-tooth having but two lobes to the blade (see figure on p. 449), while the 

 lower flesh-tooth has a large heel behind its cutting blade (as seen in the figure of 

 the skull of a fox given on p. 352). 



