1 82 EASTERN ARCTOG^EA. [CHAP. 



Of these Pal&oerinaceus appears to be allied to the true hedgehogs 

 (Erinaceus) ; whereas other genera, such as Necrogymnurus, 

 connect the former with the existing long-tailed and spineless 

 Gymnura of the Malayan islands. This group is thus essentially 

 characteristic of Eastern Arctogaea as a whole. 



Turning to the Carnivora, we have, in addition to the Prote- 

 leidce, of which the sole representative is the African aard-wolf, two 

 important families practically confined to this half of the realm. 

 The first of these is the extensive group of the civets, mungooses, 

 and their allies ( Vtverridce), which has no representatives in the 

 New World, although a single species in two genera ranges into 

 the Austro-Malayan region. Out of a total of twenty-three genera 

 included in this family only one mungoose (Herpestes) and the 

 common genet (Genetta) range into Europe, most of the other 

 forms being confined to the Oriental, Ethiopian, and Malagasy 

 regions. Civets ( Viverra) and ichneumons, together with several 

 remarkable extinct genera, such as Stenoplesictis, were, however, 

 common in the European Tertiaries, from the lower Oligocene 

 upwards. And from the circumstance that the last-named genus 

 presents characters connecting the Viverridce with the weasel 

 tribe (Mustelida), it would seem probable that the latter family 

 was originally evolved in Eastern Arctogaea, although it has now a 

 considerable number of American representatives. 



By means of certain extinct forms from the lower Pliocene of 

 Southern Europe and Northern India known as Ictitherium, the 

 civets are very closely connected indeed with the hyaenas 

 (ffy&nidce) ; the three living representatives of which may be 

 included in the single genus Hyana. Although the striped hyaena 

 (H. striata) is now confined to Southern Asia and Northern 

 Africa, it occurred in the Pliocene epoch in France and England; 

 while the larger spotted hyaena (ff. crocutd] of Southern Africa 

 ranged during the Plistocene era over the greater part of temperate 

 Europe, and likewise extended eastwards as far as India. 

 Numerous extinct species of the same genus are found in the 

 Pliocene of Europe and India; and two extinct genera from the 

 same deposits Hyanictis and Palhyizna connect the living 

 forms with the aforesaid Ictitherium. Although one extinct 

 Tertiary North American genus has been tentatively assigned to 



