VIII.] 



CARNIVORA. 



275 



representative of a separate genus, is confined to India and 

 Ceylon, and is known to have been an inhabitant of Madras since 

 the Plistocene era. Not improbably it may be the descendant of 

 a Siwalik species ( U. theobaldi), which is the earliest known repre- 

 sentative of the true bears; and the Malayan species may be 



FIG. 62. INDIAN SLOTH-BEAR (Melursus ursinus). 



derived from a small extinct bear whose remains occur in the 

 Plistocene of the Narbada valley. 



One of the most remarkable of Oriental carnivores is the 

 panda, or cat-bear (sElurus fulgens), which ranges from the East- 

 ern Himalaya to Yunnan, and is the single existing Old World 

 representative of the Procyonida. Curiously enough, the remains 

 of a much larger species of the same genus have been discovered 

 in the English Pliocene ; and it is thus evident that sElurus 

 formerly enjoyed a wide range. From the restriction of all the 

 other known members of the family to the New World, fossil 

 types may be looked for in eastern Asia, as it is quite clear that 

 the distributional area of the group must once have been con- 

 tinuous. 



In the Mustelidce there are four generic types very character- 



18 2 



