CHAPTER XVII. 



Carnivores,— continued. 

 i 



The Raccoon Family. 



Family PnoCYONlDJE. 



The raccoons and their allies constitute a very small family of Carnivores, which, 

 with the exception of one outlying and somewhat aberrant genus, are confined to 

 America, and are very characteristic of the central and southern portions of that 

 continent. Their nearest allies are the bears, with which they appear to be 

 connected by the panda, of which the teeth present some 

 resemblance to those of the parti-coloured bear. The skull 

 has the same essential characteristics as in the bears, and 

 the accompanying illustration of the right half of the skull 

 in one of the raccoons is intended to show the position 

 of the tympanic bulla, and its general form and relations in 

 the present family and in the two allied families of the 

 bears and the weasels. 



The raccoons agree with the bears in their plantigrade 

 feet (as is well exhibited in our figure of the panda), but 

 differ in that they have only two, in place of three, molar 

 teeth in the lower jaw. The upper molar teeth are, more- 

 over (as shown in the accompanying figure), usually of the 

 same general type as those of the dogs, having squared or 

 triangular crowns, and being generally elongated in the 

 transverse rather than in the antero-posterior direction; 

 while the second of these teeth is smaller, instead of larger, 

 than the first. Moreover, the flesh - tooth in each jaw 

 approaches the ordinary carnivorous type, and is thus 

 very different from the corresponding tooth of the modern 

 bears ; it has, however, three lobes to the blade, and a very 

 large inner tubercular portion. 



The members of the raccoon family are all animals 

 of comparatively small size ; and they differ markedly in 

 general appearance from the bears in having well-developed 

 tails, which may be of great length. Very generally the 

 hair of the tail is marked by alternate dark and light rings. 

 The whole of these animals are good climbers, and they 

 are generally of more or less exclusively nocturnal habits. 



THE EIGHT HALF OF THE 

 PALATAL ASPECT OF THE 

 SKULL OF THE 

 MISTLE. 



The letters am. indicate 

 the entrance to the tympanic 

 bulla, which is the swelling 

 between that and the point 

 Indicated byeor, The other 

 Utters indicate the various 

 foramina, etc. (From /'/■".-. 

 Zoo!. Soc.— After Sir W. H. 

 Flower. ) 



