234 ANATOMY .OF VERTEBRATES. 



swollen and continued into a short horizontal auditory tube : the 

 base of the stapes is rarely ossified beyond the circumference: 

 the crura of the incus are subequal and very divergent: the 

 malleus has a Ions; handle. The ear-conch is short and round. 



This appendage, in Carnivora, enlarges and elongates progres- 

 sively from the eared-seals and bears to the hyenas ; exception 

 being made for the aquatic Mustelidce (Lutra and Enliydra) 

 which are seal-like in its smallness, and for the Fennecs which 

 show the opposite extreme ; the character expressed by the 

 subgeneric name Megalotis makes the Nubian species conspi- 

 cuous in the old Egyptian frescos. 



The seals offer a great contrast to the manatees in the rela- 

 tive size of the stapes, fig. 176, A, which is much smaller than 

 the incus or malleus ; but it presents a similar massive character, 

 with inequality of thickness of the crura and a small perforation, 

 ib. and fig. 170, d. In the walrus, ib. c, the stapes is imperforate. 

 In all Phocidce, the body of the incus is tumid with short sub- 

 equal branches : the body of the malleus expanded, compressed, 

 and its handle short. The tympanic is large and dilated : it coalesces 

 with the petrosal and mastoid, and together they occupy a large 

 interspace between the basisphenoid, basioccipital and squamosal. 

 It is interesting and suggestive to find that with proportions and 

 powers of the pinniform limbs that enable the Seals of the southern 

 ocean to raise and move the trunk better than in most northern 

 kinds, the ear-conch begins to be visible, whence the name 

 ' Otaria ' for such sea-bears and sea-lions. 



®> f£» tife 



Stapes (if Curiiii'ora. 

 a. Seal. b. Otter. c. Bear. d. Dog. e. Tiger. 



In Bears (Ursus) it has but a moderate perforation, fig. 176, 

 c, showing the affinity to the Seals: the crura of the incus 

 are of unequal length : the head of the malleus is subcompressed : 

 its handle of moderate length, and its process short. 



In the badger (Meles) the stapes is small, with an elliptic base 

 and moderate vacuity ; the crura of the incus are of unequal 

 length : the malleus is large with a subcompressed head, and the 

 handle terminally expanded. The tympanic is large and mode- 

 rately inflated. The stapes of the kinkajou has a larger base 



