Annales du Museum (PHistoire Naturelle. 119 



of the Hyaena, which are only tetradactyles ; a character though 

 rot of primary importance, yet very easy to seize, and strongly 

 distinctive. No dentary characters can yet be assigned, as the 

 only three individuals hitherto discovered are so young as not to 

 have acquired their permanent teeth. 



In the detailed examination of the Osteology of the Proteles 

 Lalandiiy M. Isidore St. Hilaire points out its very striking resem- 

 blance in many particulars to that of the Hyaena. With this it 

 perfectly agrees in its vertebral column, in the pelvis, the whole 

 posterior extremity, the scapula, the bones of the leg and of the 

 carpus, and in the four external toes. It differs however in pos- 

 sessing a slender additional toe, but the rudiments of this are 

 also to be found in the Hyaena ; in the number of ribs, which is 

 intermediate between the Civets and the Hyaenas ; and especially, 

 as has been already noticed, in the cranium. 



The nocturnal habits of the Proteles add still more strongly to 

 the striking similarity which it bears to the Hyaena. Like this 

 latter animal it also possesses a great facility in digging ; but 

 while this faculty is employed by the Hyaena to disinter carcases, 

 it is chiefly made use of by the Proteles to form burrows similar 

 to those of the Fox. In one of these, at the extremity of Caffra- 

 ria, the three individuals killed by Delalande lived together ; 

 their rarity appears to be extreme, since it is even said that they 

 were unknown to the natives. 



The " Description of the Polyprion Cernium," by M. Valen- 

 ciennes, recalls the attention to the very curious fact that several 

 species of fishes inhabit equally the Mediterranean and the Seas 

 of the Cape of Good Hope. The P. Cernium however has not 

 only been found in both these localities, but also in the seas of 

 America, and has therefore been described by Schneider as the 

 Amphiprion Americanus. It is also the A. australe of the same 

 author, the Scorpcena Massiliensis of Risso, and probably the 

 S. Americana of Gmelin. The possession of several individuals, 

 as well from the Cape as from the neighbourhood of Nice, has en- 

 abled M. Valenciennes io determine their specific identity, and 

 to furnish a description of the species in its various stages of 



