CHAPTER XVII. 
CARNIVORES,—continued., 
THE Raccoon FaAmIty. 
Family Procyonrp”. 
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. 
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 
The upper molar teeth are, more- 
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 RIGHT 
HALF 
PALATAL ASPECT OF THE 
OF THE 
SKULL OF THE CACO- 
MISTLE. 
The letters am. indicate 
the entrance to the tympanic 
bulla, which is the swelling 
between that and the point 
indicated by car. The other 
letters indicate the various 
foramina, ete. (From Proc. 
Zool. Soc.—After Sir W. H. 
Flower.) 
