392 MR. A. H. G. DORAN ON THE MORPHOLOGY 



The neck is of the character seen in most Carnivora, hut proportionally rather thicker. 

 The manubrium is much thicker than in Felis, though not broad at the base laterally. 

 Its outer surface is moderately broad above, but very broad towards the point ; thus, 

 lying exactly intermediate between Felis and Froteles, the whole process is rather 

 more curved, with the concavity forwards, and less recurved at the tip than in the 

 Cats. The great feature in this and the next family is the processus muscularis, which 

 is very stout at the base, blunt at the tip, and almost straight. The lamina is denser 

 than in the Cats and Dogs. The incus (PI. LVIII. fig. 48) resembles that of a large Felis. 

 The stapes (PI. LVIII. fig. 58) is rather larger than in the other Carnivora; its crura 

 are slender, as in the greater Pelidse, not thick, as in Wolves. 



In the Aard-Wolf (Froteles, PI. LVIII. fig. 35) the head of the malleus is smaller and 

 less convex than in Felis or FLycena ; its articular surface approximates to the Viverrine 

 type: both the facets are convex internally; but they run into one another, forming a marked 

 concavity external to the point where the groove ceases, the latter only running half across 

 the surface, as in FLycena. The manubrium has its outer surface broad throughout, as 

 in the Dogs; this character distinguishes it from Flycena, which it resembles in having 

 an almost equally straight and solid processus muscularis. The body of the incus is 

 shallow, as in Viverra and Canis ; both crura are very stout and well developed. 



Among the Viverridse. two distinct varieties of malleus are to be found. One, unlike 

 any other among the Fissipedia, is seen in Herpestes and Suricata, and in all probability 

 in allied genera ; the other, which will be described first, is found in the genera Viverra, 

 Faradoocurus, Nandinia, Arctictis, Cynogale, and Fupleres. 



The malleus of the Civet and its allies possesses very negative characters, or may be con- 

 sidered to present, together with those of the Cryptoproctidae, Procyonidse, and ^Bluridse, 

 a central type, from which those of the Cats, Dogs, and Bears are much specialized, the 

 above-named families exhibiting in this bone very slight tendencies towards the modi- 

 fications observed in those more important groups, which they respectively approach in 

 their general anatomy. Taking the most prominent point of distinction between the 

 mallei of terrestrial Carnivora, namely the form and development of the processus 

 muscularis, we find that process long in the Cats, and absent in the Bears. Now, 

 as it is of moderate length in the Civets and Racoons, from a quite natural modification 

 of the characters of the bone in the two former families, it comes to pass that the 

 latter animals, very different from each other in the whole skeleton, come close to each 

 other as far as the malleus is concerned. 



The head of this bone in Vvcerra (PL LVIII. fig. 37) is small, its free surface pro- 

 jecting but little above the upper margin of the articular area. The articular surface 

 is narrow vertically and deeply cut ; both facets are convex ; the groove between them 

 is very deep, and, as in the Cats, it runs from the inner border to the middle of the 

 surface, where, however, it does not fade, as in Felis, but bifurcates ; the two branches 

 run to the outer surface, and enclose a triangular, somewhat concave space, which may 

 be considered a third facet, and is clearly a further modification of the condition de- 

 scribed in Froteles, where the two branch grooves do not exist, but the facets run, 

 externally, into a concavity. In many faintly marked Viverrine mallei the bifurcation is 



