1865. ] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE MUSTELID®. 137 
The genus Bassaris of the Viverride has, like these genera, two 
conical tubercles on the inner process of the flesh-tooth, 
The form of the hinder part, and the position of the hinder open- 
ing of the palate, vary in the different genera. 
In Conepatus and Mephitis it is wide and scarcely produced, and 
nearly in a line with the hinder edge of the grinders, 
In Mellivora it is wide, but rather further back, in a line with 
the hinder edge of the orbit. 
In Meles and Taxidea and Mydaus it is rather contracted, and 
placed still further back, being in a line with the middle of the 
zygomatic arch. 
In drctonyz it is produced still further back, the opening being 
rather behind, in a line even with the condyles; the hinder part 
of the palate behind the tooth-line is concave below, keeled on the 
sides aboye, and swollen on the sides in front. 
A. Plantigrade. Hind Jeet broad, depressed ; soles bald, callous 
nearly to the heel ; toes short, thick ; claws thick. Body heavy ; 
tail short; ears short, rounded. 
Melina, Gray, Ann. Phil. 1825. 
Tribe 4. Mevina. Tubercular grinder large, oblong, elongate ; 
palate produced behind ; flesh-tooth with two more or less dis. 
tinct tubercles on the inner lobe. 
a. Palate much produced behind ; hinder opening rather behind, on 
a line level with the condyles. Nose of skull rather produced. 
18. Arcronyx. 
Arctonyzx, F. Cuvier, Mamm. Lithogr. 51 ; Fischer, Syn. Mamm. 
152; Gray, List Mamm. B. M. xxi. 70. 
Synarchus, Gloger, 1842. 
Skull elongate, broad and truncated behind. Nose elongate, 
rather compressed, rounded above. Forehead elongate, rounded on 
the sides. Orbits small, oblong, very incomplete behind ; zygomatic 
arch strong, wider behind; the suborbital foramen circular; the pa- 
late concave in front, much produced behind, concave below, pro- 
minent and keeled on the sides; hinder opening far back, in a line 
with the condyles of the lower jaw ; opening angular, acute in front ; 
the bulla of the ear oblong, scarcely raised; the tube of the inner 
nostril vesicular and very thin at the sides. The cutting-teeth 
unequal, truncated, worn ; the two middle ones smallest ; the second 
on each side rather larger ; the lateral pair much larger, very oblique. 
Canines conical, compressed, nearly straight, worn on the front edge, 
bent out at the end. False grinders 4; the first very small, sub- 
cylindrical, separated by a long diastema; the second compressed, 
trigonal. The flesh-tooth moderate, triangular, nearly as wide in 
front as the outer side; the outer edge with a compressed tubercle ; 
