IHSO.] DENTAL CHARACTERS OF THE CANIDJ?. 263 



Table X.] .—Proportional Lengths of the Teeth in Procyonidse and 



Otocyon. 



Nasua. Prooym. Otocuon. 



Length of ^* 16-6 lfi-6 12-7 



— 1/V 177 13-4 



m. 2 



— lb 12-7 11-8 



,irT 18-8 20-5 16-1 



1^2 20 19-4 13-3 



The teeth o'l Nasua and Procijon are larger (and notably thicker) 

 thaii^ those of Otocyon ; moreover the hindermost molars, in their 

 elongation and in other characters, tend towards the Ursine form 

 There is therefore no question of direct affinity between Nasua and 

 Procyon and Otocyon ; it is simply that, in dental characters, the 

 lowest type of camne animal approaches the less-differentiated 

 rrocyonidse. 



In Bassaris and in Procyon the form of the ramus of the mandible 

 IS similar to that in the ordinary Canids ; in Nasua it approaches 



Fig. 14. 



ABC 



Right ramus of tbe mandible of Perameles (A), Procyon (B), and Otocyon (C\ 

 Irom behind : a, angular process ; c, condyle. 



that seen in C. cancrivorus ; in ^lurus this peculiarity is still more 

 exaggerated ; and in Cercoleptes we have a mandible which resembles 

 that of Otocyon, with a still more developed lobe. As to the base of 

 the skull, it appears to me that, taking yElurus, Procyon, and Nasua 

 together, the arctoid characters are so modified, and the approxima- 

 tion to the canine type of skull becomes so close, that they almost 

 present a transition from the one type of skull to the other. 



I have elsewhere drawn attention to the fibrous epipubis of the 

 Dogs as the homologue of the so-called " marsupial bone " of the 



