1869.} - CLASSIFICATFON OF THE CARNIVORA. 29 
The anterior lip of the meatus is considerably prolonged and thickened, 
asin the Hyeenas. Its floor is not split asin Rhyzena and Urva. The 
carotid foramen (car) is very minute, placed near the middle of the 
inner side of the bulla. The paroccipital (p) and mastoid (m) pro- 
cesses are smoothly spread over the posterior dilated end of the bulla, 
and form no projection beyond it. The condyloid foramen (c) is 
concealed. There is no glenoid foramen ; nor is there an alisphenoid 
canal. 
I need scarcely comment upon the value of these characters as 
affording a satisfactory solution to the guesses that have hitherto 
been made as to the affinities of Proteles. In the first place they 
are thoroughly Aluroid, but they do not exactly agree with either of 
the families of that group as hitherto defined. On the whole they 
approach nearest to the Herpestine section of the Viverride, but 
deviate from this, and approximate to the Hyenida, in two points— 
the development of the anterior rather than the lower portion of the 
lip cf the meatus, and the absence of the alisphenoid canal. These, 
in conjunction with the general characters of the skeleton and exterior, 
appear to be sufficient, as in the case of Cryptoprocta, to warrant the 
formation of a distinct family, intermediate between the Viverride 
and the Hyenide, approaching nearest to the former. If Cuvier 
had called Prote/es a Hyznoid Ichneumon, instead of a Hyznoid 
Genette, exception could scarcely have been taken to the description. 
Another genus, whose characters were omitted in their proper place, 
on account of the great difference of opinion that has existed upon 
its true position, is Arctictis, the Binturong of the East Indies. 
Ever since its discovery this animal has oscillated between the V- 
verride and the Urside without any conclusive reasons having been 
given for either position. F. Cuvier, Mr. Turner, and Dr. Gray 
assign it a place among the former group, while De Blainville, 
Wagner, Van der Hoeven, Giebel, Gervais, Carus, and Owen include 
it in the Ursine or “‘Subursine” group. Dr. Cantor has published 
some details of its anatomy, including the statement that it possesses 
a short cecum; but no mention is made of the structure of the 
generative organs*. 
The pattern of the teeth when closely examined is clearly that of 
the Paradoxures—modified, it is true, but forming, as it were, a third 
term of a series of which a Civet and an ordinary Paradoxure are the 
first and second terms. Their resemblance to the teeth of Cerco- 
leptes, so often insisted on by zoologists, appears to me only super- 
ficial or adaptive, and affords an instance of the difficulty of dia- 
gnosing the family characters of the Carnivora by teeth alone, which 
I mentioned at the commencement of this paper. 
Fortunately an examination of the base of the cranium (fig. 15, 
p- 30) gives no uncertain indication of the animal’s position. Th 
auditory bulla and all its surrounding parts are decidedly and essen=~ 
tially Viverrine, most resembling in form those of Paradoxurus, 
though the walls of the tympanic and inner chambers of the bulla are 
completely fused together as in nearly all the other members of the 
* Journal of the Asiatic Society, 1846, p. 192. 
