1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE .ELXJROIDEA. 137 



Subfam. Felina (of general geographical distribution). 

 No alispheuoid canal. 



Division of auditory bulla slightly or scarcely perceptible. 

 Canalis caroticus indistinct or not perceptible. 

 True molars on each side i ; premolars on each side '-. 

 Felis. 



The genus Avctictis is placed in the above list amongst the Viver- 

 rina without any observations in the text. It should be noted that 

 this subfamily is divided, by horizontal lines, into three sections, the 

 two genera Genetta and Viverra standing nearest to the Hyaenas, 

 and Herpestes and Ryztena remote from them. 



Certain genera are not enumerated ; and on this subject Mr. Turner 

 tells US ', " The lists of genera include only those whose crania I have 

 examined ; and therefore I must not be considered as rejecting any 

 that I have omitted, nor do I pledge myself to adopt all that are 

 inserted." 



The third paper on the classification of the Carnivora is that of 

 our president, Professor Flower'. Therein he refers to the paper 

 by Mr. Turner, which he supplements by a number of new and ori- 

 ginal observations and inferences of great value, intentionally con- 

 fining his remarks, however, to existing terrestrial (fissipedal) genera. 

 He conclusively estabhshes the true Procyoaine nature of Bassaris 

 and the Paradoxurine affinity of Arctic/is ; while as to Cryptoprocta, 

 he regards it as the type of a distinct family ^ though he considers it 

 " as a perfectly annecteut form, as nearly allied to the Viven-idce on 

 the one hand as to the Felidm on the other." Proteles he also con- 

 stitutes the type of a distinct family, which he interposes between 

 the Suricates and the Hyeenas, as he interposes Cryptoprocta between 

 the Civets and Genets on the one hand and the Cats on the other. 

 He fully adopts ilr. Turner's threefold division of the fissipedal 

 Carnivora, but raises each of Mr. Turner's families to the rank of a 

 suborder. Professor Flower's Arctoidea and Cynoidea corre- 

 spond respectively to Mr. Turner's Ursidce and Canidce, while Mr. 

 Turner's Felidce is divided by Professor Flower into the five families 

 Felida, CryptoproctidcB, ViverridcB, Protelidce, and Hi/tetiidce—these 

 five families being united into one suborder, for which he first in- 

 stituted the term ^luroidea, the affinities of which are suggested 

 by his diagram^ (tig. 1). 



The following characters common to the jEluroidea may be 

 gathered from this paper : — 



1 . Bulla greatly dilated, rounded, smooth, thin-walled, with one 

 exception osseous, and almost always divided by a septum into two 

 distinct portions. 



2. Bony meatus short or with its inferior wall imperfectly ossified. 

 ' Loc. cit. p. 85. 



2 " On the Value of the Characters of the Base of the Cranium in the Classi- 

 fication of the Order Carnivora, and on the Systematic Position of Bassaris 

 and other disputed forms," P. Z. S. 1869, p. 4 



^Zoo.«Yp.23. * £oc. CiV. p. 37. 



