1882. J PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ^LUROIDEA. 153 



of the tarsus and metatarsus being hairy as in Viverra and Viver- 

 ricii/a, or with the small bald spots as in Fossa, there is a long, 

 narrow bald strip of skin running up beneath the median part 

 of the metatarsus, towards or to the tarsus. This bald strip, 

 however, is separated from the plantar pad by an intervening hairy 

 portion ; and the toes are hairy beneath at the sides. A hairy patch 

 in the manus also separates the proximal part of the palmar pad from 

 its distal portion. All the Genets are of a brownish-yellowish or 

 greyish tint, with black or brown spots on the flanks, and a black 

 line in the middle of the back (thus differing from Fossa). There 

 are brown or black stripes behind the ears, extending downwards 

 and backwards over the shoulders. The paws are blackish or 

 whitish ; the belly is hght-coloured with a few spots ; and there 

 is a lightish patch over the eye, and a white spot beneath the eye, 

 separated by a black mark from another white spot beside the nose. 

 The tail is ringed with black. 



The characters of skull and teeth by which the Genets differ from 

 the Civets and the relations of this kind presented by Viverricula 

 and Fossa are as follows : — 



The auditory bulla in Genetta is not so triangular in form as in 

 Viverra, but more equal in width anteriorly and posteriorly, as we 

 have seen to be the case in Viverricula (where it is also more 

 laterally compressed) ; but in Genetta the anterior part is more 

 swollen and bullute. The alisphenoid canal is constantly present in 

 Genetta, but is small in calibre. In both Genetta and Viverricula 

 the auditory opening is relatively larger than in Civetta. The par- 

 occipital process, which descends down below the bulla, is a depending 

 process in Vivei'ra ', and slightly so in Genetta, but does not so extend 

 at all in Viverricula. In the last named the skull is extremely com- 

 pressed behind the postorbital processes, its breadth there being 

 to the total cranial length as but ITo to 100, instead of 14'] as in 

 the Civet, 14'4 as in Fossa, and 187 as in Genetta. 



In all the four genera Viverra, Viverricula, Fossa, and Genetta 

 the alisphenoid canal is generally (even in Viverricula when it is 

 present) long, its hinder opening being often in close proxmity to 

 the foramen ovale, the opening of that foramen and the hinder 

 aperture of the alisphenoid canal appearing respectively at the hinder 

 and anterior ends of a common depression in the cranial surface. 



The teeth of Genetta ' differ from those of Viverra in that —^ 



1 Very slightly so in V. tangalunga. 



^ As Genetta appears to be (at least after Frwnodon) the genus of existing 

 VivetTida which comes nearest to the Felida, it may not be useless to denote 

 precisely the differences between the permanent and milk dentitions of the 

 Genet and the Cat. 



In the Genet the outermost upper incisors are larger in proportion to the 

 innermost (length as 3 to 2). Each outermost lower incisor has a bilobed 

 crown with nearly equal lobes. The canines are relatively shorter, not longi- 

 tudinally furrowed. The upper canine compared with the base {i. c. with the 

 intervalbetween the basion and ovalion) taken at 100, is 4()-l in the Cat, 428 in 

 the Genet. By " ovalion " I mean the centre of a horizontal line connecting 

 the liindmost points of the margins of the oval foramina. 



