882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ^LUROIDEA. 193 



(21) Snout very slender. 



(22) Zygomata very slender. 



(23) Median cerebellar prominence in skull very marked. 



(24) Canines very small. 



(25) Wide diastemata between p^, p^, jp|. 



/nc\ M. 1 & 2 VI P. 3 & 4 • 1 



(26) Mrr&^ ^ery like p^j^^ m shape. 



By characters 21-26 the Euplerince differ from all the other 

 Vivet'ridcB. 



In reviewing the Viverridce so far, we have found what seem to 

 be curious modifications of one and another section of the family. 

 Thus, in Cynogale we seem to have a Paradoxure specially adapted 

 for an aquatic and fish-catching life — a sort of Viverrine Otter with 

 a singular superficial resemblance to Potamogale. In Arctictis, on the 

 other hand, we have a Pai'adoxure specially arboreal, and with teeth 

 so little carnivorous that, but for Arctogale, we might hesitate to 

 assign it a close connexion with Paradoxurus. Both are Asiatic 

 forms ; and Asia is the special home of the Viverrine subfamily of 

 Viverrid . The special home of the Herpestine subfamily is Africa. 



Of the Viverrine animals of Madagascar yet noticed, we have 

 the Fossa and Rasse as examples of the Viverrince ; and we have the 

 singular little intermediate group of Galidictince and the very excep- 

 tional Euplerince. While the most carnivorous Viverrine yet here 

 considered (Nandinia) is African, the most insectivorous is from 

 Madagascar, where we might expect to find the most anomalous 

 Mammalian forms. But if I am right in a suspicion I have already 

 expressed, Madagascar is yet more remarkable as presenting the 

 most exceptional development of the Herpestine root of the Viver- 

 ridcB ; for it seems to me by no means impossible that Crxjptoprocta 

 may be a very diverging root-form more or less allied to Crossar- 

 chus and Herpestes. 



My examination of the skeleton of Cryptoprocta has left no doubt 

 upon my mind that, so far as it is concerned, it is an altogether 

 Viverrine, and not at all a Feline, animal. I cannot, therefore, see 

 my way at present to regarding it as the type of a distinct family, 

 although when its soft parts have been described it may turn^ out 

 to merit that distinction. Whatever its ancestral affinities may 

 have been, it has clearly attained the rank of a subfamily ; and 

 at first I was inclined to regard it (as had been suggested by 

 P. Gervais') as a form allied to, and a sort of exaggeration of, the 

 African genus JSFandinia ; but the only portion of its visceral anatomy 

 yet known to me seems to point to another affinity, namely to that I 

 have just indicated. It will, I suspect, be found to have Cowper's 

 glands, a Viverrine prostate gland, and a Viverrine brain, but no 

 scent-gland — no pouch or glandular grooves just behind the genital 

 aperture. The situation of its anal opening in the midst of a fossa, 

 as described by Mr. Bennett", is unlike the Viverrince and Galidic- 



^ Hist. Nat. des Mammif. vol. ii. p. 41. 

 2 Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. i. p. 137. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1882, No. XIII. 13 



