194 PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE .ELUROIDEA. [Feb. 7, 



tincB ; but is a character which is commonly present in the Herpes- 

 tince. The remarkable os penis of Cryptoprocta is certainly a very 

 distinctive character ; but the generative apparatus of Hyaena crocuta 

 is far more so, and no one would on that account raise that animal 

 to the rank of even a subfamily. Moreover it is interesting to note 

 that while the os penis is so small and so often absent in the Viver- 

 rincB, "il n'en est pas de meme dans les Mangoustes; il y est 

 meme assez developpe"^ — an assertion confirmed by the figures on 

 De Blainville's plate 9 : it is equally developed in Herpestes palu- 

 dinosus. The claws are strongly arched {cf. fig. 14 F, p. 192). 



As regards the teeth of Cryptoprocta, they are, as every one knows, 

 extremely feline ; but the longer I live, the more convinced am I 

 that dental characters are valueless as indices of affinity, save as 

 existing in closely allied forms — the different species of one genus. 

 Amongst the Viverridce we have seen how little the dental peculia- 

 rities oi Arctogale, Arctictis, and Cywo(/a/e tell against the weight of 

 other characters ; the exceptional teeth of Gulo, amongst the Muste- 

 lidce, teach the same lesson ; and, as I shall shortly endeavour to 

 point out, what I believe to be the affinities of Proteles to Hycena 

 and of Hycena to Herpestes very strongly reinforce it. 



Cryptoprocta, when first described (Trans. Zool. Soc. i. p. 137, 

 plate 21), was ranked by Mr. Bennett, its describer, amongst the 

 Viverridce. De Blainville, in recognizing this affinity as especially 

 justified by the milk-dentition, regarded it as especially allied to 

 Crossarchus. He has figured the young skull and the milk- 

 dentition". 



The osteology of Cryptoprocta has been carefully described and 

 figured by Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Alfred Grandidier in the 

 Ann. des Sc. Nat. 1867, p. 314, pis. 7-10. The animal has also 

 been described, and various details as to its habits given, by Messrs. 

 Pollen and Van Dam in their ' Fauue de Madagascar' (1868), p. 13. 



Skeletons and two skins exist in the British Museum ; and there 

 is a skeleton in that of the Royal College of Surgeons. The length 

 of the head and body of the largest specimen in the British Museum 

 is about 81"-3, that of the tail 73"-7. The body is of one colour. 

 The claws are sharp, very curved, and semicontractile; the tarsus and 

 metatarsus is naked. 



The skull has an auditory bulla, which is neither distinctly Her- 

 pestine nor Viverrine ; it is more prominent than in Paradoxurus. 

 The alisphenoid canal is constant^. The pterygoid fossa is very 

 small. The external opening of the auditory meatus is rounded and 

 of moderate size. The postorbital processes of the frontal are rather 

 small, and very distant from the exceedingly small malar processes. 

 The skull is but little pinched in behind the orbits. The condyloid 

 foramen is more or less concealed. The cranial ridges are rather 

 strongly developed. The paroccipital process is long, but not de- 

 pending. The mastoid is well marked, and more developed than in 



^ De Blainville, ' Osteograpliie,' Viverra, p. 39. 



2 Ost^og. Viverras, pis. 6 & 12. 



^ Pi-eseut ill all the specimens I have examined. 



