87 



October 11. 183G. 

 Joseph Cox Cox, Esq., in the Chair. 



A series of Mammalia selected from the collection of the Society 

 was exhibited. Mr. Gray made some remarks upon them illustra- 

 tive of the value which he conceived was to be placed on the cha- 

 racters used by M. Cuvier to separate the plantigrade from the 

 digitigrade Carnivora. and he concluded by stating that he did not re- 

 gard the nakedness of the sole as a good character to separate the 

 genera into larger or smaller groups, though from its permanence in 

 all ages and the state of the species, it furnished excellent characters 

 to distinguish species, to separate them into sections, and often to 

 characterize the genera of carnivorous animals ; and in proof of the 

 latter, he referred to the excellent character which it furnished to 

 distinguish the sjiecies of the genera. Herpestes, Mephites, andLwira. 

 He further observed, that in many instances the extent of the naked- 

 ness of the soles appears to depend upon the temperature of the coun- 

 try that the animal inhabited, and mentioned that several of the 

 animals living in countries covered with snow, which apply the 

 whole of the soles of their feet to the ground, have this part entirely 

 covered with hair, as the Wolverine, the Panda, the Seals, and the 

 Polar Bear ; but that this was not universally the case, for the Ben- 

 turing, which inhabited the same country as the Panda, has the 

 soles bald and papillary. He further observed, that the nakedness 

 of the soles did not appear to be permanent even in the specimens 

 of the same species in the Squirrel and other Glirine animals ; for 

 he had observed that the specimens of the grey Squirrels, in the 

 Northern part of the United States, had this part covered with hair, 

 whilst those of the Southern parts, had the soles entirely bald ; and 

 lie also observed, that the various species of the Spermophile differed 

 greatly amongst themselves in the extent of the nakedness of this 

 part. 



Mr. Gray then proceeded to make some remarks on the alteration 

 in the situation of the teeth, and on the change which takes place 

 in the form of the carnivorous tooth, in the milk and permanent 

 teeth of the Carnivora ; and stated, that the milk carnivorous tooth 

 of the Cat, Dog, Vison, Skunk, Viverra, and indeed of all the genera 

 which he had been able to examine, had a small central internal 

 lobe, whilst the same tooth in the permanent set always had a large 

 anterior lobe; he also stated, that he had observed that the tuber- 

 cular grinders of the Mustelce often vary considerably in size in the 

 various specimens of the same species, showing that implicit re- 

 liance cannot be placed in the size of these teeth as a specific cha- 



No. XLVl. — Procekuings of the Zoological Society. 



