1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ZLUROIDEA. 137 
Subfam. Feira (of general geographical distribution). 
No alisphenoid canal. 
Division of auditory bulla slightly or scarcely perceptible. 
Canalis caroticus indistinct or not perceptible. 
P 1 P 3 
True molars on each side ; ; premolars on each side ~. 
Felis. 
The genus 4rctictis 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 Hyznas, 
and Herpestes and Ryzena 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 | 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 establishes the true Procyonine nature of Bassaris 
and the Paradoxurine affinity of Arctictis ; while as to Cryptoprocta, 
he regards it as the type of a distinct family*, though he considers it 
“as a perfectly annectent form, as nearly allied to the Viverride on 
the one hand as to the Felide@ on the other.” Proteles he also con- 
stitutes the type of a distinct family, which he interposes between 
the Suricates and the Hyzenas, as he interposes Cryptoprocta between 
the Civets and Genets on the one hand and the Cats on the other. 
He fully adopts Mr. 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 ARncrompEA and CyNOIDEA corre- 
spond respectively to Mr. Turner’s Urside and Canidae, while Mr. 
Turner’s Felide is divided by Professor Flower into the five families 
Felide, Cryptoproctide, Viverride, Protelide, and Hyaenide—these 
five families being united into one suborder, for which he first in- 
stituted the term AXLurRoipEA, the affinities of which are suggested 
by his diagram * (fig. 1). 
The following characters common to the AiLUROIDEA 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. 
1 Loe, eit. p. 85. 
2 «Qn 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 Lassaris 
and other disputed forms,” P. Z. 8. 1869, p. 4. 
3° Loe. cit p. 23, 4 Loe, cit. p, 37. 
