144 PROF, ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE HLUROIDEA. [Feb. 7, 
The distinctive characters of the Felide are :— 
(1) There is a short pollex with a claw not, or hardly, reaching to 
distal end of metacarpal of index. 
(2) The hallnx is only represented by a rudimentary metatarsa 
bone. 
(3) The ungual phalanges are greatly arched, with a wide lamina 
to shelter the base of the claw. 
(4) The claws are greatly arched, sharply pointed, and, except in 
Cynelurus, completely retractile. 
(5) The auditory bulla is much inflated, smooth, and rounded, 
but hardly shows any external sign of division into two 
chambers. 
(6) The bulla is more prominent towards its inner than towards 
its hinder border. 
(7) There is an almost complete bony septum between the two 
chambers of the bulla, which are one behind the other. 
(8) The bony meatus auditorius is short and neither produced 
anteriorly nor inferiorly; neither is it imperfectly ossified 
below. 
(9) There is no carotid foramen anywhere visible on the surface 
of the basis crauii. 
(10) There is no alisphenoid canal. 
(11) The palatine foramina are situated in the hinder half of the 
palate. 
P.1 
(12) —~ands>5 
; 2 
(13) There is no lower tubercular molar, no 57-3, and no = 
are not developed *. 
(14) *£* is always very small and transversely extended. 
(15) The antero-external cusp of ee fairly developed, but is 
much smaller than the two others. 
(16) 5; has hardly any talon. 
(17) The outer incisors but little exceed the middle ones in size. 
(18) Humerus with a supracondyloid foramen. 
(19) Bone of penis small. 
(20) The ears not very long, erect and pointed. 
(21) Tarsus and metatarsus hairy. 
(22) One small plantar pad, and one beneath each digit. 
(23) The anus docs not open into a saccular depression. 
(24) Two anal glands only. 
(25) No prescrotal glands. 
(26) Always a more or less small caecum. 
(27) Many very hard, horny, sharp-pointed, conical papillee on 
the dorsum of the tongue. 
(28) Hippocampal gyrus not” completely separated from the autero- 
1 The mandible of a Tiger with =. killed in British Burmah, is described 
and figured by B. A. Lydekker in the Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. vol. xlvii. (1878), 
p. 2, plate ii. 
So far as I have had an opportunity of examining. 
