1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE £ZLUROIDEA. 153 
of the tarsus and metatarsus being hairy as in Viverra and Viver- 
ricula, or with the small bald spots as in Fossa, there is a long, 
narrow bald strip of skin running up beneath the median part 
of the metatarsus, towards or to the tarsus. This bald strip, 
however, is separated from the plantar pad by an intervening hairy 
‘portion ; and the toes are hairy beneath at the sides. A hairy patch 
in the manus also separates the proximal part of the palmar pad from 
its distal portion. All the Genets are of a brownish-yellowish or 
greyish tint, with black or brown spots on the flanks, and a black 
line in the middle of the back (thus differing from Fossa). There 
are brown or black stripes behind the ears, extending downwards 
and backwards over the shoulders. The paws are blackish or 
whitish ; the belly is light-coloured with a few spots; and there 
is a lightish patch over the eye, and a white spot beneath the eye, 
separated by a black mark from another white spot beside the nose. 
The tail is ringed with black. : 
The characters of skull and teeth by which the Genets differ from 
the Civets and the relations of this kind presented by Viverricula 
and Fossa are as follows :— 
The auditory bulla in Genetta is not so triangular in form as in 
Viverra, but more equal in width anteriorly and posteriorly, as we 
have seen to be the case in Viverricula (where it is also more 
laterally compressed) ; but in Genetta the anterior part is more 
swollen and bullate. The alisphenoid canal is constantly present in 
Genetta, but is small in calibre. In both Genetta and Viverricula 
the auditory opening is relatively larger than in Civetta. The par- 
occipital process, which descends down below the bulla, is a depending 
process in Viverra', and slightly so in Genetta, but does not so extend 
at allin Viverricula. In the last named the skull is extremely com- 
pressed behind the postorbital processes, its breadth there being 
to the total cranial length as but 11°5 to 100, instead of 14°1 as in 
the Civet, 14°4 as in Fossa, and 18°7 as in Genetta. 
Tn all the four genera Viverra, Viverricula, Fossa, and Genetta 
the alisphenoid canal is generally (even in Viverricula when it is 
present) long, its hinder opening being often in close proxmity to 
the foramen ovale, the opening of that foramen and the hinder 
aperture of the alisphenoid canal appearing respectively at the hinder 
and anterior ends of a common depression in the cranial surface. 
The teeth of Genetta? differ from those of Viverra in that “? 
1 Very slightly so in V. tangalunga. 
2 As Genetta appears to be (at least after Prionodon) the genus of existing 
Viverride which comes nearest to the Felide, it may not be useless to denote 
precisely the differences between the permanent and milk deutitions of the 
Genet and the Cat. 
Tn the Genet the outermost upper incisors are larger in proportion to the 
innermost (length as 3 to 2). Hach outermost lower incisor has a bilobed 
crown with nearly equal lobes. ‘The canines are relatively shorter, not longi- 
tudinally furrowed. The upper canine compared with the base (¢. ¢. with the 
interval between the basion and ovalion) taken at 100, is 46-1 in the Cat, 42°8 in 
the Genet. By “ovalion” I mean the centre of a horizontal line connecting 
the hindmost points of the margins of the oval foramina, 
