1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ZLUROIDEA. 175 
(1) Auditory bulla ossified and in one piece. 
(2) Bulla narrowing and much flattened anteriorly. 
(5) Palate not much prolonged behind last molars. 
(4) Mastoid rather prominent. 
(5) Caecum very small. 
(6) Teeth suited for catching fish ; anterior premolars very long. 
(7) Margins of palate nearly parallel. 
(8) No supracondyloid foramen to humerus. 
(9) No median groove on upper lip. 
(10) Tarsus hairy ; metatarsus naked. 
(11) Tail short. 
The following characters are common to the Viverrine :— 
(1) Claws strongly curved, sharply pointed, and more or less 
deeply retractile. 
(2) Orbits never enclosed by bone. 
(3) Hinder chamber of auditory bulla never everted outwards. 
(4) Posterior margin of the external auditory meatus as pro- 
minent as, or more so than, the anterior or inferior margin. 
(5) Floor of external auditory meatus and adjacent part of bulla 
neither fissured nor with a foramen ora deep pit on its surface. 
(6) Angle of mandible never everted. 
(7) Mastoid rarely prominent. 
(8) Paroccipital processes almost always depending. 
(9) Aperture of external auditory meatus not triangular. 
(10) Alisphenoid canal generally elongated. 
(11) Carotid canal notching the sphenoid, and not showing as a 
conspicuous foramen in the basis cranii. 
(12) Prescrotal scent-glands generally present. 
(13) Anus opening on the surface, and not into a cutaneous invagi- 
nation’. 
(14) Only a pair of anal glands. 
(15) A supracondyloid foramen to humerus, save in Cynogale. 
(16) An alisphenoid canal present, save generally in Viverricula, 
where, when absent, its place is not indicated by bony 
processes. 
(17) Both pollex and hallux present. 
(18) Czecum sometimes absent. 
(19) Tarsus and metatarsus hairy or bald. 
The very large and polymorphic genus Herpestes was divided by 
Dr. Gray (P. Z.S. 1864, and Cat. Carnivora, p. 154) into the 
genera Athylax, Calogale, Galerella, Calictis, Ariela, Ichneumia, 
Urva, Teniogale, Onychogale, and Helogale. Not one of these, save 
possibly the last, can be maintained as a distinct genus. Mr. Oldfield 
Thomas, who has been working with great care at these animals, 
told me he had come to this conclusion; and my examination of the 
skins and skulls in the British Museum has only served to confirm 
the justice of this view. 
‘ I give this character with hesitation, from what I have (as before said) 
obseryed in a living Paradoxurus. 
