190 PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE £ZLUROIDEA. [Feb. 7, 
external form and part of the skull of an adult have been figured by 
Dr. Gray from a specimen now in the national collection'; and 
the whole adult skeleton, skull (though not the basis cranii), and 
dentition have been described and figured by Paul Gervais?. 
It has been abundantly shown that this animal is not, as was at first 
supposed, an Insectivore, but really a Viverrine Carnivore. 
Externally Zupleres is remarkable for its small head, very long, 
slender, and pointed snout ; but its dentition is the most anomalons 
part of its organization so far as yet known. 
The body is clothed with woolly annulated fur of a uniform 
general olive tint above, minutely punctulated with yellow. It appears, 
from Doyére, that the young has black bands across the shoulders, 
which are wanting in the adult. The ears are large; the pollex and 
hallux are well developed ; the tail is rather short, but bushy ; the 
feet are very slender; the tarsus and metatarsus are covered with 
short hair beneath. The length of the head and body is about 52", 
that of the tail 17''-7. The nose and upper lip have a median groove 
beneath. The claws are elongated and Herpestiform (cf. fig. 14, L, 
p- 192). 
There are two skins, several skulls, and one good skeleton in the 
British Museum ; and there is a good skeleton in that of the College 
of Surgeons. 
The skull is remarkable for its extraordinary length and slender- 
ness. The shape of the auditory bulla is intermediate between that 
of the Herpestine and that of the Viverrine sectious of the Viverride : 
its most prominent portion is at its postero-external part ; and so far 
it inclines towards Herpestes. There is no pterygoid fossa. The 
opening of the external auditory meatus is generally rather small 
and more or less oval ; it is the hinder portion of its margin which 
projects slightly the more. There is no fissure or foramen in the 
floor of the auditory meatus ; nor is there a depression in the adjacent 
part of the bulla as in Galidia and Hemigalidia. The anterior part 
of the bulla, however, is well marked off by a groove from the pos- 
terior part. There is no alisphenoid canal, nor any postorbital 
processes. Cranial ridges are very faintly marked, save the lamb- 
doidal ridge. The paroccipital is long, but does not depend. The 
mastoid is not more prominent than in Genetta. The condyloid 
foramen is exposed. ‘The carotid canal is as in Herpestes; and the 
artery enters the cranial cavity through a foramen or deep notch in 
the sphenoid. The zygomata are very slender ; and there is a very 
small glenoid cavity and postglenoid process. The palate is very 
little prolonged behind the last molars. There is a very conspicuous 
and exceptional prominence in the middle occipital region to shelter 
the middle part of the cerebellum. 
The dentition is especially remarkable for the small size of the 
canines, the canine-like character of the anterior premolars, the resem= 
blance of the true molars to the premolars, and the wide diastemata 
between the three most anterior premolars both above and below. 
1 P. Z. 8, 1870, p. 824, pl. 51. 
* Journal de Zoologie, vol, iii. (1874), p. 237. 
