194 PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ZLUROIDEA. [Feb. 7, 
tine ; but is a character which is commonly present in the Herpes- 
tine. The remarkable os penis of Cryptoprocta is certainly a very 
distinctive character ; but the generative apparatus of Hyena crocuta 
is far more so, and no one would on that account raise that animal 
to the rank of even a subfamily. Moreover it is interesting to note 
that while the os penis is so small and so often absent in the Viver- 
ring, “il n’en est pas de méme dans les Mangoustes; il y est 
méme assez développé’’'—an assertion confirmed by the figures on 
De Blainville’s plate 9: it is equally developed in Herpestes palu- 
dinosus. 'The claws are strongly arched (cf. fig. 14 F, p. 192). 
As regards the teeth of Cryptoprocta, they are, as every one knows, 
extremely feline; but the longer I live, the more convinced am I 
that dental characters are valueless as indices of affinity, save as 
existing in closely allied forms—the different species of one genus. 
Amongst the Viverride we have seen how little the dental peculia- 
rities of Arctogale, Arctictis, and OCynogale tell against the weight of 
other characters ; the exceptional teeth of Gulo, amongst the Muste- 
lide, teach the same lesson; and, as I shall shortly endeavour to 
point out, what I believe to be the affinities of Proteles to Hyena 
and of Hyena to Herpestes very strongly reinforce it. 
Cryptoprocta, when first described (Trans. Zool. Soe. i. p. 137, 
plate 21), was ranked by Mr. Bennett, its describer, amongst the 
Viverride. De Blainville, in recognizing this affinity as especially 
justified by the milk-dentition, regarded it as especially allied to 
Crossarchus. He has figured the young skull and the milk- 
dentition’. 
The osteology of Cryptoprocta has been carefully described and 
figured by Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Alfred Grandidier in the 
Ann. des Sc. Nat. 1867, p. 314, pls. 7-10. The animal has also 
been described, and various details as to its habits given, by Messrs. 
Pollen and Van Dam in their ‘ Faune de Madagascar’ (1868), p. 13. 
Skeletons and two skins exist in the British Museum; and there 
is a skeleton in that of the Royal College of Surgeons. The length 
of the head and body of the largest specimen in the British Museum 
is about 81'''3, that of the tail 73'"7. The body is of one colour. 
The claws are sharp, very curved, and semicontractile; the tarsus and 
metatarsus is naked. 
The skull has an auditory bulla, which is neither distinctly Her- 
pestine nor Viverrine; it is more prominent than in Paradoxurus. 
The alisphenoid canal is constant*. The pterygoid fossa is very 
small. The external opening of the auditory meatus is rounded and 
of moderate size. The postorbital processes of the frontal are rather 
small, and very distant from the exceedingly small malar processes. 
The skull is but little pinched in behind the orbits. The condyloid 
foramen is more or less concealed. The cranial ridges are rather 
strongly developed. The paroccipital process is long, but not de- 
pending. The mastoid is well marked, and more developed than in 
? De Blainville, ‘Ostéographie,’ Viverra, p. 89. 
2 Ostéog. Viverras, pls. 6 & 12. 
° Present in all the specimens I have examined. 
