GULO ORIENTALIS. 



range, as far as we know at present, is greatly circumscribed, I have endeavoured 

 carefully to examine its characters. In this examination I have followed the princi- 

 ples of classification detailed with great clearness by M. F. Cuvier in his excellent 

 Memoir, in the 10th Volume of the Annales du Museum, &;c. In this he very 

 properly divides the grinders into false grinders, fausses molaires ; carnivorous teeth, 

 carnassieres ; andi tuberculous teeth, tuberculeuses. The first are small, pointed, and 

 formed for cutting or tearing the food ; they vary in number, from one to three or 

 four in each jaw ; the next to these, in both jaws, is the largest grinder, the carni- 

 vorous tooth, consisting of several points, with an additional heel; to this follows in 

 each jaw in most genera a single tuberculous tooth, having a nearly even surface, formed 

 for trituration. In the third family of the Order of Carnassiers of Baron Cuvier, the 

 carnivores, the grinders in general, assist in affording the means of clear generic 

 distinctions. Our animal agrees in most points with the true Gluttons, as exempH- 

 fied in the Plate which illustrates the Memoir of M. F. Cuvier, to which I have 

 referred : it has five grinders in the upper, and six in the lower jaw. The three first 

 in the upper, and the four first in the lower jaw, are false grinders ; they increase 

 successively in size, having coinparatively a broad base, and a somewhat rounded 

 obtuse point ; the carnivorous tooth in the upper jaw has three principal points, of 

 which that on the exterior side forms an extended ridge ; here it also has, anteriorly, 

 a very minute additional heel : in the lower jaw this tooth is long, and consists of 

 two principal points in the middle ; anteriorly it further has one additional heel, and 

 posteriorly it is continued into a rounded triturating ridge. The tuberculovis tooth 

 in the upper jaw is large, and placed transversely ; in the lower jaw it is small. The 

 front teeth in the upper jaw are very regularly disposed ; the exterior tooth, on each 

 side, exceeds the others slightly in breadth, but not in length : in the lower jaw 

 these teeth are all of equal length, but the two exterior ones are broader ; the tooth 

 next following them on each side, is removed somewhat interiorly from the general 

 series, and the two intermediate teeth are smaller than these. The canine teeth in 

 the upper jaw are rather long, and have an additional projection at the base, which 

 I have not observed so distinctly in other animals of this Family ; in the canine tooth 

 of the lower jaw this projection is still more considerable, and extends obliquely 

 backward ; from this the tooth is suddenly curved upward and outward, so as to 

 form an angle from the point in which it is in contact with the fi-ont teeth. 



Our animal further agrees with the Gluttons in the structure of the feet, which 

 are plantigrade, or formed for resting, in walking, the entire sole on the ground : 

 the claws likewise have the character belonging to the different species of this genus ; 

 they are long, horny, compressed, curved, and obtuse ; calculated more for digging 

 the earth, than for seizing other animals ; a capacity which they appear to possess in a 

 degree far inferior to Felis and Mustela. The characters taken from the length of 



