THE EXTERNAL CUAllACTEllS OF THE PROCYONID^. 389 



21. The External Characters and Classification of the 

 ProcyonidiTe. By R. I. Pocock, F.R.S, 



[Received February .5, 1921 : Read April 19, 1921,] 



(Text-figures 1-13.) 



Contests. 



Page 



Introduction 389 



External Ear 392 



Facial Vibrissae 395 



Muzzle and llbiiiariura 396 



Feet 399 



Cutaneous and Anal Glands 407 



External Genitalia 4'11 



Tlie External Characters as a Guide to Classification ... 416 



The Position of Ailuropoda • 417 



Classification of the Ursida;, Ailuropoda, Ailurus, and 



the Procyonidffi 420 



Introdaction. 



To .show the wide divergence of opinion on the classification of 

 the genera assigned in the current text-books to the Procyonidse, 

 it is needless to go to an earlier date than 1869, when Gray pub- 

 lished his ' Catalogue of Carnivorous . . . Animals.' Using in the 

 main the cnrnassial teeth, this author divided the Ferse into two 

 suborders, Carnivora and Omnivora, the latter, with the teeth in 

 question non-sectorial, comprising the forms now relegated as a 

 rule to the families Ursi(la3 and Procyonida?. Gray, however, 

 admitted six fandlies of Omnivora: — (1) UrsidfE with several 

 genera ; (2) Nasuidai for Nasioa ; (3) Prooyoniche for Procyon 

 with two subgenera Procyon and Euprocyon ; (4) Cercoleptida^ 

 for Gercoleptes {Potos) ; (5) Bassarida^ for Bassaris ; (6) AiluridoB 

 for Aihtrus. 



In the same year, however, Flower (P. Z. S. 1869, pp. 4-37) 

 classified the genera in question into the three families Procyo- 

 nidfe {Procyon, Bassaris, Nasua, Cercoleptes) ; Ailuridae {Aihirus)\ 

 and Ursidse (Ursus) *. 



In 1872, Gill, whose estimate of the value of characters was far 

 in advance of his time, made a classification which may be 

 described as a combination of Gray's a.nd Flower's (Smiths. Misc. 

 Coll. xi. pp. 58-59, 66-67, 1872). It was as follows :— Fam. 

 Ursidfe (with the genera admitted by Gray) ; Fam. ^-Eluridaj 

 {^Elurus); Fam. Cevco\e])ti(\i\? (Cercoleptes = Potos) ; Fam. Pro- 

 cyonida3 with the subfamilies Nasuinfc (JVasica), Procyoninse 

 [Procyon) ; Fam. Bassa.ridida; (Bassaris). 



* This grouping, however, v.'as the same in substance as that proposed by Turner 

 about twenty years earlier (P. Z. S. 1848, p. 86) with the conversion of Turner's 

 subfamilies Ursina, Ailurinn, and Procyonina of the family Ursidse into families of 

 the Arctoidoa. 



