THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS OF THE PROCYONIDiE. 389 



21. The External Characters and Classification of the 

 Procyonidss. 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 Vibrissa 395 



Muzzle and Rbinariura 396 



Feet 399 



Cutaneous and Anal Glands 407 



External Genitalia 411 



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



The Position of A iluropocla 417 



Classification of the Ursidae, Ailuropoda, Ailurus, and 



the Procyonidae 420 



Introduction. 



To show the wide divergence of opinion on the classification of 

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

 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 carnassial teeth, this author divided the Ferae 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 Ursidse and Procyonidae. Gray, however, 

 admitted six families of Omnivora :— (1) Ursidse with several 

 genera; (2) Nasuidae for JSfasua; (3) Procyonidae for Procyon 

 with two subgenera Procyon and Euprocyon ; (4) Cercoleptidae 

 for Cercoleptes (Potos) ; (5) Bassaridse for Bassaris ; (6) Ailuridae 

 for Ailurus. 



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

 classified the genera in question into the three families Procyo- 

 nidae (Procyon, Bassaris, Nasua, Cercoleptes); Ailuridae (Ailurtis); 

 and Ursidae (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 and Flower's (Smiths. Misc. 

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

 Ursidae (with the genera admitted by Gray); Fam. iEluridae 

 (JElurus); Fam. Cercoleptidae (Cercoleptes = Potos) ; Fam. Pro- 

 cyonidae with the subfamilies Nasuinae (Nama), Procyoninse 

 (Procyon) ; Fam. Bassaridiclae (Bassaris). 



* This grouping, however, was the same in substance as that proposed by Turner 

 about twenty years earlier (P. Z. S. 1848, p. 8G) with the conversion of Turner's 

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

 the Arctoidea. 



