390 MR. R. I. POCOCK ON THE EXTERNAL 



In 1876 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. pp. 20-23), J. A. Allen 

 described the genus Bassaricyon and remarked : " As the species 

 [B. gabbi] differs more from either JSfasua or Procyon than the 

 latter do from each other, it seems to form a type quite as well 

 entitled to rank as a subfamily of the Procyonidae as do either of 

 the others, and may hence be called Bassaricyoninae." 



In 1883 (Encycl. Brit. (9) xv. p. 441), Flower repeated his 

 classification of 1869 with the addition of Bassaricyon to the 

 Procyonidae and of Ailuropus to the Ursidse. 



_ In 1885, Mivart (P. Z. S. 1885, pp. 392-394) adopted Flower's 

 views, with one or two important exceptions. He admitted only 

 two families, the Ursidae and Procyonidae, fusing the Ailuridae 

 with the latter and relegating Ailuropus to a place alongside 

 Ailurus. His Procyonidae, therefore, were grouped as follows : — 

 (1) Procyoninae [Procyon, J\ T asua. Bassaris, Bassaricyon, Cerco- 

 leptes); (2) Ailurinse (Ailurus, Ailuropus). It may be noted 

 that after comparing the dental and cranial characters of Ailurus 

 and Ailuropus, he summed up by saying " .... so that on the 

 whole it appears to me that there is more decided natural affinity 

 between Ailuropus and Ailurus than between Ailuropus and 

 Ursus." 



Mivart was, I believe, the first author definitely to assign 

 Ailurus and Ailuropus to the Procyonidae. Nevertheless, when 

 Flower and Lydekker published their volume on the Mammalia 

 in 1891, they quoted Blanford as the authority for the opinion 

 they adopted that Ailurus belongs to that family. Ailuropus 

 they retained in the Ursidae. 



Similarly, in their paper upon JEluropus, published in 1901 

 (Ir. Linn. Soc, Zool. viii. pp. 161-173), Lankester and Lydekker 

 do not appear to have consulted Mivart's paper or to have been 

 acquainted with his views ; and the result was that Lydekker 

 put forward a classification of the Procyonidae identical in every 

 particular with that of Mivart. 



Trouessart (Cat. Mamm. Suppl. pp. 183-181, 1904) referred 

 Ailuropus and Ailurus to the Ursidae, grouping them in the 

 subfamily Ailurinse as opposed to the Ursinae containing the 

 genera of true bears. The Procyonidae he divided into two 

 subfamilies, the Potosinae for Potos (olim Cercoleptes) and the 

 Procyoninae for Bassaricyon, Bassariscus, Nasua, and Procyon. 

 With the substitution of Potosinae for Cercoleptinas, this classi- 

 fication is the same as that published by Trouessart in 1898 

 (Oat. Mamm. i. p. 248). 



In 1914, Bardenfleth (Mindeskrift, etc., for J. Steenstrup's 

 Fodsel, Copenhagen, no. xvii. pp. 1-15) reconsidered the question 

 of the affinities of Ailurus and Ailuropoda, and, deciding that the 

 resemblances between them are purely adaptive, left the former 

 in the Procyonidae and adopted Flower's view that Ailuropoda is 

 an aberrant member of the Ursidae. The author tabulates in 

 three columns, devoted respectively to Ailurus, Ailuropoda, and 

 Ursus, no fewer than 58 characters by which these genera may 



