404 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



is about eleven inches ; the tail itself about seven, and 

 the mean height of the animal may be about six and a 

 half. 



From the details now given, we may conclude that this 

 animal fills the void between the genuine carnivora and the 

 plantigrades. The teeth are more tuberculous than those of 

 the Mangoustes, and less so than those of the Coatis. The 

 organization of the hind-foot, the number of toes excepted, 

 is the same as that of the Mangoustes, but the sole with the 

 latter is only half uncovered, but in the Suricate it is entirely 

 so, as in the Coati. Like the last-mentioned animal, the 

 muzzle of the Suricate is prolonged considerably beyond 

 the jaws, but its tongue, furnished with horny papilla? in 

 the middle and soft at the sides, approaches it by the first 

 of these characters to the M angouste, and by the second to 

 the Coati. If the Suricate does not completely fill the void 

 we have mentioned, it requires only some very slight mo- 

 difications to do so. The discovery of a new genus might 

 so completely unite the two groups, as to leave nothing 

 abrupt between them. In consequence of what we have 

 now detailed, M. F. Cuvier seems to think that the subdi- 

 visions of the Plantigrades is not a natural one, and that 

 these animals ought to terminate or commence the series 

 of one of the branches of the genuine Carnivora. 



This animal is the Viverra Suricata of Erxleben, the Vi- 

 verra Tetradactyla of Schreber and Gmelin, the Suricate 

 Viverrin of M. Desmarest, and the Ryzena of Illiger. This 

 last, as a generic name, seems more eligible for adoption 

 than names which time and usage have consecrated to spe- 

 cific designation. 



We now come to the last subdivision of the Digiti- 

 grades, the first snb-genus of which is the formidable Hyaena. 

 Rounded spots, scattered in small number over a fur of a 

 yellowish*dun colour, and the Southern part of Africa as 



