FELIDA 523 
some of which were as large as a Leopard. /. atrom and F. augusta, 
of the Pliocene of the United States, were of the dimensions of the 
Lion. 
Cyncelurus.i—The Cheeta or Hunting Leopard (C. jubatus) is dis- 
tinguished from the other Felide by the inner tubercle of the upper 
carnassial, though supported by a distinct root, having no salient 
cusp upon it; by the tubercular molar being more in a line with 
the other teeth; and by the claws being smaller, less curved, and 
less completely retractile, owing to the feebler development of the 
elastic ligaments. The skull is short and high, with the frontal 
region broad and elevated in consequence of the large development 
of the frontal air-sinuses. The head is small and round, the body 
light, the limbs and tail long. Its colour is pale yellowish-brown 
with small black spots. The Cheeta is less savage and more 
easily tamed than most of the Cats. In Asia it has been trained 
for the chase of the Antelope. It has rather an extensive geo- 
graphical range from the Cape of Good Hope, throughout Africa 
and the south-western parts of Asia, as far as Southern India. 
Extinct Generu—A number of forms are gradually becoming 
known, especially through the researches of American palzonto- 
logists, which, though evidently animals of the same general type, 
and therefore to be placed in or near the family Felidw, depart so 
much in various details of structure that they must be referred to 
different genera. As one of the points in which Felis manifests its 
specialisation is the reduction of the number of the molar series of 
teeth, with concomitant shortening of the jaws, it might be 
supposed that in the earlier and perhaps ancestral forms these 
teeth would be more numerous and approach more nearly to the 
primitive or typical number of the heterodont mammals, viz. seven 
on each side. This is actually the case. Similarly we find that 
many of these forms exhibit a less specialised structure of the teeth 
themselves, as is shown by the absence of the anterior lobe of the 
upper carnassial, and the retention of the hind talon in the corre- 
sponding lower tooth. Again, some of them have an alisphenoid 
canal in the skull; while the femur may have a third trochanter, 
and the claws be very imperfectly retractile. 
An extremely generalised form is the small Proclurus, from the 
Upper Eocene and Lower Miocene, with p 4, m 4, an alisphenoid 
canal, and a third trochanter to the femur. Divictis, of the North 
American Miocene, is a larger allied form, with p 3, m 4; the upper 
carnassial having no anterior lobe, and the ungual phalanges being 
devoid of bony sheaths. The characters of the base of the skull, 
and the form and relations of the astragalus, differ very consider- 
ably from Felis. Pseudelurus, from the French Miocene, is another 
very generalised Feline, in which there may be either three or four 
1 Wagler, Syst. Amphib. ete. p. 30 (1830). 
