76 llELIDIDiE. 



Other animals placed in this family, but classed in a separate sub-family, 

 Procyonince by Gray, are the Eacoons of North America, Procyon; the 

 Coatimondis {Nasua), from the warmer parts of the same continent, and 

 the Kinkajou or Potto, Cercoleptes, from South America. This last very 

 curious animal has a long prehensile tail, an extensile tongue, and the flesh- 

 tooth tuberculated. The Eacoons have three pointed false molars above, 

 and three tuberculated molars. They have a moderately long tail, and 

 live chiefly on animal food, eggs, &c. The Coatimondis have longer tails 

 and sharper snouts than Eacoons, and their feet are semi-palmate, but 

 they have similar dentition, and live on worms, slugs, small animals, and 

 birds' eggs, &c. 



The animals next in succession do not quite bring the heel to the ground 

 in walking, though they often rest on it, and they constitute the 



Tribe, Semi-plantigrada, of Blyth. 



They form part of the Plantigrada of Cuvier, and part also of his 

 Digitigrada, and may be divided into Melidee or Badgers, and their affines ; 

 and Mustelidee or Weasels and Martens ; with a sub-family for the Otters, 

 Lutrince. Blyth, in his Catalogue, classes them ia three sub-families of one 

 great family, Mustelidee. None of them have more than one true molar 

 above, and another below, which, however, vary much in development, and 

 the flesh tooth is most marked in those in which the tuberculate is least 

 developed, and vice versd. The great and small intestines differ little in 

 calibre, and many of them can diffuse at will a disgusting stench. 



Melidid^, Badger-like animals. 



Molars 4, or sometimes 5 above, 4, 5 or 6 in each side in the lower jaw, 

 only one true tuberculated tooth on each side in the upper jaw ; prtemolars 

 compressed and cuttiag ; the flesh-tooth usually with a large blunt tuber- 

 cle on the inside ; ears small, or rudimentary ; anterior feet with large 

 claws, fossorial in some. 



The badgers and their affines differ from the weasels and martens by 

 their heavy form ; stout limbs and more inactive gait, by their decidedly 

 fossorial claws (in some), and their harsh coarse hair ; and in this gi'oup are 

 comprised most of those animals that have the power of diffusing a fetid 

 stench. They are moreover entirely ground animals. They ordinarily 

 erect their tail, and most of them are more or less striped longitudinally. 



