546 



LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



one there was a vestige of the heel. The upper canine was 

 considerably longer than the lower, thinner and more blade- 

 like than in Felis, which, so far as it goes, is in favour of Dr. 

 Matthew's theory (p. 541). What Httle 

 is known of the skull and skeleton of 

 ^Pseudceluncs agrees with the modern cats. 

 While it is not feasible to trace the 

 series of true feUnes to an earlier stage 

 than the middle Miocene, there can be no 

 doubt that the subfamily was derived 

 from the same stock as the fn^^'Chairo- 

 donts and it is probable that the White 

 River \Dinictis nearly represents the com- 

 mon starting point for both series; the 

 resemblances between ^Dinidis and such 

 primitive dogs as ^Daphoenus are sugges- 

 tive of a common origin. 



3. Procyonidce. ' Raccoons, etc. 



An almost exclusively American family 

 Fig. 272.— Leftmanusof of Fissipedia is that of the raccoons, which 

 Donxestic Cat (Felis do- jncludes uot Only the latter (Procyon), but 



mestica, after Jayne). •' \ a / 7 



The horny claws are left also the coatis (Nasuo), curfous animals, 

 uuiphararg"^ ^^^ '"^ith long, flexible, pig-hke snouts, the 

 cacomistles (Bassariscus) and kinkajous 

 (Potos). In addition to these American forms, there is an out- 

 lying Asiatic genus, the Panda {Mlurus) of the southeastern 

 Himalayas, the last of a series which goes back to the Euro- 

 pean Pliocene. 



The Procyonidse are animals of small and moderate size, 

 largely arboreal in habits and subsisting upon a mixed diet 

 of fruit, eggs, insects and the like; the teeth are adapted to 

 this diet and the sectorials have mostly lost their shearing 

 form and the molars are tuberculated for crushing and grind- 

 ing. The species generally have long tails, except in the rac- 



