CIVET-CATS. 385 



porary of the giant sloths and glyptodons. A supposed species of 

 the last (S. gracilis) has also been described from a cave deposit in 

 the State of Pennsylvania. Other allied forms are the American 

 genera Dinictis, Nimravns, Pogonodon, and Hoplophoneus, from 

 the Lower Miocene deposits of the "Western United States, whose 

 members were intermediate in size between the lynx and tiger. 

 Eusmilus bidentatus, from the phosphorites of France (Upper 

 Eocene or Oligocene), although the oldest-known form, is, singu- 

 larly enough, in many respects also the most specialised. Contem- 

 poraries with it were Pseudselm-us and iElurogale, the former the 

 representative of the group denominated by Professor Cope the 

 " primitive " non-specialised cats. 



The Vivejridae, or civet-cats, comprise some one hundred or 

 more species of moderate-sized Carnivora, which are in the main 

 restricted to the Ethiopian and Oriental regions. The better-known 

 types are the true civets (Viverra), from North and Tropical Africa, 

 India, China, and the Malay Peninsula ; the genets (Genetta), from 

 Africa (the entire continent), Southwest Asia, and Southern Europe 

 (Prance, Spain); and the ichneumons or mongooses (Berpestes), 

 which are widely distributed over the continent of Africa and Indo- 

 Malaysia. One species of the last is also found in Spain. Among 

 other genera of the family are Viverricula, the rasses, and Para- 

 doxurus, palm-civets (both from Indo-Malaysia), Cynogale, the 

 otter-civets (Borneo), and Cryptoprocta, the last sometimes con- 

 sidered the type of a distinct family, and the largest of the Mada- 

 gascan carnivores. 



Numerous genera, more or less closely allied to recent forms, 

 carry this family back to the early Tertiary period, where (in the 

 phosphorites of Quercy, Prance) we find two or more species repre- 

 senting the genus Viverra itself. Others of the same genus (or 

 possibly Genetta) are found in the French Miocene, and in the 

 Pliocene of the Siwalik Hills. A remarkable viverrine form, show- 

 ing intermediate relationships between the civets and the hyenas, 

 has been described by Professor Gaudry, from the Middle Tertia- 

 ries of Greece and elsewhere, as Ictitherium. 



Three well-differentiated species of hyena are recognised by 



zoologists— the striped hyena (H. striata), from Africa generally 



and Southern Asia; the spotted hyena (H. crocuta) — Africa, south 



of the desertj sometimes placed in a distinct genus, Crocuta; and 



26 



