390 CLASSIFICATION OF CARNIVORA chap. 



subdivisions. The caecum is never large, and may be, as in tlie 

 Bear tribe, completely absent. 



The distribution of the Carnivora is world-wide, excluding only 

 the Australian region, if, as seems probable, the Dingo of that 

 region is an introduced species. The most striking features in 

 their distribution are perhaps the following : — There are no Bears 

 in the Ethiopian region or in Madagascar, and but a single species 

 in the ISTeotropical. The only Carnivora in Madagascar are the 

 ^^iverridae, and of the seven genera there found six are peculiar. 

 The Procyonidae are nearly entirely New World in range ; out of 

 sixteen genera of Mustelidae only five are New World, and only 

 two of those are peculiar to the American continent. The 

 Hyaenidae are limited to the Old World. 



The classification of the Carnivora is a matter which is 

 difficult, and which has therefore been very variously effected. 

 It is unfortunate that the classification of Flower (based upon 

 the researches of H. N. Turner as well as his own, and accepted 

 liy ilivart) should fail when applied to fossil forms. For it 

 separates with great clearness the existing genera into three 

 great divisions, the Cynoidea, Aeluroidea, and Arctoidea, definable 

 by visceral as well as by osteological characters. The apparent 

 anomaly, too, of a single supposed Vi\'crrine genus, to wit 

 Bassariscus, existing in America, while all the rest of its kin 

 are Old -World forms, was shown by his characters to be 

 neither an anomaly nor a fact. It will be better, therefore, 

 to divide the Carnivora into the families, Felidae, Machae- 

 rridontidae, A'iverridae, Hyaenidae, Canidae, Ursidae, Procyonidae, 

 and Mustelidae, indicating at the same time the reasons 

 for and against retaining the three divisions of Sir W. 

 Flower. 



Fam. 1. Felidae.^ — This family includes only the Cats {i.e. Lions, 

 Tigers, " Cats," Hunting Leopard, etc.), and is to be distinguished 

 by the following characters : — In the skull the auditory bulla is 

 much inflated, and there is an internal septum ; the paroccipital 

 processes are flattened against the bullae. There is no ali- 

 sphenoidal canal. The dental formula is I 3, C 1, Pm 3 to 2, 

 M 1. The carnassial tooth of the upper jaw has three lobes to 

 the blade ; that of the lower jaw is without an inner cusp. 



^ See St. G. Mivart "On the Aeluroidea," Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 135 : and 

 The Cat, London, J. Murray, 18S1. 



