7 
semblance to other families. The genus Dinictis, above defined, 
has been shown by Leidy to possess two more inferior molars 
than Felis, or three more than Neofelis and Lynx, as in the 
Mustelide. Theextinet Pseudelurus and the living Cryptoprocta 
have but one less molar than Dinictis, lacking the posterior 
tubercular. Nimravus has the same number of molars as Pseu- 
dzlurus, but lacks the first premolar instead of the last truc 
molar. In Hoplophoneus we first find the number of molars as in 
the existing genera, viz., Pm. 3 m. 1. Other characters of this 
- genus are, however, of a generalized kind. 
T here recall the statement that the genera of Felide fall into 
two series, which are distinguished by the forms of the anterior 
part of the mandibular rami, and generally by the large size of 
the canine teeth to which the former are adapted. This distinc- 
tion appeared early-in Miocene, or Oligocene time, in fact in the 
oldest of the cats of which we have any knowledge. The genera 
with large canines or Macherodontine line were then represented 
by Dinictis, and the Feline line by Pseudzlurus. It is interest- 
ing to observe that these genera differed from their latest proto- 
types in the same way, viz.: (1) in the presence of more numer- 
ous inferior molars ; (2) in the presence of a heel of the inferior 
sectorial ; (3) in the absence of an anterior cusp of the superior 
sectorial. In the case of Dinictis one other character of primi- 
tive carnivora may be noticed, viz.: the absence of the cutting 
lobes on the posterior edges of the superior and inferior premolars, 
so distinct in the existing cats. The same feature characterizes 
the superior premolars of Pseudelurus, but the inferior premolars 
have the lobes. In the existing Crypltoprocta, which Gervais has 
shown to be nearly allied: in dentition to Pseudezlurus, the lobes 
are wanting from both jaws, but this genus adds to this primitive 
character another of modern significance, viz., the presence of 
the anterior cusp of the superior sectorial. Moreover Crypto- 
procta has another peculiarity which recalls the genera of the 
Eocene Creodonta, in the well-developed interior tubercle of the 
third premolar, a character unknown in Miocene or existing Car- 
nivora. That genus is evidently, like the Lemuride, also of Mad- 
agascar, a remnant of the Eocene Fauna, which once covered most 
of the earth, and may be regarded as, on the whole, the most 
primitive of the Felidx, recent and extinct. 
Following the two lines of Felide already indicated, we attain 
