1120 On the Cat-toed Sub-plantigrades. [Nov. 



treme bend of the rami of the lower jaw, the enormous size of the 

 posteal and vertical portion of the lower jaw, the elevate position of its 

 condyles, the small size and inward inclination of the occipital plane, 

 the high position of the occiput with respect to the whole scull, lower 

 jaw included, its low position with respect to the encephalon, or gene- 

 rally to the whole scull without the lower jaw, the great size of the alee or 

 crura of the occiput, the extreme smallness of the auricular tympana and 

 generally of the organs of sense, the very deep cylindric hinging of the 

 jaws, yet so as to admit much lateral motion, the breadth of the upper 

 jaw and teeth, the narrowness of the lower jaw and teeth, and the conse- 

 quent high lateral action whereby alone their crowns can grind on each 

 other, the perfectly triturant character of the molars, consisting not only 

 in their breadth and flatness of crown, but in the admission into their 

 composition of the soft dark substance of ruminant teeth — all these 

 are characters of the scull which in their combination it would be in 

 vain to look for in any other genus of the Carnivora, and many of which 

 seem to approximate the Ailuri rather to the Ruminant than Ferine 

 model. To the cat's scull there is not more resemblance than to the 

 Bear's, for in Ailurus as compared with Felis the culmenal line is as 

 much more bent down a parte post, as it is less so a parte ante ; and 

 short and inclined as is the face in Ailurus, it is as much longer and 

 straighter than that of Felis as it is shorter and less straight than that 

 of Ursus. The general style and proportion of the nasals, frontals and 

 parietals of Ailurus are much nearer to those of the same bones in the 

 Screwtails, the Martens, the Badgers, the Bear-Badgers, the Helictes 

 and the Urvas, than in the Cats or Bears ; and in the form and size of 

 the orbits and of the frontals there is an extreme similitude amounting 

 almost to identity with the former — an utter contrast with the cats, 

 with Ursus less contrariety. In Ailurus the nasals are short and a 

 little retrousse ; the frontals moderately broad and arched lengthwise 

 and across ; the temporal depressions moderate but distinct ; the orbits 

 small and very incomplete ; the zygomse very ample and terminating 

 posteally and inferiorly in large semi-cylindric processes that serve to 

 hinge the jaws so completely as to render separation of them even 

 more difficult than in Meles or Taxidea ; the parietes ample in length, 

 breadth and swell, though the cristse, as well as the temporal fosses, be 

 decided — as much so as in the Badgers and Screwtails, more so than 



