22 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



VlVERRAVID^. 



Type: Viverravus, skull etc. Table-case. 



The Viverravidae resemble the modern Civets more nearly than 

 any other modern Carnivora. They differ from them in fact in vari- 

 ous primitive characters not very noticeable. The brain-case is much 

 smaller in proportion; the scaphoid and lunar bones are sometimes 

 not united ; but the form and number of the teeth and proportions 

 of the body were not different from those of modern Civets, except 

 that the skull was larger and the limbs were shorter. The}' were 

 probably the ancestors of the modern Carnivora, except the Cat 

 family. (See Fig 8.) 



ViVERRiD^, OR Civets. 



A few specimens of fossil Civets from Europe are shown in the 

 collection. They are not found fossil in America, but it is probable 

 that they are descended, without much change in character, from the 

 Viverravidae shown in the opposite side of the same table-case. 



MUSTELID.«. OR ]\IUSTELIXES. 



Types: Bimcclnrns, Plesictis, Mnstela, Conepatus, skulls. 



The Mustelines are mostly small or of medium size, savage 

 and blood-thirsty, solitary and forest-loving or aquatic. The 

 Otters are aquatic and live mainly on fish; the Badgers are bur- 

 rowing animals, and live mainly on burrowing rodents etc. ; the 

 Martens, Ferrets and Skunks are arboreal and terrestrial. 



These different kinds of Mustelines seem to have separated 

 as early as the OHgocene epoch, for even then we find Martens, 

 Skunks and Otters distinguishable. But they were much more 

 alike then than now, and all of them have many characters link- 

 ing them w'ith the Civets, mdicating that the tw^o families had a 

 common origin. Compare the difference in teeth between Biincc- 

 Inrns and Potamotheriiim with the dift'erence between their modem 

 descendants the ]\Iarten and the Otter; also compare the Bitncc- 

 hirus teeth and skull with those of a civet. Note also the com- 

 paratively small brains of the Oligocene IMustelines as Bunculuriis 

 and Plesictis. Their IMiocene descendants (e. g., Mnstela ogygia 



