NEW GENUS OF CARNIVORA. 65 



indeed are apt to assimilate in most of the carnivora.* The canines, how- 

 ever, are thicker, shorter and blunter in our animal than in the Otter. The 

 molars, too, of both are formed upon the same ultimately sectorial model 

 and have a similar arrangement in the skulls : but they are fewer in num- 

 ber in Ursitaxus ; and the trenchant processes of the crowns are almost 

 obliterated. And, as if to defy all exclusiveness of system on our part, the 

 Otter, with its sharp processes, has a very large flattish heel to the upper 

 carnivorous tooth, and an extremely broad transverse tubercular behind it. 

 On the other hand, the heel of the same tooth in Ursitaxus, though flatter, 

 is smaller ; and the tuberculous tooth behind it exhibits a much less, but 

 a smoother, surface. I regret that I have no Badger's skull wherewith to 

 compare that of the Ursitax. Independently, as far as may be, of all 

 comparisons the skull and teeth of our animal have the following characters. 



The Skull. It is very thick and solid with numerous rugosities all over 

 its surface ; is rather depressed than compressed, and very slightly but 

 uniformly arched along the vertical line : parietes amply developed, afford- 

 ing a large cerebral cavity and shallow temporal fossae : the cristas of medial 

 height, but running unbrokenly from the bifurcation of the brows to the 

 zygomatic arches ; their chief development being at the point where they 

 sweep round to join those arches : frontal bones of considerable length 

 and width : nasal, short but wide : both slightly convexed across ; and, 

 lengthwise, the former convex, the latter, sub-concave : malar bones 

 uncompressed, with two small infra-orbitar foramina on either side : 

 zygomatic arches, short, stout, considerably bulged outwards : orbits medial, 

 very incomplete, there being no process from the zygoma, and but a small 

 one from the os frontis : frontal sinuses medial or largish : occipital bones 

 dipt vertically from the junction of the lambdoidal and sagittal sutures, 



* In the form of tlie incisor teeth Ursitaxus differs entirely from Mydaus with which 

 animal it has several points of affinity. Other differences occur in the structure of the ears and 

 of the extremities — not to mention the cardinal distinction between the molar teeth of the two. 



R 



