NEW GENUS OF CARNIVORA. 



67 



heels of the carnivorous teeth of the same jaw. The molars gradually 

 increase in size as they recede from the canines in the lower jaw ; but, in 

 the upper, the carnivorous tooth is considerably larger than the tubercular; 

 which latter is of the form of an oblong, narrow, parallelogram, with a per- 

 fectly smooth concave crown. All the molars are fanged and essentially 

 constructed as in the digitigrade or normal carnivora ; but, owing to the 

 nearly obsolete development of the cutting processes of their crowns, they 

 bear a character t)f greater resemblance to the molars of the typical plan- 

 tigrades. 



The scissor action or true cutting process must in respect to these 

 teeth be limited to the carnivorous ones, and even there be more than 

 matched by the crushing action of one crown on another. The whole of the 

 molars are longer considerably than broad : but they are almost as evidently 

 broader than high. Heretofore it has been remarked that in proportion to 

 the diminished number of the molars is the high development of their 

 sectorial attributes : but in Ursitaxus we have molars less only in number 

 than those of the cats proper, which yet are distinguished for the remark- 

 able flatness of their crowns.* 



Deeply imbedded in the cellular membrane at the outlet of the pelvis 

 and centrally on either side the large anus, the Ursitaxus has an oblong, 

 spheroidal, hollow gland, which communicates, by a distinct tubular canal, 

 with a round pore opening on the caudal margin of the anus. Each gland 

 is 1^ inch long and | wide, being large enough to contain a walnut ; and 

 each has its own canal and its own pore. These pores or anal orifices of 

 the glands are about | of an inch apart. The ducts uniting them with the 

 glands take a superior direction to open at the upper margin of the anus, 



* I make due allowance for detrition by use owing to the age of my specimen : but there 

 still remains a remarkable flatness of crown in the molars, greatly exceeding that of the semi- 

 frugivorous Paradoxuri for example. Such teeth, being only sixteen in total number, of which 

 but two are tuberculous, constitute surely a singular and unique type amongst the Carnivora. 



