MANGUSTA JAV4NICA. 
and the Viverra Civetta of Linnseus. It displays strongly the character of an 
animal devoted to the chace. The sagittal and occipital sutures are in a slight degree 
more elevated than in Viverra; the skull is likewise somewhat more distended or 
inflated posteriorly, and truncated in a more vertical manner, The forehead is 
rather lengthened, and the posterior portion of the mastoid process of the temporal 
bone has an oval swelling or enlargement, which is not observed in Viverra, but which 
exists, according to the observation of M. Geofrroy, in several of the Mustelse. 
In the interior of the skull, the osseous tentorium cerebelli is very extensive. 
The orbit of the eye is complete posteriorly. The lower jaw, at the juncture of 
the two lateral portions, is much more strong and robust than in the other genera 
of this family, with which I have compared it. 
The teeth offer the following particulars. The front teeth in the upper jaw 
are arranged .with perfect regularity, but the outer tooth on each side exceeds the 
others both in length and breadth, and tends to an oblique point ; on its internal 
surface, an oblique groove is formed by the attrition of the corresponding tooth in 
the lower jaw. The canine teeth are long, conical, and erect. There are six grinders, 
the three anterior of which are greatly compressed, and constitute false grinders. 
The first tooth is very minute, and often wanting; it has posteriorly an obscure 
additional heel ; in the second and tliird the heel appears anteriorly and posteriorly, 
and the latter is further provided with an interior acuminated tubercle. The fourth 
tooth is very large, and being broad anteriorly, and narrow behind, it leaves an 
extensive triangular vacancy, fitted for the reception of the longest point of the 
fifth grinder of the lower jaw ; along its outer margin is one high projecting point 
with a small single anterior, and a double posterior tubercle ; it is further provided 
with a very large heel projecting far internally, and terminated by a sharp point of 
considerable length. The triangular space remaining between the fourth grinder and 
the posterior teeth furnishes an example of the peculiar provision in many carnivo- 
rous animals for most effectual mastication, and also of the propriety of denominating 
this tooth, the carnivorous tooth, in distinction from the anterior false grinders, and 
the posterior tuberculous teeth. The fifth and sixth grinders are transversely disposed, 
narrow, and provided with several tubercles. Their points are, on the whole, more 
acute and elevated than in the teeth of other animals of this family. 
In the lower jaw the outer front teeth exceed the others in breadth; the next, 
adjoining teeth diverge internally from the general series, and the intermediate teeth 
are narrower and shorter. The canine teeth are conical, slightly arched, somewhat 
swelled at the base, but without any projecting ridge. The four anterior grinders 
are compressed and successively larger* The first, as in the upper jaw, is sometimes 
