CHAPTER XIV. 
Carnivores,— continued. 
Civets, Aard-Wolf, and Hyaenas. 
The Carnivores described in the present chapter are those which exhibit the nearest 
affinity to the cats; and they are arranged in three distinct families. The first 
of these families includes the civets and their allies, and is represented by a large 
number of species; the second contains only a single species, the African aard- 
wolf ; while the third is formed by the hyaenas, of which there are three species 
now living. The whole assemblage is strictly confined to the Old World—both at 
the present day, and mainly also in earlier epochs of the earth’s history; 1 and all 
of the species are inhabitants of the warmer regions of that hemisphere, none 
of them ranging into the strictly northern countries. 
These animals agree with the cats (and thereby differ from all other 
Carnivores) in certain characters connected with the skull, and also in regard to 
the anatomy of their soft parts. The most obvious feature in connection with 
the skull is to be found on the under-surface in the region of the internal portion 
of the ear. Here the so-called bulla, lying immediately behind the cavity for the 
articulation of the lower jaw, is always inflated into a bladder-like form; the in¬ 
ternal cavity of this bladder-like chamber being, except in the hyaenas, divided into 
two compartments by a vertical partition of bone. 
The Civet Tribe. 
Family VlVERRlDJE. 
Under the general title of civets may be included not only the animals to 
which that term is properly applicable, but likewise a number of more or less 
closely-allied Carnivores, such as genets, ichneumons or mungooses, palm-civets, 
linsangs, etc. This assemblage includes a much more diversified group than that 
represented by the Cat family, and is, therefore, much less easy of definition; 
the difficulty being considerably increased by one very aberrant species from 
Madagascar which connects the more typical members of the family very closely 
with the cats. 
The whole of these animals have, however, more elongated faces than the cats, 
and their bodies are also longer, and their legs shorter than in the members of that 
family, not even excepting the peculiar eyra. They have a larger number of 
1 An extinct Caniivore recently described from North America has been referred to the hyaenas. 
