CHAPTER XVII. 
car 
Carnivores,— continued. 
The Raccoon Family. 
Family PnoCYONIDJE. 
The raccoons and their allies constitute a very small family of Carnivores, which, 
with the exception of one outlying and somewhat aberrant genus, are confined to 
America, and are very characteristic of the central and southern portions of that 
continent. Their nearest allies are the bears, with which they appear to be 
connected by the panda, of which the teeth present some 
resemblance to those of the parti-coloured bear. The skull 
has the same essential characteristics as in the bears, and 
the accompanying illustration of the right half of the skull 
in one of the raccoons is intended to show the position 
of the tympanic bulla, and its general form and relations in 
the present family and in the two allied families of the 
bears and the weasels. 
The raccoons agree with the bears in their plantigrade 
feet (as is well exhibited in our figure of the panda), but 
differ in that they have only two, in place of three, molar 
teeth in the lower jaw. The upper molar teeth are, more¬ 
over (as shown in the accompanying figure), usually of the 
same general type as those of the dogs, having squared or 
triangular crowns, and being generally elongated in the 
transverse rather than in the antero-posterior direction; 
while the second of these teeth is smaller, instead of larger, 
than the first. Moreover, the flesh - tooth in each jaw 
approaches the ordinary carnivorous type, and is thus 
very different from the corresponding tooth of the modern 
bears; it has, however, three lobes to the blade, and a very 
large inner tubercular portion. 
The members of the raccoon family are all animals 
, n • i ,i Trr* i n • The letters am. indicate 
of comparatively small size; and they differ markedly m the entrance to the tympanic 
general appearance from the bears in having well-developed hulla, which is the swelling 
tails, which may be of great length. Very generally the indicate d by car. The other 
hair of the tail is marked by alternate dark and light rings, letters indicate the various 
The whole of these animals are good climbers, and they ^Afte^SbTw "u 
are generally of more or less exclusively nocturnal habits. Flower.) 
THE RIGHT HALF OF THE 
PALATAL ASPECT OF THE 
SKULL OF THE CACO- 
MISTLE. 
