OTHER VIVERRID/ 
series is a matter of some dispute. There is no doubt, 
of course, that it belongs the the Aeluroid or cat-like 
division of that tribe; but there are those who dwell 
upon its civet-like features, while others urge its greater 
likeness to the true cats of the family Felide. A third 
opinion remains, which is that Cryptoprocta is a slightly 
altered descendant of the creodonta, an extinct race 
of carnivorous mammals from which possibly all the 
existing groups have been derived. The fossa has the 
retractible claws of the cats, coupled with an almost 
plantigrade gait ; the latter quality, of course, not cat- 
like, but a point of resemblance to the Viverride, or 
civets. The tawny colour of the Cryptoprocta cannot 
be put down, like that of the lion, to a fondness for a 
desert environment. And cases like this raise a doubt 
as to how far colour in such instances is the result of an 
adaptation to natural surroundings. Apparently no- 
thing is known of the new-born young of the Cvypio- 
brocta. It will be noticed that the fossa has the normal 
number of five toes upon each limb, and that it has the _ 
elongated muzzle of the viverrines, and not the shortened 
* face of the much modified cats. 
THE MUNGOOSE 
The mungoose (the name isa corruption ofa “ native ”’ 
word, and has of course nothing to do with “ goose’) 
is rather interesting on account of what it does than 
what itis. It is, as a matter of fact, one of the Viver- 
ride, or civets, the apparently more archaic relations 
of the cats. It has the primitive character that many 
of the viverrids have of five toes on each hand and foot. 
The feet are moreover plantigrade and the claws are not 
retractile into sheaths as they are in all true cats, belong- 
ing, that is to say, to the genus Felvs. The colour is 
usually a speckled ‘“ pepper and salt”; but the hues 
vary according to the species, of which this genus 
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