-like form, sometimes with an additional twist. The Dogs have, as a rule, five toes, one being dropped in Lycaon. The tail is fairly long and distinctly bushy. There is in a number of species a gland at the root of the tail, the presence of which can frequently be detected by the wet appearance due to the oozing secretion. The great majority of existing Canidae belong to the genus Canis. But certainly three, and more doubtfully four, other genera can be distinguished.
The genus Icticyon contains but one recent species, the Bush Dog (I. venaticus, Lund) of British Guiana. The animal has a somewhat Paradoxure-like, at any rate a distinctly un-dog-like, aspect, being longish in the body (some 2 feet long), shortish in the legs, and big-headed. It is blackish in colour, verging towards golden brown on the head and back. Sir W. Flower, to whom we owe our chief knowledge of its structure, characterises it as like a young Fox, and with the playful manners of a puppy. The animal appears to hunt in packs and by scent, and has a reputation for ferocity. Icticyon differs from Canis and agrees with the Indian Cuon in having but forty teeth, the last molar having disappeared from the upper and lower jaws. The caecum, unlike that of the majority of Canidae, is only slightly curved. The brain, oddly enough, shows a Cat-like peculiarity. It has been pointed out that in their long bodies and short legs the genera Cuon and Icticyon resemble the primitive dogs.[[278]]
A genus Nyctereutes is usually separated from Canis for the inclusion of N. procyonides only. The separation is based upon
the strikingly unusual coloration of this Dog. It is a small animal, with numerous long white hairs dorsally. The face, chest, and much of the belly are black. Its aspect distinctly recalls that of a Raccoon,[[279]] especially in the black patches below the eyes, whence of course the scientific name and the pseudo-vernacular "Raccoon-like Dog." It inhabits China and Japan. As to structure, there is hardly anything that justifies its exclusion from the genus Canis. Garrod, however, mentions the unusually large size of the Spigelian lobe of the liver.
Fig. 206.—Raccoon-like Dog. Nyctereutes procyonides. × 1⁄6.
Wortman and Malkens[[280]] have instituted a genus Nothocyon for Dr. Mivart's species C. urostictus[[281]] and C. parvidens, which are both South American forms.
The genus Otocyon contains but one species, O. megalotis, an African species, ranging pretty widely in that continent (from the Cape to Somaliland, in sandy districts), and sometimes confused with the Fennec on account of its long ears. Its principal structural difference from other Dogs is that there is an additional molar in each jaw, the molar formula being thus M 3/4 or even 4/4. Moreover the carnassial teeth are not so pronounced, and Professor Huxley laid especial stress upon the
likeness of some of the cheek teeth to those of the more primitive Arctoids. The angle of the lower jaw is inflected, a character, however, which seems to be more general than is usually allowed among animals not referable to the Marsupials. It is possible that Otocyon is a persistent Creodont-like form which has developed in a direction curiously, and in a most detailed fashion, parallel to the Dogs. If, however, we may assume the addition of the molar, then this anomalous but not necessarily untenable conclusion is obviated.