In anatomical characters, as well as in external appearance, the animals are related both to the Cat family and to the Hyænas, as will be seen by comparing the various points of their structure with those of the two families just named. They are mostly long-bodied, short-legged animals, with stiffish fur, a long tail, and a sharp muzzle. They walk on their toes, of which they have five on each foot, like Cats; many of them, however, keeping the wrist and ankle much nearer the ground than the Cats do, and being consequently distinguished as _semi-plantigrade_. They also wander from the regular Cat-structure in the matter of their claws, which are only _half_ retractile, the elastic ligament not attaining the same perfection as in the Cats. Thus we conclude that in this respect, at any rate, the Civets are less _specialised_ than the Cats proper; they approach more nearly to the central plan of Mammalian structure, and are less perfect as Carnivores. We shall see that the same is the case with respect to their other characters, such as the skull and teeth. The skull is not unlike what a Cat’s would be if it were put on the bed of Procrustes and pulled out; for, in correspondence with the length of the snout in these creatures, the face part of the skull is long in comparison with the brain-containing part. The cheek-arches, also, are by no means so broad as in the _Felidæ_, in correspondence with the less size of the jaw muscles. But the character of the base of the skull is pretty much the same. There is, as in Cats, the large swollen _bulla_, or ear-drum bone, the small opening flush with the outer wall of the bulla, and the clamping bone closely applied to its hinder wall. [Illustration: TEETH OF CIVET.] The teeth of the Civets present many interesting differences from those of the Cat tribe. In the first place, in accordance with the less perfectly carnivorous habit of the group, the jaws are longer, and, consequently, not so powerful as in the Cat; the number of teeth also is considerably increased. The incisors and canines remain the same, but the premolars are increased to four, and the molars to two on each side of each jaw,[75] so that there are no less than forty teeth, instead of thirty only, as in the Cats. Then the form of the teeth is altered; the canines are of far less proportional size, not having the same amount of hard work to do as the great dog teeth of the Lion or Tiger; the grinders, too, lose their scissor-blade form, and exhibit on their upper surfaces little lumps, or _cusps_, thereby developing a grinding surface such as no Cat has. This is especially the case in the Paradoxures, or Palm-Cats, which have quite lost all carnivorous habits, and feed chiefly on the fruit of palm-trees. THE AFRICAN CIVET.[76]