364 



Nachdruck verboten. 



On the Foetal Membranes, Placentation and Parturition of the 

 Native Cat (Dasyurus viverriniis). 



By Jas. P. Hill, B. Sc. (Edin.), F. L. S., 



Demonstrator of Biology in the University of Sydney, N. S. W., 



George Heriot Research Fellow, Edinburgh University. 



With 1 Figure. 



The present paper contains a short summary of the main results, 

 so far as concerns the later uterine stages, of an extended research 

 now in progress on tlie development of Dasyurus. As it will be 

 some considerable time before the full paper is completed and as the 

 results already gained are of unexpected interest it has been deemed 

 advisable to present this abstract for early publication. 



Dasyurus has been found to live and breed fairly well in 

 captivity: through this fortunate circumstance a practically complete 

 series of later uterine stages has been obtained, and this has served 

 as the material for the present paper. 



I desire to express my indebtedness to my friend Prof. T. T. 

 Wilson for kind suggestion and advice and also to my friend Mr. 

 T. Steel, F. C. S., F. L. S., for very great help in securing a supply 

 of the living animals, some hundred of which have during the last 

 year passed through my hands. 



The research is being carried out with the aid of a grant from 

 the Royal Society and during my tenure of a George Heriot 

 Research Fellowship. To the respective Committees concerned in 

 the allocation of these funds I desire to express my grateful thanks. 



Gestation. 

 Owing to the circumstance that a very variable period intervenes 

 between the act of coition and fertilization of the ova, it is exceed- 

 ingly difficult to obtain certain data as to the period of gestation. 

 All I am able to say on this point is that the shortest period ob- 

 served between coitus and the birth of the young was a little over 

 eight days, so that the time of gestation probably does not exceed 

 this period. It will be remembered that Selenka^) gives the gest- 



1) Selenka, Studien über Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere. IV 

 (1 and 2). Das Opossum (Didelphys virginiana). Wiesbaden 1886. 



