26 
perfectly flexible in every part, and therefore the os penis must be 
either very minute or wanting ; this is another feline character, since 
in the Bears and Weasels, as well as in the Dogs, the bone forms a 
considerable part of the organ. The glans is cylindrical, it tapers a 
little for about six-tenths of an inch, then terminates suddenly in a 
small conical point, in the groove around the base of which is situated 
at the lower part the urethral orifice. The body of the glans has a 
slight median groove beneath, and its whole surface is covered with 
horny spines directed backwards. Cuvier, who alludes to a similar 
peculiarity in the Cats, makes no mention of it, either in the Ichneu- 
mon, the Civet, or the Hyena. Its existence is therefore an interest- 
ing mark of affinity between two genera apparently so dissimilar, al- 
though, from its inconstancy, it will not serve as a character of the 
family. In the Paradoxurus the spines are minute, very numerous, 
and regularly distributed*. 
The same organs in the Jerboa present some peculiarities worthy 
of notice. I will observe, in addition to what has before been described, 
that Cowper’s glands are each curved upon itself in a manner similar 
to the vesicule semimales. The two sharp-pointed bony stylets with 
which the upper part of the glans is armed, and which have been 
mentioned by authors, arise about the middle of the dorsum of the 
glans, one on each side of a prominence of its substance; they are 
gently curved, and rather suddenly pomted at the end. In the re- 
cumbent condition they incline a little towards each other, just over- 
hanging the extremity of the glans, and bear some resemblance to the 
pointed lower incisors of some small Rodent. The glans itself appears 
_ tripartite at the extremity, there being a deep fissure running the whole 
length of its under surface, and just at the extremity another on each 
side: at the meeting-point of the fissures is the urethral orifice. Just 
behind the origin of the bony stylets the presence of a small ossicle 
can be distinctly felt within the substance of the glans. 
A very remarkable peculiarity in this little animal is, that amidst 
the long white hairs which clothe the lower part of the foot is a small 
sharp horny spike, situated just below the base of the middle toe, as if 
it were intended to enter the ground, and thus prevent the animal from 
slipping when it alights. This I have reason to believe is not generally 
known, although it must I think be alluded to by Dr. Shaw in his Ge- 
neral Zoology, since he there remarks, ‘“ There is also a very small spur 
or back-toe, with its corresponding claw:”’ and subsequently adds, 
“nor does any vestige of it appear in the figure given by Dr. Pallas of 
the skeleton.” This may well be, since it is simply a cutaneous deve- 
lopment, having no connection with the skeleton whatever. I have 
looked at the specimens of the Jerboa in the British Museum, but in 
* Since the above was written, I have received the body of a male Coatimondi. 
I alluded to that animal in my former paper, as being placed by Cuvier among the 
list of those possessing the vesicule seminales, which, I observed, required con- 
firmation. I can now assert that they do not exist; the walls of the vasa defe- 
rentia are swollen immediately before these vessels enter the urethra, and the 
prostate has a more sudden projection at its upper end than I have observed in 
the musteline animals that I have dissected. The absence of the vesicule semi- 
nales is then a constant character of the true Carnivora. 
