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XVI. Notice of a Mammiferous Animal from Madagascar, constituting a New Form among 
the Viverridous Carnivora. By E. T. Bennerr, Esq., F.L.S., Sec. Z.8. 
Communicated April 9, 1833. 
MR. TELFAIR, the President of the Mauritius Natural History Society, and a most 
active and liberal Corresponding Member of our body, has recently presented to us an 
animal obtained by him from Madagascar, which exhibits a combination of characters 
hitherto unnoticed. I hasten, therefore, to lay before the Society some account of it, 
although, owing to the youth of the individual, my description of it must at present be 
in some respects incomplete. ; 
It belongs to the family of Viverride among the Carnivorous Mammalia, having the 
prickly tongue, the two tubercular molar teeth in the upper jaw, and the other characters 
by which the Civets are distinguished from the Cats on the one side, and from the Dogs 
on the other. It approaches more nearly than most of the other forms of this family 
to the Felide, having the claws on both feet truly retractile, and furnished with the 
retractile ligaments ; those of the anterior limbs being also acute both at their points 
and edges. In these respects it agrees with Paradoxurus, F. Cuv., as it does also in 
the nakedness of the soles of its feet, and in the union of the toes almost to their ex. 
tremities by an interdigital membrane. From Paradorurus, however, it differs by its 
short, smooth, and adpressed fur, giving it an appearance remarkably distinct from 
animals covered by loose, spreading, and soft hairs; by the uniformly haired coat of its 
slender cylindrical tail, the equal covering of which on all its surfaces appears to indi- 
cate that this organ is not capable of being curled in the manner so remarkable in the 
Paradozuri; and especially by the possession of a pouch surrounding the anus, which 
does not exist in that genus. In Paradorurus Typus, F. Cuv., there are instead of anal 
pouches two bare patches in the female; one surrounding the anus, composed of nu- 
merous small follicles ; the second, surrounding the vagina, and of the size of a crown 
piece, barer, and of a similar glandular nature. In the Madagascar animal there is, on 
the contrary, no naked space surrounding the anus or the vagina; the skin covering the 
intervening space is equally hairy withthe adjoining parts; and there is a pouch sur- 
rounding the anus, of moderate depth, and of half an inch in diameter. The posterior 
margin of this pouch is more distant from the anus than the anterior ; and the anterior 
edge is united to the anus by a fold of the naked skin of the pouch, forming a frenum. 
On account of its possessing an anal pouch, I propose to designate the genus, of which 
this animal may be regarded as the type, by the name of Cryptoprocta. The species 
may be named Cryptoprocta ferow. 
