10 LÖNNBERG, ON THE FEMALE GENITAL ORGANS OF CRYPTOPROCTA. 



gina. The latter was the case in an old preparate belonging 

 to this museum and labelled -»Uerpcstesyy. 



Tlie papillose coveriug of the transverse rugosities corres- 

 ponding to 0.9 iiteri in the Cryptoprocta reminds one of the 

 »numerous short papillose processes» mentioned by Owen from 

 os fin CCS of the leopard. This might therefore be a feline 

 characteristic. In the Hycena os uteri is smooth (Owen, Wat- 

 son) and non-papillose. On the whole the female genital or- 

 gans of the Cryptoprocta may be said to approach more to 

 the feline than to the viverrine type. ' 



There seems to prevail among the zoologists some discre- 

 pancy as to the systematic position of the Cryptoprocta. 

 Mivart in his admirable paper »on the Classification and 

 Distribution of the 2Eliiroidca>'> ^ elassed it in the family 

 Viverridcc, but let it form a separate subfamily Cryptoproctince, 

 and he expresses his views with the following words: »It seems 

 to me by no means impossible that Cryptop)rocta may be a 

 diverging rootform more or less allied to Crossarchiis and 

 Herpestes>} (1. c. p. 19o). In his note on the anatomy of 

 Cryjjtoprocta Filhol (1. c.) is most inclined to regard it as a 

 cat-like animal as several authors already have done before 

 him. Beddard in writing »on the Visceral and Muscular 

 Anatom}' of Cryptoprocta ferox» ^ calls it »an aberrant Viver- 

 rine», but his work discloses as well feline as viverrine and 

 intermediate characteristics. For my own part I think it 

 most suitable to include the Cryptoprocta, in a familjs of its 

 own to be placed between FcUdcc and Viverridce^ because it 

 has so many affinities with both that it hardly can be placed 

 nearer to one than to the other, at the same time as it has 

 peculiarities of its own. 



* Other feline characteristics are fouiid iii the deutition, the tongue, the 

 spleen (Beddard), the arrangement of soinc muscles (Beddard), the retractile 

 claws, etc. 



2 Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1882. 



3 Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1895. 



