336 ]\Ir. 11. T. Pocock on some of the External 



and Watson's in Crocitta crocuta agree closely with that of 

 Daubenton in H. hyana ; and my observations in connection 

 with the latter species are quite in accord. In Crucuta, 

 however, the skin of the pouch is said by Watson to be 

 ])artially hairy, whereas in Hijoina it seems to be quite 

 smooth. 



Wiieu the tail is lowered, the walls of the pouch are in 

 close apposition and its orifice appears as a curved slit above 

 the anus, the concavity of the curve l)eing downwards. It 

 has a thickened rim, the inferior portion of which is con- 

 tinuous with the naked skin above the anus. Thus the 

 orifices of the pouch and of tlie anus lie one above the 

 other in a large disk of naked skin surrounded by hair, the 

 hair in the middle line below forming a narrow strip above 

 the vulva. The skin of the disk is very soft and pliable, and 

 the pouch is susceptible of considerable dilatation. The 

 orifices of the anal glands lie deeply within it, one on each 

 side of, but not close to, the middle line. They are thus 

 far removed above the anal orifice, a coiuiition not known, 

 so far as I am aware, in any other Carnivore, though fore- 

 shadowed in some mongooses, e. g. Cynictis. 



In the newly-born young the pouch is well develoijed and 

 in the same position as in the adult, but the orifice of the 

 pouch is transverse with the two ends slightly upcurved, 

 instead of downcurved, and this orifice and the anus are 

 sunk in a common depression near the centre of the anal 

 disk. 



Mivart, perhaps (but not certainly) correctly, cites the 

 presence of an anal pouch as evidence of affinity between 

 the hyaenas and the mongooses. There is, however, con- 

 siderable difference between the pouches in the two groups. 

 In the mongooses tiie anus opens near the centre of the 

 pouch, which, apparently in these animals, represents the 

 entire anal disk in the hysenas ; and the margins of the 

 pouch close right over the anus when the pouch is closed. 

 In the mongooses, moreover, the orifices of the two anal 

 glands open into the ])ouch tolerably near the anus, and not 

 very far above it and remote from it as in the hysenas. 



As Murie (Tr. Zt>o1. Soc. vi. p. 505, pi. Ixiii.J described 

 in the case of Hyesna brunnea, the anal glands are enveloped 

 in muscular tissue ; but the glands in H. hyaana differ from 

 those of that species in the following particulars. Li Hycena 

 brunnea it apjjcars that the normal anal gland found in all 

 jlj^luroid Carnivores is tripartite. At all events, Murie figured 

 tiiree closely juxtaposed saccular glands, each with a separate 

 compartment for storage of the secretion, which makes 



