422 Mr. R. I. Pocock on some of the External 



Gray, says that the Fossa '' has an anal pouch, and when 

 violently enraged emits a most disagreeable smell, very 

 like that of Mephitis" ; and, according to Pollen, the natives 

 of Madagascar declare that, when prowling round the 

 chicken-pens at night, the animal gives out a fetid odour 

 which instantly kills the fowls. Though doubtless an 

 exaggeration, this statement probably reflects the experience 

 of the natives of the disgusting, very likely suffocating, 

 nature of the scent described by Telfair. 



The External Genitalia. — The scrotum is large as in 

 mongooses and most ^luroids, not small as in Hysenas. 

 The remarkable penis of Cryptoprocta was described and 

 figured by Grandidier and Milne-Edwards and by Carlsson. 

 But the brevity of the descriptions and my inability to 

 reconcile them with my own observations suggest that the 

 organ was imperfectly examined by these authors. I pro- 

 pose, therefore, to describe it at some length before 

 attempting to point out the discrepancies between the 

 observations of the French and Swedish authors and my 

 own. 



The penis is of great length, and in a state of rest the 

 glans is concealed within a sheath attached throughout its 

 length to the abdominal integument, the orifice of the pre- 

 puce opening as far forwards on the abdomen as in the 

 Hyseniflse (fig. 3, A). The skin in front of the prepuce is 

 naked, the prepuce itself and area adjoining it being scantily 

 hairy. 



The glans, lying within the preputial sheath, is of unusual 

 length for the T^luroidea, and, as has been recorded by 

 other authors, is provided with a long curved bone reaching 

 from the tip almost as far back as the attachment of the 

 skin of the prepuce. The curvature of this bone imparts a 

 dorso-ventral curvature to the glans. The distal portion of 

 the glans is everywhere quite smooth for about a third of its 

 length and the smooth area is cylindrical posteriorly, but 

 exhibits a marked expansion, more marked laterally than 

 dorso-ventrally, towards its distal end, but it narrows again 

 before the tip which is blunt. The orifice of the urethra 

 opens just beneath the tip. 



Behind the smooth part the glans is enormously swollen, 

 especially laterally, and this swollen area shows a transverse 

 constriction and is, for the most part, thickly beset with 

 curved sharp spinules, the points of which are directed 

 backwards ; but in the dorsal middle line the shaft or axis of 

 the glans is smooth, except quite at the anterior end of the 

 swollen portion. The swollen part — at all events, when the 



