516 Mr. R. I. Pocock on the 
Family Mungotide. 
Mungotoid Carnivora distinguished by the combination of 
a number of positive and negative characters, of which the 
principal are :— 
The secretion of the anal glands, the orifices of which are 
outside the anus, is discharged into a nearly naked, glan- 
dular, cutaneous sack capable of being closed by the juxta- 
position of the upper and lower halves of its thickened rim. 
Perineal scent-gland absent in both sexes. 
Vulva close beneath lower rim of anal sack. 
Prepuce close to scrotum. 
Glans penis short, with orifice on its lower surface ; 
baculum present. 
Feet with fossorial, non-retractile, usually long claws, and 
pollex and hallux, when present, arising just above the 
plantar pad. 
Ear rounded, small or moderate, without marginal bursa, 
and with antero-internal ridge (intratragus) curving abruptly 
backwards beneath the supratragus, and high above the 
intertragal notch. 
Resembling the Hyzenides and Cryptoproctide in the 
possession of an anal sack and the absence of preputial scent- 
gland, but differing from them in the smaliness of the penis, 
tle proximity of the prepuce to the scrotum, ete. The last 
character mentioned and the absence of the preputial gland 
distinguish them from the Viverridse (Viverra, Puradozxurus, 
etce.). They approach the Galidictide in the structure of the 
feet and in cranial characters, but differ in the presence of 
tle anal sack, the absence of the perineal gland and of the 
bursa in the ear, and in the presence of an alisphenoid canal 
or of a groove representing it. 
Characters and Classification of the Genera of Mungotide. 
In 1864, and in papers published after that date, Gray 
made use of the presence and absence of the naked area of 
skin cleaving the upper lip as a character of primary impor- 
tance in classifying the mongooses. He even divided them 
into two families—the Herpestidee and Rhinogalidea—on that 
basis. 
‘{homas also chose this as the leading feature in grouping 
‘the genera of African mongooses, the number of toes coming 
next in order, then the premolar teeth, and, finally, the 
hairiness of the sole of the hind foot (P. Z. S. 1882, pp. 62- 
63). But whether the analytical key compiled on those lines 
