344 Mr. Pi. I. Pocock on the Genus Linsang. 



in drawing or to individual variation; but until this lias been 

 ascertained by further observations upon the feet in specimens 

 freshly killed or preserved in alcohol, I think it would be 

 unwise to make use of the recorded differences in the pads in 

 discriminating the species of this genus, especially as dried 

 skins from Sikkim and Burma in the British Museum do 

 not bear out the view that the pollical and hallucal lobes are 

 separated by hairy tracts from the plantar pads. Neverthe- 

 less, on morphological grounds, the upward migration of the 

 hallucal element of the plantar pad, which, at all events, has 

 taken place in L. linsang, whatever may be the case in L. 

 •pardicolor, only occurs in one other genus of the Viverrida3 

 — namely Fossa, from Madagascar. 



The Perineal Region. — In the characters considered 

 hitherto, there is nothing in the structure of Linsang 

 warranting its separation from the group containing Genetta, 

 Givettictis, Viverra, and Viverricula, with which it is by 

 common consent associated. That is to say, Linsang does 

 not differ from those genera more than they differ from each 

 other, except in the character of the ear. 



But there is one character, in my opinion important and 

 fundamental, which enforces the exclusion of Linsang from 

 that category — namely, the absence of the scent-pouch. The 

 evidence for this, which is, I think, conclusive, may be 

 briefly given. Of L. pardicolor, Hodgson wrote, " like the 

 cats, Prionodon is void of either anal* or pubic glands or pores, 

 so that the living animals are perfectly free from all offensive 

 odour or peculiar scent " (Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. viii. p. 42, 

 1847). This statement, so far as the scent-gland is concerned, 

 was confirmed by Mivart on a specimen which I judge by 

 its feet belonged to L. maculosus (P. Z. S. 1882, p. 168). 

 He wrote : — " Not only was there no opening between the 

 penis and testes, but no glandular stricture in that situation 

 beneath the skin could be detected either by me or by 

 Mr. William Pearson, who assisted me in the dissection." 

 Finally, Blanford, who had in 1878 a specimen of L. maculosus 

 preserved in alcohol (Journ. A*. Soc. Bengal, xlvii. pt. 2, 

 p. 152, 1878), said ten years later, " No prescrotal glands." 



In the female example of L. linsang, from Sumatra, in the 

 British Museum, the vulva is close to the anus, being separated 

 therefrom by a narrow strip of hairy skin exhibiting no trace 

 whatever of glandular lobes or pouch (PI. XII. fig. 7). 

 There are thus two particulars in which this region differs 



* The anal glands, as a matter of fact, are present. Possibly Hodgson 

 was referring to the glandular anal pouch he was probably familiar with 

 in mongooses. 



