31G Mr. R. I. Pocock on the Genus Fossa. 



is naked, but in some it is partially hairy, suggesting that the 

 nakedness is due to post-mortem " slipping " of the hair. 

 This is, I think, the probable, but not the certain, explanation. 



In the hind foot the hallucal lobe (A/.) is very large, as 

 large as the internal lateral lobe of the plantar pad, with the 

 posterior angle of which it is in contact. A little way above 

 this and separated from it by a hairy tract is a small, narrow, 

 bilobed, metatarsal pad like that of Civettictis and representing 

 the area of the double metatarsal streak, where it bifurcates 

 interiorly, in Genetta. Above this little metatarsal pad in 

 Poiana there is a narrow streak of naked integument 

 which extends about as far along the underside of the meta- 

 tarsus as the manifestly double ridge in Genetta. 



The digital pads in both fore and hind feet are small and 

 surrounded by velvety hairs; the claws are completely 

 retractile and are probably guarded basally by skin-lobes. 



The Genus Fossa. 



Disregarding the absence of the scent-pouch, Mivart 

 classified Linsang and Poiana with Viverra, Viverricula, and 

 Genetta. He also placed in that category the Mascarene 

 genus Fossa, which also has no scent-pouch, comparing it 

 more particularly, but for no very obvious reason, with 

 Viverricula. Although unable to give a diagnosis of any 

 value of this group, he yet spoke of it as an assemblage of 

 closely allied forms, a claim which, in my opinion, cannot be 

 maintained. 



Of the genus Fossa I have seen only three dried skins of 

 adult animals — namely, two of F. fossa and one of F. majori J 

 all in the British Museum. I can find no trace of the gland 

 in these. In the best-preserved example (PI. XIII. fig. 4) 

 the area between the anus and the prepuce is continuously 

 hairy, and special attention must be drawn to the position 

 of the prepuce far in advance of the scrotal area, as in Crypto- 

 jwocta, which also has no such pouch. I believe the first- 

 recorded evidence as to the absence of these glands in Fossa 

 is the statement of M. Poivre, quoted by Mivart, that he 

 discovered no scent-pouch and observed no perfume in a 

 freshly killed example*. 



In Fossa the legs (PI. XIII. figs. 5, 6) are slender and elon- 

 gate, the paws are much less furry than in Poiana and Linsang, 



* M. Poivre also said, however, that the natives of Madagascar assured 

 him that the male "fossane," when " on heat," has a strong odour of 

 musk. I strongly suspect that this apparent contradiction is due to con- 

 fusion between two animals, and that the Malagasy natives were referring, 

 not to Fossa, but to Viverricula, which also occurs, but doubtless by 

 importat ion, in Madagascar. 



