F,rlernal Characfers of the Fi'litla?. I.'^o 



Cftieffa, I'oiana, and Liiinang liavc much more primitive 

 feet. On the other liaiul, Virerricula has a single cordate 

 cai'pal ])a(l, a simple trilohed phintar pad, and a small pollex 

 set ahijost as liigli as in many Felidie. The iiind foot, how- 

 ever, retains a small iiallux ; and it seems tliat the invariable 

 presence of tliis digit is the only character that can be 

 definitely affirmed as distinctive of the feet of the N'iverrime 

 ( Vivtrru, Viven-ien/a, Civetlictis, and Genetta) \\ hen com- 

 pared with those of the Felidas *. 



The Anus and External Genita/la, 



The anus and the external genitalia, both in tlie male and 

 the female, of the Felidte present very little variation in 

 structure. The anus it>elf opens in the centre of a circular 

 area of naked skin, and in the feuiale the skin immediately 

 surrounding tlie vulva is naked or sparsely hairy ; the 

 ) erineal region between the two is short, hairy, and un- 

 modified, and the clitoris is minute. In the male the 

 perineal region is also hairy and unmodified, and tlie pre- 

 p4ice is situated close to the sci'otum. The glans penis is 

 short, subconical, usually armed M'ith backwardly directed 

 spiny papillae, is boneless, or, at most, fortified with a small 

 bone, and the urethra opens close to the tip. 



In its short unmodified perineum, the shortness of the 

 glans penis, and the closeness of the prepuce to the scrotum 

 tiie ano-genital area of Felidie resembles that oi Xandiuia 

 and the Mnngotidse, and, so far as I am aware, of Eupleres and 

 Linsan(/. My acquaintance with the area in Eopleres 

 and Linsany is, however, restricted to the female, and I 

 do not know wliether the pre[)uce is close to the scrotum or 

 not. Fossa is another genus about which very little seems 

 to be actually known with respect to this region, except that 

 the peiineum is unmodified and that the prepuce, judging 

 from dried skins, is situated far in front of the scrotum, 

 a character «hich must be regarded as primitive in the 

 Carnivora. 



80 far as this area is concerned, the Felidas may be dis- 

 til guished from Nund'mia by the ab-ence of the lai'ge scent- 

 gland situated in front of the prepuce and vulva in tluit 

 genus, from the Mungotidse by the absence of the circum- 

 anal glaiuiular sac and the situation of the small urethral 

 orifice at the tip of the glans penis instead of beneath it. 



Of the remaining genera of ^luroids, the A iverridne 



• Ven- exceptionally the Lulkix is preseut in the IVlidfe, I have ?etii 

 it in a lionuti. 



