Mr. E. I. Pocock on lite Genus Fossa. 347 



and tlie digital pads are larger. If the term " feline " be 

 ap))lied to tlie feet of the African and Asiatic genera, " canine " 

 "would better express the character of those of Fossa. Tlie 

 claws appear to be very imperfectly, if at ail, retractile, and the 

 space between the plantar and digital pads is naked or bears 

 three patches of hair. The ))lantar pad is trilobed, subsyni- 

 metrical, and smooth and the lateral lobes of the pad project 

 some distance behind the median lobe. Attached to the 

 posterior angle of the internal lateral lobe of the fore foot is 

 a small pollical lobe (pL), close to which lies the digital pad of 

 the pollex, the poUex itself being short and separated by a 

 comparatively long interval from the digital pad of the second 

 digit. Tiiere is a single, undivided, conical, carpal pad some 

 distance above the plantar pad, the intervening space being 

 entirely covered with hair, completely isolating the carpal 

 pad (c). 



In the hind feet the short hallux is set higher above the 

 plantar pad than in any genus of Viverrlda3, not excepting 

 Viverricula, and the very small hallucal lobe (pi.) of the 

 ))lantar pad is withdrawn from that pad in company with 

 tlie hallux and simulates a second digital pad for that digit. 

 The metatarsus is entirely covered with hair, except for a 

 very small submtdian pad {ml.) lying nearly midway between 

 the plantar pad and the heel. ■ 



Judging from the limbs, Fossa is the most digitigrade of 

 the Viverridee, and appears to be adapted for swift running 

 rather than for climbing ; but it does not appear to me that the 

 differences between its feet and those of Linsang and Poiana 

 are greater or of higher systematic value than those between 

 the feet of the Viverrine genera Givettictis and Genetta, the 

 former being a teiTestrial and the latter an actively scansorial 

 animal. On the other hand, it must be remembered that 

 Fossa and some of the species of Linsang are the only repre- 

 sentatives of the Viverridee in which the hallucal element of 

 the plantar pad is separated by a hairy tract from that pad. 



Provisionally, therefore, but quite provisionally pending 

 the examination of fresh material. Fossa may be classified 

 with Linsang and Poiana, despite its more generalized 

 dentition, attested by the presence of two well-developed 

 np))er molars behind the carnassial, pni*, which is situatinl 

 well in advance of the posterior root of the maxillary portion 

 ot the zygomatic arch — broadly speaking, a Paradoxurine as 

 opposed to a Viverrine character. In Linsang and Poiana, 

 on the contrary, there is only one small upper molar behind 

 the carnassial, which is set close to the posterior root of the 

 niaxillarv portion of the zygomatic arch, as in the Viverriiiue. 



24* 



