352 



Mr. l\. I. Pocock on some 



Tlic confidence I place in tliis gland, as an important 

 ciiteiion of affinity ami as a basis tor tlie classification of tlio 

 Vive ridae, is admittedly foundetl on two assumptions: first, 

 tliat a sjiecialised or^an o£ that description when once 

 acqnired and elaborated is not likely to be eliminated, wilb- 

 out some radical change in mode of life depriving it of its 

 usefulness; and, second, tbat there is nothing to justify the 

 view that it has been acquired twice, or more times, within 

 the limits of this group of yEliu-o'.d carnivores. 



I therefore attach to it a systematic value higher than that 

 accorded to the feet or teeth which, there is evidence to show, 

 are oigans of a high degree of plasticity along certain lines, 

 the teeth altering in size, shape, and position apparently in 

 accordance with diet, and the feet becoming modified in the 

 direction of digitigradism and other particulais according to 

 the mode of progression required by the nature of the soil, 

 the change from terrestrial to scansorial habits, or vice vcisfi. 

 The ISceiit-'jlaiuL — Adopting tiie scent-ghmd as a criterion, 

 the .systematic position of the three remaining Mascarene 

 genera, GaluUn, Suhmoia, and Galidictis, and the recently 

 established Mungotictis (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) xvi. 

 p. 120, 1915), remains to be settled. In some characters 

 ihey resemble the mongooses, in some the civets and genets, 

 in some they differ from both those sections. Tiiey are not 

 -definitely classifiable with cither. But I tiiink it is a mistake 

 to consider them as intermediate between the two, or as 

 inclining rather to the mongooses than to the civets, a.? 

 Mivart held. Since Mivart's time fresh or spirit-|>reserved 

 examples of Galidiclis and Gtdidia have been examined, and 

 the scent-|)0uch has been found in botl). 



A female examjde of Galidictis eximius { = striata) was 

 examined by Beddard, and liis figure of the gland (PI. XIV. 

 fig. 4) shows that in position and, apparently, in structure it 

 resembles the homologous organ in Genetta, that is to say, 

 it is wholly perineal and consists of two closely applied lobes 

 meeting to form a narrow branching rima (P. Z. S. 1907, 

 p. fe05). 



As regards Galidia elegans, the only known species of the 

 genus, Beddard stated that the male has no scent-gland 

 (P. Z. S. 1909, p. 477) ; but a year hiter Miss Carlsson 

 detected the or^an in a female of that species (Zool. Jahrb. 

 Syst. xxviii. p. 559, 1910). Tiiis discrepancy is difficult to 

 exphjin. Two explanations suggest themselves : — first, that 

 Be,ddard overiooiied the organ, which is improbable, unless 

 possibly it was as little developed as it is in the young male 



