PECULIAR GLANDS OF MAMMALIA, 



637 



498 



Anal gland-bags, Skunk. 1 





times limited in extent, and usually thickest toward the orifice of 

 the bag which is just within the verge of the vent. The glan- 

 dular stratum is thick and continuous in the Otters and Skunks, 

 and in the latter, at least at certain seasons, secretes the in- 

 tolerable, penetrating and long-enduring odour for which these 

 quadrupeds are proverbial, 

 and from which they derive 

 some means of defence 

 against foes : the orifice 

 from which the secretion 

 is ejected is situated on 

 a mammillary prominence 

 (Mephitis, Mydaus). 



In the Hyaena the anal 

 glands are thickest and 

 largest ; they are two in 

 number on each side and 

 open into a wide transverse 

 depression or sinus ex- 

 tending across and above 

 the anus. 2 In the Civets 

 ( Viverra civetta, V. genettti) the two lateral gland-bags in- 

 tercommunicate sooner, before forming the common canal opening 

 into the transverse sinus ; which, moreover, crosses between the 

 vent and prepuce in the male, and between the vent and vulva in 

 the female. The modified musky odour of the secretion has made 

 it sought for and vendible, under the name of f civet.' In the 

 Suricate and Ichneumon a glandular glossa surrounds the anus. 



In Chiromys and some other Lemuridce, the anal glands are 

 reduced to two shallow cutaneous pits at the sides and upper part 

 of the vent : in higher Quadrumana this trace disappears. 



§ 367. Opening on the tail. — In certain large Shrews (Myogalea, 

 Macroscelides) the under part of the base of the tail is tumid, 

 through the development of glandular follicles : these open there 

 in a double row in the species which, from the odour of their 

 secretion, is termed Myogalea moschata. 



The caudal scent-gland in the Fox is elliptical, about an inch 

 in length ; it is minutely lobulate ; each lobule consisting of 

 clusters of spherical follicles terminating by a short duct; the 

 orifices of these ducts are on a linear tract, indicated by hairs of a 

 different colour from the rest. 3 



1 xx. vol. iv. p. 183, No. 2803. 2 lb. p. 181, Nos. 2797, 2798. 



3 ccxxxn". p. 309, tab. vm. 



