.AIALE ORGANS OF OARNIVORA. 660 



are hardly distinguishable in the Seal tribe. Here, the testes, when 

 extra-abdominal, make no scrotal projection : they are imbedded 

 in areolar tissue, between the pubis and the thighs : the tunica 

 vaginalis communicates freely with the abdomen : the sperm-ducts 

 take the usual course. There are no vesicular glands ; there is but 

 a small subbilobed prostate. The penis makes no outward projec- 

 tion : the preputial opening, about six inches in advance of the 

 vent, is inconspicuous. The glans penis is pointed, supported by 

 a bone about half an inch long, in Pliuca vitulina, into which are 

 inserted a pair of e retractores,' arising from the anterior commis- 

 sure of the anal sphincter. The remnant of the protometra in 

 Ph. vitulina, is but two lines in length ; the orifice behind the 

 verumontanum is rarely patent. The os penis of the Walrus is a 

 massive subcylindrical bone, sometimes two feet in length, ex- 

 panded at one end, where the cancellous structure prevails. 1 



The testes lie under the skin of the groin in otters, under that 

 of the perinasum in civets. The scrotum, where best developed 

 in Carnivora, is hairy and less pendulous than in Ruminants. As 

 in these, the vesicular glands are absent 2 ; the prostatic glands 

 are small and compact. The penis, save in Canidce, Viverridce, 

 and Hyaua, has a bone. 



In the Bear the sperm-ducts are enlarged and in close contact 

 at their terminations, with thick follicular 527 



walls : beyond this glandular part they retain 

 their width, but contract to open upon the 

 verumontanum. 3 A thin layer of prostatic 

 substance surrounds the beginning of the 

 urethra. The os penis in Ursus arctos may 

 be 6 inches in length. 4 In the Subursine 

 genus Meles a remnant of the protometra, 

 fig. 527, a, rises between the glandular ends of P rntome"r7a, m*. size, 

 the sperm-ducts, b, b : its cornua are reduced B «d g er. ccxxxix». 

 to mere filaments, c: the prostate is better developed than 

 in Ursines, especially in the Racoon, in which it is in advance 

 of the neck of the bladder. In the Kinkajou the os penis is 

 sub-bifurcate at the distal end, which is covered, as in most 

 Subursines and Mustelines, by the membranes of large dila- 



1 xuv. p. 638, No. 3919. 



2 ' Les vesicules seminales existent dans les coatis,' xn. torn. viii. p. 160. Hnnter, 

 however, expressly affirms of his ' Swash,' which I determined by the skull (No. 4669, 

 xliv.) to be a young Coatimondi, that ' it has no vesiculae seminales.' ccxxxvi. rol. ii. 

 p. 90. The same result has been had from subsequent dissections at the Zoological 

 Gardens, cclxxiit". 



3 ccxxxvi. vol. ii. p. 92, note 3. 



4 A fossil specimen of this bone, in Ursus spelceus, measured nine inches. 



