684 PROF. FLOWER ON NANDINIA BINOTATA. [June 4, 



siderable surprise that I found in dissecting a specimen of Nandinia 

 binotata (an animal frequently associated with them generically) not a 

 trace of this organ. The specimen was a male which died in the 

 Society's Gardens on the 28th of January last, having lived in the 

 menagerie for upwards of two years. Its length from nose to root 

 of tail was 18 inches; the length of the intestine from pylorus to 

 anus was 66 inches, and it had an average diameter, when moderately 

 distended, of T 7 y inch. At a distance of 8 inches from the anus, in the 

 situation where the caecum might be expected, the intestine presented 

 a very slight constriction, immediately below which its calibre was 

 somewhat increased. The mucous membrane also at this spot under- 

 went the changes in character usually found in those Carnivora in 

 which the caecum is absent, including the disappearance of the villi 

 characteristic of the small intestine. The spot was also marked, as is 

 usually the case, by the inferior termination of the lowest and largest 

 of the agminated or Peyer's glands, which occupied a tract of mu- 

 cous surface 2 inches long and \ inch in width. 



The other characters by which Nandinia (Gray) differs from 

 Paradoxurus are the smaller size and more pointed cuspidation of 

 the molar teeth (upon which the genus was established), its peculiar 

 habitat (being West-African, whereas all the true Paradoxures are 

 Asiatic), and the persistence throughout life of the cartilaginous con- 

 dition of the posterior chamber of the auditory bulla. In the last 

 character it differs from all known Carnivora. When I first met 

 with this peculiarity I thought that it must be individual; but as 

 it has occurred in every skull examined, some of them (as in the 

 specimen above referred to) evidently quite adult, there seems to 

 be no doubt as to its constancy. 



Besides the ordinary anal glands, common to Carnivora generally, 

 Nandinia resembles many of its allies in possessing a special super- 

 added cutaneous scent-gland, in the form of a longitudinal median 

 depression an inch in length, with tumid naked margins and looking 

 very like a vulva, situated in the pubic region, immediately in front 

 of the short, conical, retroverted, hairy prepuce. 



It is worthy of notice that the organs of generation present no 

 approach to the type characteristic of all known Arctoid Carnivora : 

 the prostate is large and bilobed ; there are distinct Cowper's glands ; 

 the penis is small and directed backwards, and contains a bone not 

 exceeding - 35" in length. These and the cranial characters leave no 

 doubt as to the Nandinia truly belonging to the family in which it 

 has usually been placed. 



PS. Since the above was written, Mr. Garrod has forwarded to me 

 the viscera of another specimen of the same species, which died in the 

 Society's Gardens on the 21st of May, in which the characters of the 

 alimentary canal are similar to those above described, except that the 

 circular constricting band between the ileum and colon was rather 

 more maiked, and formed a distinct prominence when the intestine 

 was laid open. Below this there was a slight dilatation of the coats 

 of the colon, but nothing which could properly be called a caecum. 



