1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE /ELUROIDEA. 149 



(52) There is no plate-like process on the outer side of the radius. 



(53) There is no oval patch of conspicuously-enlarged papillae on 

 the dorsum of the anterior part of the tongue. 



(54) Ascending ramus of mandible not flattened beneath. 



(55) Tail long. 



(56) Anterior premolars not greatly elongated. 



The next genus comprises only the Rasse, for which the genus 

 Viverricula has been instituted' by Hodgson, who says that it 

 differs from species of the genus Viverra, which never climb, by its 

 scansorial habit. It is also distinguishable from Viverra by its 

 smaller size, smaller snout, and by a very small bald spot on the tibial 

 side of the plantar pad, noticed by Gray ^ and figured by Hodgson \ 

 The ahsphenoid canal is almost always absent; the bulla is, as 

 Professor Flower says *," large, as wide in front as behind, much 

 elongated, narrow, and compressed laterally. The anterior chamber 

 is rather more developed, and less distinctly marked from the pos- 

 terior." The postorbital processes are longer than in Viverra ; and 

 the skull is greatly compressed behind them. The paroccipital 

 process does not depend below the bulla. The pollex and hallux 

 are shorter, not reaching to the distal end of the adjoining meta- 

 tarsal and metacarpal. The character of the dentition is inter- 

 mediate between that of Viverra and that of Genetta. j^ may have 

 only three cusps. The Rasse has a most extensive geographical 

 distribution, having been obtained in China, Foochow, Formosa, 

 Amoy, Gangootra, Camboja, Singapore, Nepal, Madras, Ceylon, 

 Penang, Java, Lombok, Bombay, Socotra, Madagascar, and also 

 from the Comoro Island Anjuan". 



The Rasse has been described at length, and many interesting details 

 concerning it given, by Horsfield in his ' Zoological Researches in Java' 

 (1824), with a figure of its external form, representations of which will 

 be found in F. Cuvier's ' Mammiferes,' vol. ii. ; also in Sonnerat's 

 •Voyage,' vol. ii. p. 144, pi. 91; andin Pollen's 'Faunede Madagascar,' 

 p. 16, pi. 10. Its dentition, both immature and adult, is given on plate 

 xii. of De Blainville's ' Osteographie ' {Viverra). Its foot-pads are 

 represented by Hodgson, Calcutta Journal of Natural Hist. (1842), 

 vol. ii. pi. 1 . fig. iv. As might be expected from its wide distribution, 

 the Rasse varies greatly in colour and markings, similarly coloured 

 varieties coming from widely separated localities. There is in the 



1 Journal of Asiat. Soc. of Bengal (1841), vol. x. part 2, p. 909. See also 

 Gray, P. Z. S. 18()4, p. 513, and Erit. Mus. Oat. of Carnivora (1869), p. 47. 



2 Brit. Mus. Cat. p. 47. 



3 Calcutta Journal of Nat. Hist. (1842), vol ii. pi. 1. fig. iv. 

 * P. Z. S. 18tJ9, p. 18. 



^ The animal irora this island has been described and figured by Dr. 

 Peters in his ' Mossambique.' Dr. Gray threw out the suggestion that this indi- 

 vidual might be of the genus Fossa ; but Dr. Peters has been kind enough to 

 inform me that such is not the case, but that it is identical with Pollen's Viverra 

 schlcgeli, which appear.s to me to be a variety of the widely diffused Viverricula 

 malaccensis. Dr. Peters remarks to me ; — " If not identical with, it is very near 

 that species." 



