1882.] PROF. ST. -GEORGE MIVART ON THE .ELUROIDEA. 167 



The poUex and hallux are very well developed. 



In its cranial characters Ilemigalea resembles Paradoxurus. Its 

 bulla is of the same form, but ankylosed into one piece. The par- 

 occipital is depending, the mastoid very slightly marked ; there is 

 an alisphenoid canal ; and the condyloid foramen is concealed ; but 

 the hinder opening of the carotid canal is rather more anteriorly 

 situated with respect to the bulla. Its anterior end notches the 

 alisphenoid as always hitherto. The postorbital processes are very 

 small, that of the malar almost obsolete. When the skull is looked 

 at in profile, the dorsum of the muzzle is very concave, and a deepish 

 groove runs antero-posteriorly along the junction of the nasal bones. 

 There is a peculiar depression or notch in the upper alveolar border 

 to receive the apex of p-g. 



The teeth are the teeth of Paradoxurus ; but the outermost upper 

 incisor of each side is more separated from the incisor next it, and 

 ~^ are very well developed. — has a distinct internal tubercle ; 

 and there is even a very small one to — . p-^ is very much ex- 

 tended vertically, and is received into the upper alveolar notch just 

 mentioned. 



Length of head and body about 38"- 1 ; of tail 40"-6. 



Nothing is said as to any scent-gland in the ' Zoology of the Voyage 

 of the Bonite ;' nor do I find any other notice about it. In a female 

 specimen most kindly presented to me by Mr. A. D. Bartlett, and 

 which I dissected (portions of its anatomy being preserved in the 

 museum of the Royal College of Surgeons), I found superficial folds 

 something as in Genetia—tv/o oblique shallow folds extending ob- 

 liquely upwards and outwards from near the anus to the vicinity of 

 the vagina. The secretion could be squeezed into these folds, just 

 as in the specimen I examined of Geneiia tigrina. The tongue 

 exhibited an oval patch of much enlarged but soft papillae on the 

 anterior half of the dorsum of that organ. 



A very peculiar jilate-like enlargement of the radius is to be found 

 on its outer border a little above its styloid precess. Into this are 

 inserted the supinator longus, the pronator radii teres, and, espe- 

 cially, the large pronator quadratus. 



Hemigalea agrees with Viverra as to the characters so oftea 

 referred to, except Nos. 2 (perhaps), 24, 42, 43, 51, 52, and 53. 



The Binturong (Arctictis), the systematic position of which was 

 for a time so much mistaken, is a good example of the small 

 value of dental characters as guides to the essential affinity of an 

 animal. 



Were it not for Arctogale (which tends to bridge over the dental 

 differences between Arctitis and Paradoxurus), the Binturong would 

 be an exception amongst the Viverridce, something as Froteles is 

 amongst the Hycenidce. Arctitis may be confidently affirmed to he 

 an aberrant Paradoxure. The animal seems to have been first 

 described by Sir Stamford Raffles (as Viverra binturong) in the 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xiii. p. 253. 



