1882.] prof. st.-geokge mivart on the ^luroidea. .519 



Sexual Organs. 



The penis presents every variety as to its internal osseous support. 

 It is entirely boneless in the Hycenidee ; and the bone is rudimen- 

 tary or absent in the Viverrince. It is tolerably developed in the 

 Herpestince, and very large indeed in Cnjpoprocta. 



Cuvier says ^ of the Ichneumon :— " Le gland est comprime' sur 

 les cotes, arque en dessus a son extre'mite, et compose, en tres grande 

 partie, de I'os qu'il contient. Sou bord inferieur present uue fente 

 qui ne s'etend pas jusqu'a I'extre'mite. EUe aboutit a uue sorte de 

 cul-de-sac tres profond, qui remplit I'e'cbaucrure de I'os, et au fond 

 duquel viennent s'ouvrir, par deux orifices separes, I'uretre et le canal 

 excreteur commun des glandes de Cowper." 



Crocuta differs from all other -lEluroids in that the clitoris is enor- 

 mous aud traversed by the urogenital canal ". 



In Jrctictis the Cowper's glands are each less than half the size 

 of the bilobed prostate. In Prionodon, on the contrary, each Cow- 

 per's gland is about as large as is the whole of the bilobed prostate. 



According to Professor Owen (Anat. of Vertebrates, vol. iii. 

 p. 780), Felines have usually six nipples, four ventral and two pec- 

 toral ; but there are eight in the Domestic Cat. There are four ven- 

 tral teats in Paradoxurus, Herpestes, and Hyaena ; but in Viverra 

 there may be two pectoral teats also. 



Scent-Glands. 



Of these glands there are two very distinct categories. One cate- 

 gory comprises the prescrotal scent-glands, and the other the anal 

 glands. 



The Prescrotal Glands ^. 

 These are met with in their most complete form in Viverra civetta, 

 where there is a pair of medianly adjoined glands placed between the 

 penis and the scrotum in the male, and in an analogous position in 

 the female. Their secretion escapes into a large scent-pouch, the ex- 

 ternal aperture of which appears as an autero-posteriorly extended slit 

 simulating a large vaginal aperture. This aperture "is larger than 

 either^ the vulva or the anus. Each scent-gland is about twice the 

 size of one of the animal's anal glands ; and in each scent-gland is a 

 central cavity which communicates with the median scent-pouch, 

 into which the glands also open by a number of minute orifices. 



lu Viverra sibetha* the scrotum is similar. In Arctictis the 

 secretion of the prescrotal gland exudes into a naked cutaneous inva- 

 gination placed, like a vulva, in front of the anus. A similar inva- 

 gination exists in Paradoxurus, aud a naked space in Nandinia. 



In Genetta and Hemigalea the conditions are those already de- 

 scribed and figured by me \ The scent-glands contain numerous 

 ' Le9ons d'Anat. Ooinp. vol. viii. p. 222. 

 2 P. Z. S. 1877, p. 369, fig. 41. 



^ Ohatiu, Ann. des Sci. Nat. (otli series) vol. xix. (1874). 

 * There is au old but an excellent preparation of these glands in the Museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons, Physiological Sei-ie.s, No. 2514. 

 ^ P.Z.S. 1882, p. 15(j. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1882, No. XXXV. 35 



