25 



much larger than others, these being worn and blunted at the point, 

 while the smaller ones were sharp ; also that the series of claws on 

 each foot were irregular as to their sizes, and that the corresponding 

 claws on the opposite feet in some cases differed greatly in size ; so 

 that it would aj)pear, that in the absence of the scratching propensity, 

 the claws scale off naturally, and to a much larger extent at a time 

 than in the Cats. I have occasionally noticed my living specimen with 

 a claw apparently loose, but the casting off of the outer layer of the 

 nail is a difficult thing to verify by actual observation. 



On one occasion, my specimen having escaped from his cage, on my 

 seizing him by the neck for the purpose of replacing him therein, he 

 made use of his claws to defend himself, just as a cat would naturally 

 be expected to do ; while it is well known that any animal of the dog 

 tribe, being seized in that manner, is helpless, having no instinct 

 prompting him to make use of his extremities against his captor ; in 

 this tribe also the paws are never used for seizing, but only for the 

 purposes of locomotion, and to steady the prey upon the ground, 

 while the teeth perform their office. The positions sometimes assumed 

 by the Paradoxurus in a state of repose, also resemble those of the 

 cat; for instance, it frequently lowers the body between the fore-paws, 

 approximating the shovilder to the foot, while the elbow remains raised 

 by the side : the canine animals, on the other hand, never crouch with- 

 out applying the elbow to the ground. The Paradoxurus again re- 

 sembles the Cat in the habit of occasionally bending the head verti- 

 cally beneath the neck while asleep, a position never assumed by the 



In all the anatomical characters which in my former communica- 

 tion I assigned to the Felidse (in which family the viverrine section is 

 included), the Paradoxurus fully agrees ; those presented by the gene- 

 rative and odoriferous organs are the most remarkable. There is no 

 true musk-bag, simply the two secerning pouches situated one on each 

 side the anus, which are so common among the caruivora. In addition 

 to these, there is at the base of the prepuce, an oval, fiat, naked space, 

 which is not simply a secreting surface, as stated by INIr. Gray in a 

 paper contributed to the Proceedings a few years back, but contains 

 a niunber of minute orifices, each opening into a somewhat cylindrical 

 glandular sac : these are arranged vertically side by side, and, toge- 

 ther with the anal pouches, secrete the substance which imparts to 

 the animal its characteristic odour. The generative organs are alto- 

 gether very largely developed ; the prostate is large, of a slightly 

 lobulated form, and the urethra passes obliquely through its centre. 

 Cowper's glands, whose presence is characteristic of the Felidse, are 

 remarkably large, causing a prominence externally posterior to the 

 scrotum ; and, as usual in the family, each is surrounded by a power- 

 ful muscular envelope, which is at least an eighth of an uich in thick- 

 ness ; the fibres converge to a tendinous portion, which extends, from 

 the point where the duct issues, some distance on each side of the 

 gland ; the size of these organs altogether is about equal to that of 

 the testes. The length of the penis, from the orifices of Cowper's 

 duct to the meatus urinarius, is a little more than three inches ; it is 



