26 



perfectly flexible in every part, and therefore the os penis must be 

 either very minute or wanting ; this is another feUne character, since 

 in the Bears and Weasels, as well as in the Dogs, the bone forms a 

 considerable part of the organ. The glans is cylindrical, it tapers a 

 httle for about six-tenths of an inch, then terminates suddenly in a 

 small conical point, in the groove around the base of which is situated 

 at the lower part the urethral orifice. The body of the glans has a 

 shght median groove beneath, and its whole surface is covered with 

 horny spines directed backwards. Cuvier, who alludes to a similar 

 peculiarity in the Cats, makes no mention of it, either in the Ichneu- 

 mon, the Civet, or the Hysena. Its existence is therefore an interest- 

 ing mark of affinity between two genera apparently so dissimilar, al- 

 though, from its inconstancy, it vnll not serve as a character of the 

 family. In the Paradoxurus the spines are minute, very numerous, 

 and regularly distributed*. 



The same organs in the Jerboa present some peculiarities worthy 

 of notice. I will observe, in addition to what has before been described, 

 that Cowper's glands are each curved upon itself in a manner similar 

 to the vesiculse seminales. The two sharp-pointed bony stylets with 

 which the upper part of the glans is armed, and which have been 

 mentioned by authors, arise about the middle of the dorsum of the 

 glans, one on each side of a prominence of its substance ; they are 

 gently curved, and rather suddenly pomted at the end. In the re- 

 cumbent condition they incline a little towards each other, just over- 

 hanging the extremity of the glans, and bear some resemblance to the 

 pointed lower incisors of some small Rodent. The glans itself appears 

 tripartite at the extremity, there bemg a deep fissure running the whole 

 length of its under surface, and just at the extremity another on each 

 side : at the meeting-point of the fissures is the urethral orifice. Just 

 behind the origin of the bony stylets the presence of a small ossicle 

 can be distinctly felt within the substance of the glans. 



A very remarkable peculiarity in this little animal is, that amidst 

 the long white hairs which clothe the lower part of the foot is a small 

 sharp horny spike, situated just below the base of the middle toe, as if 

 it were intended to enter the ground, and thus prevent the animal from 

 slipping when it alights. This I have reason to believe is not generally 

 known, although it must I thiak be alluded to by Dr. Shaw in his Ge- 

 neral Zoology, since he there remarks, " There is also a very small spur 

 or back-toe, with its corresponding claw : " and subsequently adds, 

 "nor does any vestige of it appear in the figure given by Dr. Pallas of 

 the skeleton." This may well be, since it is simply a cutaneous deve- 

 lopment, having no connection with the skeleton whatever. I have 

 looked at the specimens of the Jerboa in the British Museum, but in 



* Since the above was written, I have received the body of a male Coatimondi. 

 I alluded to that animal in my former paper, as being placed by Cuvier among the 

 list of those possessing the vesiculae seminales, -which, I observed, required con- 

 firmation. I can now assert that they do not exist ; the walls of the vasa defe- 

 rentia are swollen immediately before these vessels enter the urethra, and the 

 prostate has a more sudden projection at its upper end than I have observed in 

 the musteline animals that I have dissected. The absence of the vesiculae semi- 

 nales is then a constant character of the true Carnivora. 



