430 MB. F. E. BEDDARD OX THE [May 21, 



5. Oa the Visceral and Muscular Anatomy of Cryptoprocta 

 ferox. By Frank E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S., Prosector 

 to the Society. 



[Keceived May 21, 1895.] 

 (Plate XXVI.) 



So far as I am aware there is no account of the anatomy of the 



" soft parts" of Cryptoprocta ferox in zoological literature, excepting 

 only the brain, which was described by Dr. Mivart ^ from a drawing 

 supplied to him by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards. Prof. Milne- 

 Edwards himself, in conjunction with M. Grandidier, gave some 

 years ago ^ a detailed account of the osteology of the animal ; its 

 external characters are of course well known ^. Since some interest 

 attaches to this animal as an aberrant Viverrine, I have thought it 

 worth while to bring before the Society a few notes upon the 

 anatomy of its viscera and muscular system. The individual which 

 I dissected was a young male ; the coloured drawing which I exhibit 

 (Plate XXVI.) is not of that individual but of the fine adult now 

 alive in the Society's Gardens. I am acquainted with only two 

 coloured illustrations of the animal. The original drawing is con- 

 tained in the first volume of our ' Transactions,' * and illustrates 

 a paper by Mr. Bennett. The second figure is in the work upon 

 Madagascar by Pollen and Van Dam ^ Neither of these figures 

 appears to me to be so satisfactory as the water-colour drawing 

 by Mr. J. T. Nettleship, which I now place before the Society. 



§ Alimentary Canal. 



The palate has 8 ridges, of which the last three are more or less 

 interrupted in the middle line ; they here end in conical papillae, of 

 which there are plenty scattered between the ridges, and from a 

 fusion between which the latter seem to have arisen. 



The tongue (see woodcut, fig. 1) has two circumvaUate papilla on 

 each side, of which the innermost is double. There is no median 

 papilla. Contrary to what is said by Prof. Mivart, I have found 

 them in Genetta (pardina). There is, as in the Cat, a strongly 

 marked patch of spiny papillae anteriorly. 



The stomach is not unlike that of Prionodon, as figured by 

 Dr. Mivart", though deeper. The interior of the cardiac portion 

 is distinguished by numerous longitudinally running folds. These 

 cease absolutely at the constriction which marks the commencement 



' "Notes on the Cerebral Convolutions of the Carnivora," J. Linn. See. 



vol. xis. 



- " Observations anatotniques sur quelques Mammiferes, &e.," Ann. Sci. Nat. 

 (5) vii. p. 314. 



' See Bennett, Tr. Z. S. vol. i. p. 137; Pollen and Van Dam, " Kecherches sur 

 la Fauna de Madagascar," 2^ partie, vol. viii. 



•• PL xxvi. ° Loc. cit. 



8 P. Z. S. 1882, p. 506. 



