816 MR. R. I. POCOCK 0!Sr THE 



tlie case of the metatarsal pad *. In an example of Grison furax 

 or an allied form, from Brazil, there is a comparatively large area 

 between the plantar and carpal pads, the latter aie well defined 

 but mesially in contact, and there is some naked skin above the 

 large external pad. Similarly, in the hind foot there is some 

 naked skin above the somewhat rounded metatarsal pad, which 

 except internally is distinctly separated from the plantar pad. 

 These differences from the feet of Tayra are, however, not so 

 well defined in examples of Grisonella from Cordova in the 

 Argentine. In both genera the pads are granular and tessel- 

 lated, and the third and fourth digits of the hind foot are a little 

 nearer together than they are respectively to the second and 

 fifth. Nevertheless, there is quite a marked extent of web 

 between their pads. (Text-figs. 31, A, B; 32, 0, D.) 



Of these two genera Tayra is an active tree-climber like 

 Martes, and Grison an agile ground-hunter like Mustela ; and in 

 Martes and Mustela and genera related to them the highest type 

 of feet subservient to those modes of life are found. The claws 

 are shorter and more curved, the digits are more widely separable, 

 and the third and fourth of the hind foot are not closer together 

 than to the second and fifth respectively. The underside of the 

 webs is more or less hairy, there is at least a patch of hair 

 between the carpal and plantar pads, the carpal pads a,re quite 

 separated, the metatarsal pad is absent, the hair of the calcaneum 

 extending down to the plantar pad, and all the pads are 

 narrower and transversely or concentrically ridged and grooved. 



Of the genera related to Martes, Charronia t has feet which 

 depart least from the type seen in Grison and Tayra, although 

 still very distinct. The ai^ea between the digital and plantar 

 pads has foin^ large pa.tches of haii' on the interdigital webs ; but 

 these do not I'each the edge of the webs distally or the plantar 

 pa,ds proximally, and the lower side of the digits is also naked ; 

 and tiiere is a similar patch of hair surrounded by naked skin on 

 the area between the carpal and plantar pads, which are well 

 developed, the pollical and hallucal elements of the latter being 

 widely confluent with the plantar, while the internal and ex- 

 ternal moieties of the carpal pads are large and have a small area 

 of naked skin above them. (Text-fig. 31,0, D.) 



In Martes martes and M. foina the area between the digital 

 a.nd plantar pads is covered with hair, except for narrow naked 

 strips radiating along the digits ; the area between the plantar 

 and carpal pads and round the latter is also continuously hairy ; 



* Lonuberg (Avkiv for Zool. viii. no. 16, p. 10, 1913) figured the liind feet of 

 two forms of Tayra from different altitudes and localities in Ecuador, to show that 

 the combined plantar and metatarsal pad — there being no line of demarcation 

 between them — is longer in the race from the lowlands. Defects in the drawings of 

 these feet maj' be attributed to their being taken from skins softened in water after 

 being dried. 



t In 1918 I resuscitated this genus of Graj^'s, based upon Martes flavigula, wlien 

 I found that the baculum differs greatly from that of Martes martes and M. foina 

 (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (9) i. pp. 308-310). 



