ON A NEWLY BORN CUB OF THE MASKED PALM-CIVET. 



621 



from contamination of food and drink with faeces containing 

 eggs of the parasite. The infection could be eliminated by steam 

 sterilisation of the cages, or still more easily by changing the 

 species of animal living in the particular paddocks or cages, for 

 Helminthes were often peculiarly selective as regards their hosts, 

 and those flourishing in one animal sometimes found it impossible 

 to continue their life even in closely allied forms. 



Mr. R. 1. PococK, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S., Superintendent of 

 the Gardens, exhibited the newly born young of the Masked 

 Palm-Civet (Paradoxiirus larvatus), which had been boi-n in the 

 Gardens from a pair from Szechuen, presented to the Society by 

 Ml'. Thurlow Lay, and remarked that, although the specimen had 

 died soon after birth, two other individuals composing the litter 

 were alive and likely to do well. This was the first occasion on 

 which the species had bred in the Gardens. The coloration of the 



Text-fig. 147. 



Inner aspect of abnormal left fore-leg of a newly boi'n Masked Palm-Civet 



Faradoxuriis larvatus. 



p, pad ; s, strip of naked skin ; c, claw. 



young resembled in a general way that of the adult, but was of a 

 more genei-alised type, the black and white pattern of the head 

 being less emphasized and the general colour of the body greyer 

 with less yellow; the greater part of the tail and the lower portion 

 of the limbs were sooty grey, the throat, chest, axillae, belly, and 

 the inside of the thighs being white. Of special interest was the 

 presence of a pair of ill-defined dark stripes on the back and of 

 very indistinct traces of pattern on the sides of the body. The 

 Proc. ZooL. Soc— 1911, No. XLIV. U 



