1909. | OF THE CARNIVORE GALIDIA ELEGANS. 493 
before entering the single postcaval; neither pair is connected by 
an anastomosis. 
In three examples of Vasua rufa the branches of the postcaval 
were practically identical. In all of them the asymmetry of the 
renals was unusual, the left lying more anteriorly than the right. 
From the left arises, as usual, the left ovarian (or spermatic), while: 
the right-hand vein enters the postcaval below this point. 
In the Otter (Lutra) the renals were quite symmetrical and the 
ovarian veins quite as usual. 
In Helictis personata the left ovarian vein was connected quite 
as usual with the left renal vein. But before entering it the 
ovarian vein received a small branch from the body- -wall in the 
region of the kidney. This vein appears to me to be very possibly 
the equivalent of the second lower and smaller renal veins which 
I have figured in Galidictis. The right ovarian vein, as usual, 
communicates directly with the postcaval. 
In Ursus syriacus the ovarian veins presented an arrange- 
ment which [ have not found in other Carnivora. Both were 
directly connected with the corresponding renal vein. Nor were 
the renal veins symmetrical, as perhaps might be inferred from 
this fact. The right was in advance of the left, as is so commonly 
the case not only in the Order of the Carnivora but in Mammals. 
generally. 
It is hardly possible to extract from the foregoing series of 
facts any very plain cut-and-dried definitions of the several 
groups of Carnivora derived from the characters of the postcaval 
vein, such as is possible for example with the Marsupials. One 
can only point out tendencies to the development of a particular 
type in one group and of another type in another group of 
Carnivores. Thus itis the Arctoid Carnivora, and possibly chiefly 
the Musteline division of that group, in which the double post- 
renal postcaval vein is to be met with*. The Arctoid genera, in 
their wide distribution, nearly plantigrade feet, only at most 
slightly specialised carnassial teeth, and with their non-retractile 
claws, lie at a lower level than the A#luroidea. This result may 
be perhaps taken into consideration along with the condition of 
the postrenal section of the postcaval. In the same direction also 
points the more usual symmetry in the position of the renal veins ; 
these very frequently, more frequently than in the A¢]uroidea, 
open into the postcaval opposite to each other. Again, itis more 
common in this subdivision of the Carnivora for asymmetry to be 
shown in the position of the spermatic or ovarian veins. No 
* T am indebted to Mr. Burne for the information that in the Walrus the post- 
caval vein is double from the level of the renal veins. This observation was made 
upon the viscera of a young Walrus which died in the Society’s Gardens, and was 
acquired by the Royal College of Surgeons. This condition in the Walrus is quite 
possibly normal, for Mr. Burne has directed my attention to the fact that Dr. Murie 
(Trans. Zool. Soc. vii. p. 431) found the vein double in the individual dissected by 
himself. This doubling of the postcaval behind the kidneys is not, however, 
distinctive of the Pinnipedia, for Murie figures (Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. p. 546, 
woodcut fig. 4) a single postcava in the Patagonian Sea-Lion. 
