OX EXTERNAL CHARACTERS OF THE VIVERRIX^E. 131 



12. On the Feet and Grlands and other External Characters 

 of the Viverrinse, with the description o£ a New Genus. 

 By R. I. Pocock, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S., Curator of 

 Mammals. 



[Received December 11, 1914 : Read March 9, 1915.] 

 (Text-figures 1-7.) 



Index. Page 



Feet of Viverra zibetha 132 



„ Civettictis (gen. nov.) civetta 134 



„ Viverricula malaccensis and V. rasse 136 



„ Genetta 136 



Feet as a Test of Specialisation 139 



Vibrissse and Rhinarium of Viverrinse 140 



Perfume Glands of Genetta 142 



., ,, Viverra zibetha, 145 



„ ,, Viverricula rasse 147 



,, ,, Civettictis civetta 147 



Apart from Genetta, which occurs in South Europe, the 

 Viverrine Carnivores, in the restricted sense in which that 

 term is here employed *, are limited to the Ethiopian and 

 Oriental Regions, and Viverra is the only genus hitherto con- 

 sidered to be both Ethiopian and Oriental f. The following 

 species are included in it : — V. civetta of tropical Africa, and 

 V. zibetha, civettina, megaspila, and tangalunga, which collec- 

 tively range from western India as far eastward as southern 

 China, Borneo, and the Philippines. 



It is the main purpose of the present paper to show that the 

 wide discontinuity in distribution between the African and 

 Asiatic forms is paralleled by structural differences in the glands 

 and feet, necessitating generic recognition (see p. 134) J. 



Descriptions of the feet of Viverra may be found in various 

 memoirs, text-books, and natural histories. These need not be 

 enumerated since the descriptions appear either to be mere copies 

 of previous records dating back at least to 1842, when Hodgson 

 described and figured the hind feet of V. zibetha, or to have been 

 derived, like Blanford's account, from Indian species only. It is 

 quite true that statements regarding the feet of V. civetta have 



* I use the term Viverrinae for the little group popularly called Civets and Genets, 

 and commonly referred to the three genera, Viverra, Viverricula, and Genetta'. 

 Fossa, Linsang, and Poiana are here eliminated from this subfamily. 



f The occurrence of Viverricula in Sokotra, the Comoro Islands, and Madagascar 

 must surely he assigned to human agency. 



X Mr. Oldfield Thomas (P. Z. S. 1911, p. 137) has shown that the type of 

 Viverra is zibetha ; and since he agreed with Schreber and other early post- 

 Linnasan authors, who have been followed in this particular by subsequent 

 writers, in restricting the term zibetha to the so-called large Indian Civet, it 

 follows that the African species, no other name being apparently available, must 

 receive the new generic title. 



9* 



