132 MR. R. I. POCOCK ON EXTERNAL 



been printed, but, instead of being taken from actual specimens, 

 these have been published apparently on the assumption that the 

 African species resembles its Asiatic congeners. At all events, 

 I cannot find any evidence from the works I have consulted 

 that the feet of V. civetta have ever been carefully examined 

 with a view to comparison with those of V. zibetha or of any 

 other Oriental species*. 



The facts substantiated in this paper are the result of the 

 examination of specimens belonging to the two species just men- 

 tioned, which died in the Zoological Gardens and came into my 

 hands in a perfectly fresh state. Of V. zibetha I have only seen 

 one example, a male, from the Malay Peninsula ; but in the case 

 of V. civetta my observations have been checked by an inspection 

 of individuals of both sexes of what I take to be thetypical race 

 of this species, namely, the form that occurs in Sierra Leone, 

 Liberia, Ashanti, etc. 



The Feet of Viverra zibetha Lnin. 



In his work upon Indian Mammals, Blanford described the 

 feet of Viverra as follows : — " Feet truly digitigrade, the meta- 

 tarsus, metacarpus, and feet being hairy throughout, with the 

 exception of a central and five toe-pads on all feet and a 

 metacarpal pad on each fore limb. Claws small, partially 

 retractile and blunt." This description applies to _ the feet of 

 V. zibetha so far as it goes ; but it requires amplification. 



The fore fool (text-fig. 1, A, 0) is broader and more massive than 

 the hind foot, as in most Carnivores, and carries a larger plantar 

 pad. This pad is smooth and of the usual trilobate form, but 

 with its posterior angles more produced than in the Canidse and 

 Felidas. The pollical lobe, however, of the pad is either suppressed 

 or inclistinguishably fused with the posterior end of the' internal 

 lateral lobe corresponding to the second digit t. The digits 

 are moderately long and fully webbed, the web extending 

 along the inner (aclmeclian) part of the large smooth digital pads 

 well beyond their proximal ends. The lateral webs are more 



* Miss Carlsson, however (Zool. Jahvb. Syst. xxviii. p. 559, 1910), gave a brief 

 description of the feet of V. civetta, illustrated by two text-figures, to show the 

 differences between them and the feet of Galidia, with which the feet ot Mungos 

 were also compared. So far as it is possible to judge from the somewhat indif- 

 ferent prints, the paws of the specimen of V. civetta she examined agree with 

 those that have come into my hands. it 



f As in previous papers upon the feet of Carnivora, I use the term plantar 

 indifferently for the large main pad of both fore and hind limbs. The tnlobed 

 condition of this pad results from the fusion of three originally quite distinct 

 pads set opposite the intervals between the four principal digits, and hence called 

 " interdigital " pads. (See Whipple, Zeitschr. morph. Anthropol. vn. 1904; hidd, 

 ' The Sense of Touch in Mammals, etc.,' A. & C. Black, 1907 ; Boas, Zool. Anz. 1909, 

 p 521 ) Sometimes the pad lying primarily opposite the interval between the first 

 and second digits forms part of it; but in the case of the Carnivora, at all events, 

 when this element is indistinguishable, its absence appears to be due to suppression. 

 However that may be, I call this element, when present, the "pollical or hallucal 

 lobe," because of its relations to the 1st digit. The three main lobes of the pad 

 are called the " median," the " internal lateral," and the " external lateral lobes. 



