134 MR. B. I. POCOCK ON EXTERNAL 



short, are retractile and as well protected by skin-lobes as in 

 many species of Felis*. 



The carpal pad is moderately large but low. It is cordate in 

 outline with the point projecting outwards and forwards. It is 

 composed almost wholly of the ulnar element of the primitively 

 double carpal pad, the radial or inner element being represented 

 merely by a very small lobe jutting from its postero-internal end. 

 Connecting the point of the carpal pad with the poster o-external 

 extremity of the plantar pad is a narrow strip of naked or nearly 

 naked skin. Apart from this strip the plantar pad is everywhere 

 surrounded by hair. 



The hind foot (text-fig. 1, B) in its general features resembles 

 the fore foot. There are, however, no well-defined skin-lobes 

 protecting and forming sheaths for the claws. The hallux or 

 1st digit is set a little farther back, but is still close to the postero- 

 internal angle of the plantar pad. This portion of the plantar pad 

 terminates in a small area of naked skin, which may represent the 

 hallucal lobe of the plantar pad. At all events it. occupies the 

 position of that lobe. There is no trace of any pad or naked area 

 of skin on the lower side of the foot behind (above) the plantar 

 pad . 



I have not been able to examine the feet, either fresh or pre- 

 served in alcohol, of V. civettina, megaspila, and tangalunga. Of 

 the first, the so-called Malabar Civet, no material of any kind is 

 available. Of the other two, there are several dried skins in the 

 British Museum. So far as it is possible to judge from these, 

 the feet of V. tangalunga resemble those of V. zibetha, at all 

 events in the matter of hair-growth ; but those of V. megaspila 

 have the area between the plantar and digital pads much less 

 thickly hairy. It is not indeed possible to affirm the presence of 

 hairs on this area in all specimens ; but in some examples short 

 hairs are visible between the pads. Perhaps this species differs 

 from V. zibetha and V. tangalunga, so far as this character is 

 concerned, in the same way as the specimens of Viverricula 

 malaccensis and V. rasse, described below, differ from each other. 



The Feet of Civettictis {gen. nov.) civetta Schreb. 



The fore foot (text-fig. 2, A, C) differs markedly from that of 

 V. zibetha in the following particulars. The whole of the under- 

 side round the plantar pad up to the margin of the webs and 

 the digital pads is quite naked. The pollical lobe of the plantar 

 pad, though small, forms a quite distinct excrescence set just 

 behind the postero-internal angle of the plantar pad and on a 

 level with the digital lobe of the pollex, from which it is separated 

 by a narrow area of naked skin. From the pollical lobe and from 

 the corresponding external angle of the plantar pad, there usually 



* It does not. appear to be generally realized that the extent to which the 

 claws are •'sheathed " varies considerably in different spscies of Felida?. 



