CHARACTERS OF THE VIVERRINiE. 145 



from a definite area, pitted with numerous pores, upon each 

 lobe (text-fig. 5, F, G, H). 



The structure of the gland in the females of G. dongolana and 

 G. felina throws light, I think, upon a difficulty that puzzled 

 Mivart, who could not reconcile his observations upon the gland 

 in the female of G. tigrina with those of Daubenton (Buffon's 

 Hist. Nat. ix. 1761, p. 343, pis. 36-40) on the gland of what 

 appears to have been a European Genet (G. genetta). Daubenton 

 figured a simple, small glandular space lying between two lappets 

 and furnished with a pair of secreting pores. Except that the 

 pores were described as single orifices, this gland agrees tolerably 

 closely with that of G. felina , described above. It is not sur- 

 prising that these two species, which resemble each other closely 

 in many respects, should have similar glands in the female. 

 G. tigrina, on the contrary, belongs to a distinct group of the 

 genus, which includes G. pardina and G. rubiginosa amongst 

 other species. 



So far as specific and sexual differences in the glands of Genets 

 are concerned, my observations point to the possible division of 

 the genus into two categories, as follows : — 



1. Interglandular space tripartite and chambered, structur- 



ally alike in the two sexes (G. tigrina, pardina, 

 rubiginosa) ; 



2. Interglandular space of male as in section 1, that of 



female of a different and simpler type (G. genetta, 

 dongolana, felina). 



But until these organs have been studied in other species and 

 in the males of tig-rina, felina, and genetta, and the female of 

 pardina, the value of this opinion consists merely in its sug- 

 gesting a useful line of research. 



The Glands of Viverra zibetha. 



In the male of this species the gland differs in two or three 

 points from that of Genetta. The glandular space between the 

 lobes is not subdivided by transverse partitions, but is much 

 wider in its deeper parts than at the orifice, the margins of 

 which overlap the space towards the middle line. Nevertheless, 

 in the specimen examined the margins or " labia " were not 

 mesially in contact in the posterior half of the gland, being 

 somewhat widely separated towards the scrotum and rather 

 abruptly convergent towards the prepuce. Furthermore, the 

 anterior part of the glandular space is roofed * over by the 

 fusion of the integument forming the inner margins of the labia, 

 so that the two lobes cannot be divaricated throughout their 

 length up to the prepuce, as in Genetta. This overlapped area 



* The gland is here described as seen from the ventral side, with the orifice 

 looking upwards, as when the animal is lying on its back. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1915, No. X. 10 



