CHARACTERS OF THE VIVERRIX.E. 1 49 



Genets ; but there is also a marked difference between the glands 

 of the former and of the male Viverra zibetha. 



The gland in the female C. civetta (text-fig. 7, B) superficially 

 resembles that of the male, and when the glandular lobes are 

 pulled apart the space between them, lined with hairs and 

 secretion, is seen to be in communication in front with a pair of 

 deep pockets, separated by a vertical partition, each pocket passing 

 forwards alongside the vagina and beneath the area of integu- 

 ment that separates the vulva from the glandular cleft. Thus 

 the gland of the female Civettictis civetta is tolerably similar to 

 that of the male. 



Setting aside cranial and dental features * and making use of 

 some of the characters set forth in this paper, the four genera 

 of Viverrina?, in the restricted sense in which that term is here 

 used, may be briefly contrasted as follows : — 



a. Interglandular space in tlie males and some females divided into 

 three compartments by two transverse ridges of integument, in 

 other females forming a small, shallow pouch ; metatarsus with 



a long narrow double pad Genetta. 



«'. Interglandular space never so divided and in the females always 

 forming a deep, capacious pouch ; metatarsal pad absent or very 

 short. 

 I. Each half of the gland excavated to form a pouch com- 

 municating with the interglandular space by a constricted 

 orifice. A small metatarsal pad above the plantar 

 pad ; carpal pad markedly bilobed ; sole of foot in front 

 and at the sides of plantar pad quite naked ; claws longer, 



unsheathed, less retractile Civettictis. 



I'. Halves of the gland not so excavated; no metatarsal pad; 

 carpal pad not so markedly bilobed ; sole of foot partially 

 or wholly hairy ; claws shorter, more retractile. 

 c. Pollex and hallux as in Genetta and Civettictis, low down, 

 their digital pads approximately on a level with the 

 postero-lateral angle of the plantar pad : claws of 

 3rd and 4th digits of fore foot guarded by large skin- 

 lobes t Viverra. 



c'. Pollex and hallux higher up, above the postero-lateral 

 angle of the plantar pad : claws of 3rd and 4th digits 

 of fore foot unguarded by lobes of skin Jlverriciila. 



* Since most contemporary mammalogists will probably consider cranial and 

 dental characters of more value in the discrimination of genera than the external 

 features here made use of in severing the African from the Oriental Civets, I 

 may point out that the former may be further distinguished from the latter by 

 the prominence of the tympanic bulla and of the paroccipital process that accom- 

 panies it. This difference is well shown in the case of V. zibetlia and C. civetta in 

 Blainville's Ostebgr. Mamm. Atlas, Viverra, pi. viii. The two molars of the upper 

 jaw and the last molar of the lower jaw are also markedly larger in C. civetta 

 than in V. zibetlia ; and in the matter of the dentition and of the tympanic area 

 V. megaspila and V. tangahniga and Viverrii itla malaccensis go along with 

 V. zibetlia. 



f At least in V. zibetha; unknown in V. tangahmga and megaspila. 



