PAEADOXITKIKA. 59 



Tribe VII. PAEADOXUEINA. 



The hind part of the tarsus bald and callous. The tail cylindrical, 

 hairy, very long, of many vertebra;, revolute. The frenum with a 

 secretory gland. Head elongate. PupU linear, erect. Orbit of skull 

 generally only defined by a slight prominence above. — Chray, P. Z. S. 

 1864, p. 526. 



This is an exceedingly natural group, weU defined by its external 

 characters and general appearance; at the same time the form of 

 the skuU -and the teeth of the different species present so great an 

 amount of variation that, if one studied the skull only, one would 

 be inclined to distribute them among several different tribes of 

 Carnivora — an instance, among many, which shows the necessity of 

 studying the animal as a whole, and of not devoting one's attention 

 more to the osteological than the external characters, or vice versd. 



The gland on the frenum, which is the peculiar character of the 

 genus Pa/radoisurus, was known to PaUas, who called the species 

 Viverra hermcuphrodita on account of it. It was redescribed and 

 figured by Otto, but overlooked by F. Cuvier when he named the 

 genus from a specimen with a distorted tail ! 



M. Temminck observes, " Nom generique donn^ k tout hasard par 

 F. Cuvier, dont U faut se garder de ne rendre I'appUcation striete- 

 ment applicable a aucune des espeoes de ce groupe. 



" La forme et le pouvoir que M. F. Cuvier attribue a cette queue 

 sont bases sur des observations faites sur un sujet soumis a I'etat 

 captif, mais ne sont nuUement caracterises pas moins specifiquement 

 pour son Pougonne, notre Paradoxurus typus — la Marte des Palmiers 

 du Buffon." — Mon. Mamm. ii. p. 312. 



If M. Temminck had observed many of these animals alive, he 

 would have found that many of them have the habit of curling up 

 the end of the tail as it lies on the ground, and that the ends of the 

 tails of those in confinement are often worn away on the side from 

 this habit (see also Bennett, P. Z. S. 1835, p. 118). 



M. Temminck describes the claws as " not retractile " (Monogr. 

 ii. p. 312) ; but Mr. Turner, in his interesting observations on tho 

 anatomy of Paradoxurus typus, describing the feline habit of the 

 animal, states that the claws are quite as retractile, and scale off at 

 the ends to keep them sharp, as in the Cat ; he also says the pre- 

 putial gland secretes the odorous exhalation (see Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1849, p. 24). 



" The Paradoxuri are in habits like the Civets ; their glandular 

 secretion is peculiar, not civet- or musk-like." — Cantor, Gat. p. 32. 



Tail very long ; caudal vertebra; 36 or 38. 



The species of this group have been very imperfectly understood. 

 In the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' for 1832 I gave a 

 monograph of the species which the specimens and other materials 

 then available afforded ; and I revised the species in the ' Magazine 

 of Natural History' for 1837. The number of species described 



