1837.] On a new genus of the Plantigrades . 561 



with the lower surface : a dark small patch behind the gape, on either 

 cheek : fore limbs, paled, internally to the wrists, and frequently 

 spreading over the digits : hind, only to the oscalcis or less. Four teats 

 placed in a parallelogram, in the posteal region of the belly ; two of 

 them, inguinal, and two ventral. In young animals, and in the winter 

 dress of mature ones, the dark superior surface is earthy grey brown, 

 and the pale inferior, as well as the marks above, canescent ; the dark 

 moustache is also wanting. 



Tribe Plantigrades. Genus Urva, nobis. 



Character. Teeth as in the Genus Herpestes. Structure and 

 aspect precisely mediate between Herpestes and Gulo, subver- 

 miform and digito -plantigrade. Snout elongated, sharpened and 

 mobile. Hands and feet largish ; with the digits connected by 

 large crescented membranes. Sole and palm nude. Hind feet clad 

 half-way from the os calcis. Nails subequal before and behind, Gulo- 

 herpestine. On either side the anus a round, hollow, smooth-lined 

 gland secreting an aqueous foetid humour which the animal squirts 

 out posteally with force. No subsidiary glands, nor any unctuous 

 fragrant secretion. Teats six, remote and ventral. Stomach purely 

 membranous, without neck or fundus. A short blunt coecum of equal 

 diameter with the great gut. Orbits incomplete*. 



Habits. Cancrivorous and ranivorous; dwelling in burrows in the 

 valleys of the lower and central hilly regions of Nepal. 



Type. Gulo Urva, of the Journal No. 52 for April 1836. Urva 

 cancrivora hodie, nobis. Affinities various, closest with Herpestes and 

 Gulo, connecting Mydans, Mephitis and Ursitaxus, on one hand, and 

 Herpestes and Viverra on the other, and forming a singular link be- 

 tween the odoriferous and foetid genera of the Digitigrade and Planti- 

 grade Tribes ; its obvious station being at the end of the one, or at 

 the beginning of the other tribe. 



Color. That of the jackal or fulvous iron grey, darker and embrown- 

 ed on the inferior surface of the neck and on the chest. Limbs black 

 brown. A white stripe on either side the neck from ear to shoulder. 

 Edge of the upper lip and the whole lower jaw canescent. Terminal 

 half of the tail rufous yellow. Fur of two sorts, very ample and laxly 



* Some of these marks of our genus, or subgenus, are, I am aware, only 

 significant by their combination with others. And, as to their number, it 

 appears to me that we shall only reach the more intimate affinities of the mam- 

 mals by carrying into this department of Zoology a portion of the precision and 

 minuteness which have been applied to the Ornithological department. 



