184 



MR. R. I. POCOCK ON THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 



pad and the heel. Its posterior edge is ill defined and the 

 integument of the foot behind it is naked and wrinkled. (Text- 

 fig. 15, A.) 



The feet* of Gido are totally different. Except that the fore 

 foot is shorter and broader and is provided with carpal pads, the 

 two are very much alike and may be described together. The 

 digits are longer than in Mellivoj^a, and are tolerably evenly spaced 

 and widely separable ; the pollex and hallux are relatively less 

 reduced than in Mellivora and the webs tying the digits together 

 are wide, and the middle of the edge of each is approximately on 

 a level with the proximal end of the digital pads, which are well 

 defined, oval in shape, and, like the plantar pads, coarsely striate. 

 The claws are alike in size and shape on the two feet, being 

 moderately long, curved, and sharp. The plantar pads are much 

 reduced antero-posteriorly. The four so-called interdigital 

 elements are well defined and connected by narrower strips, the 

 whole forming an irregularly shaped, curved, transverse band, 

 the concavity of the curve facing the carpus and tarsus. The 

 median largest element of this pad has its anterior edge emar- 

 ginate. Some distance behind the plantar pad on the fore foot 

 there are two small, reniform, carpal pads, the outer as large as 

 a bean, the inner as large as a pea. The digital and plantar 

 pads are to a great extent overlapped by hair and the carpal pads 

 are entirely concealed ; but there is no trace of a metatarsal 

 pad on the hind foot. Except for the pads the whole of the 

 under side of the feet is covered Avith hair, which on the digits 

 and webs and behind the plantar pad is soft and woolly ; but on 

 each side of the carpus and along the inner side of the metatarsus 

 the hairs are coarse and form a stiff bristly brush. (Text-fig. 16, 

 A, B.) 



The Anus and the External Genitalia. 



The anus in Mellivora is sunk in the centre of a circular area 

 of radially corrugated skin which folds over it and conceals it, 

 the upper and lower margins of this area meeting to form a 

 transverse rima — the condition very closely resembling that of 

 the Mungotidte. The two anal glands are of great size, and 

 discharge copiously a suffocating fluid exactly as in the Skunks 

 [Mephitis, Conepatus), Zorilles (Ictonyx), Grison [Grisonia), and 

 Teledu {Mydaus) (text-fig. 17, A, B). In Gulo the anus is super- 

 ficial and not insunk, being merely surrounded by an area of 

 naked skin as in Canidae, Felidse, and the majority of Carnivora. 

 The anal glands are of normal sizef, and discharge a yellow 

 fluid, the odour of which is musteline, but not so pungent as in 

 the Polecat [Mustela piUorius). 



The anal and genital region in Mellivora is naked or scantily 

 hairy ; in Gulo it is thickly furred. 



* Boas (Zool. Anz. xxxiv. p. 532, 1909) figures the hind foot, stripped of hair, of 

 <?mZo. 



f Gray's statement that they are absent is wrong. 



