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Show 430 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [May 21, 5. On the Visceral and Muscular Anatomy of Cryptoprocta ferox. By F R A N K E. B E D D A R D , M.A., F.R.S., Prosector to the Society. [Eeceived May 21, 1895.] (Plate XXVI.) So far as I am aware there is no account of the anatomy of the " soft parts" of Cryptoprocta ferox in zoological literature, excepting only the brain, which was described by Dr. Mivart*• from a drawing supplied to him by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards. Prof. Milne- Edwards himself, in conjunction with M. Grandidier, gave some years ago2 a detailed account of the osteology of the animal; its external characters are of course well known \ Since some interest attaches to this animal as an aberrant Viverrine, I have thought it worth while to bring before the Society a few notes upon the anatomy of its viscera and muscular system. The individual which I dissected was a young male; the coloured drawing which I exhibit (Plate XXVI.) is not of that individual but of the fine adult now alive in the Society's Gardens. I am acquainted with only two coloured illustrations of the animal. The original drawing is contained in the first volume of our ' Transactions,'4 and illustrates a paper by Mr. Bennett. The second figure is in the work upon Madagascar by Pollen and Van Dam 2 Neither of these figures appears to me to be so satisfactory as the water-colour drawing by Mr. J. T. Nettleship, which I now place before the Society. § Alimentary Canal. The palate has 8 ridges, of which the last three are more or less interrupted in the middle line; they here end in conical papillae, of which there are plenty scattered between the ridges, and from a fusion between which the latter seem to have arisen. The tongue (see woodcut, fig. 1) has two circumvallate papillae on each side, of which the innermost is double. There is no median papilla. Contrary to what is said by Prof. Mivart, I have found them in Genetta (pardina). There is, as in the Cat, a strongly marked patch of spiny papillae anteriorly. The stomach is not unlike that of Prionodon, as figured by Dr. Mivart6, though deeper. The interior of the cardiac portion is distinguished by numerous longitudinally running folds. These cease absolutely at the constriction which marks the commencement 1 "Notes on the Cerebral Convolutions of the Carnivora," J. Linn. Soc. 2' " Observations anatomiques sur quelques Mammiferes, &c," Ann. Sci. Nat. (5) vii. p. 314. „ _ , , a See Bennett, Tr. Z. S. vol. i. p. 137; Pollen and Van Dam, " Eecherches sur la Faune de Madagascar," 2e partie, vol. viii. i pj XXvi. " Loc. cit. « P.Z. S. 1882, p. 506. |
