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Show 1877.] ANATOMY OF HYAENA CROCUTA. 3/7 other animals, but a round hole similar to an anus. Just within this is the clitoris, which points forwards like a short, blunt tongue." Murie1 figures the external female organs of H. brunnea, and describes the " vulva as being slit-shaped, •£ of an inch in length, and with the urethral outlet placed in its anterior angle." He makes no mention whatever of tbe clitoris. Now it is impossible to doubt that, had the clitoris presented the large size in either of these species that it does in //. crocuta, one or both of the observers just named would have referred to it. Moreover the presence in both these of a vulva presenting the usual appearance, and particularly referred to by the anatomists who describe them, shows that in this respect also H. crocuta differs much from its congeners; The perforation of the clitoris by the urino-genital canal is an arrangement which, so far as I am aware, does not occur in any other animal. It is not by any means exceptional that the female urethra should groove or even perforate the clitoris; but the fact that the excretory canal which is common to both the urinary and genital organs should do so is, I believe, extremely uncommon. Owen2 says that, with the exception of the monotremes, " in all mammals both urine and semen are carried out by the urethral canal in the male ; and in some Insectivora and Quadrumana the clitoris in the female is similarly traversed by a canal, which here, however, is exclusively for the urine. The vaginal orifice intervenes between the prominent and perforate clitoris and the anus." The arrangement of the female organs in H. crocuta is such as to give them a great resemblance to those of the males in other species. Leuckart3 figures the passages of the male H. striata, and shows that in connexion with the floor of the prostatic portion of the urethra there is a small flask-shaped uterus masculinus. Now, if we suppose this uterus masculinus enlarged to the size of the uterus, above described, of the female H. crocuta, we shall, in the absence of a prostate gland, have an almost identical arrangement of the excretory passages of both sexes, an agreement which is confirmed by the position and large size of the Cowperian glands in both. I have not had an opportunity of examining the male organs of H. crocuta; but, from Prof. Flower's remarks4 as to the form of the penis in that animal, I am inclined to think that it closely resembles the clitoris of the opposite sex ; and an examination of Dr. Murie's drawing of the external parts of a young male H. crocuta confirms this opinion. Add to which that, as I have already stated at the commencement of this paper, the resemblance of the external parts in general in both sexes is so close that it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish them, and we have, I think, an explanation of the notion entertained by the ancients regarding these animals-namely, that they were hermaphrodites. As showing how easily even those who are most familiar with these creatures may be misled, I may mention that the keepers of the 1 Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vii. p. 504. fig. 1. 2 Anat. of Vertebrates, vol. iii. p. 609. 3 Cyclopsed. of Anat. vol. iv. Art, "Vesicula prostatica." « Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 493. |