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Show 150 PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ALUROIDEA. [Feb. 7, British Museum a light-yellow skin from Candy, and one from Nepal, which is but little darker. Generally the ground-colour is greyish, brownish, or yellowish, and there is a tendency to the development of black bands on the middle of the back and loins, black spots on the flanks, and rings on the tail. The young are very dark, but not so much so as are the young Civets, and they also want the white markings of the latter. The scent-gland is formed as in Viverra. Length of head and body about 61", of tail about 38". The genus Viverricula agrees, then, with the genus Viverra in all the characters before enumerated, except numbers 16, 24, 36, 38, 39, 40, and 41. The genus Fossa is represented in the national collection by four skins, two skulls, and a skeleton. The genus was instituted by Dr. Gray * on the strength of Daubenton's description; and though it seems nearly allied to the Rasse, its generic distinctness should, I think, be maintained, at least till its anatomy is more fully known, especially that of its glandular structures. I could not find evidence of a scent-pouch in the British-Museum skins. Neither could Daubenton in his specimen ; and M . Poivre (who sent Buffon the stuffed skin described in his work) wrote on the subject as follows :- " La Fossane que j'aiapportee de Madagascar, est un animal qui ales mceurs de notre fouine ; les habitans de Pile m'ont assure que la fossane male etant en chaleur, ses parties avoient une forte odeur de muse. Lorsque j'ai fait empaille celle qui est au Jardin du Roi, je l'examinai attentivement, je n'y decouvris aucune poche, et je ne lui trouvai aucune odeur de parfum." Not improbably there are some subcutaneous scent-glands, but no pouch cr even deep cutaneous fold in connexion with them. The limbs are slender; and there are the very small bald places (to which Mr. Oldfield Thomas was kind enough to call m y attention) beneath the hind foot. One of these is a little above the plantar pad, very near the small hallux (the claw of which may be wanting in the adult), and the other beneath the distal part of the tarsus, slightly nearer to the peroneal margin of the limb. Another noteworthy character is the absence of any median dark mark on the back. The adult may be very little striped or spotted, with only some spots on the flanks and some obscure stripes on the shoulders; but the young is very distinctly striped ; yet even in the young there is no median dorsal stripe, but the central portion of the back is of the general ground-colour, bounded by two rows of small irregular spots, external to which are three strongly marked longitudinal stripes on each side. The black throat-bands (which exist in Viverra) are entirely absent. The tail is spotted, the spots tending to form, but not actually forming, rings. The length of the head and body is about 43"*2, that of the tail 20"*3. The Fossa is only known as an inhabitant of Madagascar. Its external form is figured, and the animal is described, in Buffon, vol. 1 P. Z. S. 1864, p. 518. |
