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Show 1882.] PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ALUROIDEA. 183 The anus opens into the middle of a very large and deep fossa, into which several pairs of anal glands also open. The structure of these parts is described by M. Chatin as they exist in both species. The condition found in C. obscurus is described by him (in a paper entitled " Recherches pour servir a 1'histoire anatomique des glandes odorantes chez quelques Mammiferes") in a periodical named ' Comp. Rendu Assoc, francaise,' vol. i. (1872), p. 557. The parts of C. fasciatus are described and figured by him (under the name Herpestes fasciatus) in the Ann. des Sc. Nat. vol. xix. (5th series), 1874, p. 89, figs. 29-33, and 38. No less than five pairs of glands are arranged about the anus, and pour their secretion into the capacious and naked anal pouch. C. fasciatus is described and figured in Buffon, vol. xiii. p. 150, pl. 19. Except as above indicated, the characters of Crossarchus are (so far as I know) those of Herpestes. The Suricate was formed into the genus Suricata by Desmarest (N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxiv. p. 16, 1804), and was called Ryzcena by Illiger (Prodromus, p. 134). It is figured and described by Buffon and Daubenton (H. Nat. vol. xiii. p. 72, pl. 8). Its anatomy has also been described by Hunter (' Essays and Observations,' vol. ii. p. 55) and by Prof. Owen (P. Z. S. 1830, pp. 39, 51). The animal is from South Africa, and is called " Meer Kat" at the Cape. The hair is annulated, and so marked as to form transverse bands across the loins. The ears are very short. The tarsus is hairy. There is no pollex or hallux, there being mere rudiments of the first metacarpal and the first metatarsal beneath the skin. The nose is pointed, rather elongated and movable, and has no median groove on its underside. Length of head and body 38"*8, of tail 21". The skull is relatively very broad, especially behind, facial portion short. The basis cranii shows the Herpestiform character of the bulla carried to a yet more exaggerated degree than in Crossarchus ; but it is flattened beneath, and the hinder chamber does not generally depend below the anterior chamber. The opening of the external auditory meatus is small and triangular ; and its anterior margin projects most. Prof. Flower has pointed out (P. Z. S. 1869, p. 20) that the much elongated meatus is fissured along the whole extent of its floor. The anterior chamber of the bulla is very prominent; and the opening between the two chambers is rather larger than heretofore. There is a distinct but short alisphenoid canal. There are long postorbital processes which enclose the orbits ; but the cranium is very little pinched in behind them. The cranial ridges are moderate. The condyloid foramen may or may not be concealed. The paroccipital process is flattened, and does not depend. The mastoid is very marked more so relatively than even in Nandinia. The carotid canal commences towards the hinder end of the auditory bulla. There is a conspicuous carotid foramen in the basis cranii on either side • and it is almost, if not quite, surrounded by the sphenoid. |
