Vol. XXV, pp. 1-2 January 23, 1912 



PROCEEDINGS 



01 THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW" WATER MUNGOOSE FROM 



EAST AFRICA. 



RY X. HOLLISTER. 



[Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.] 



A collection of mammals made in British p]ast Africa and 

 Uganda in 1010 by Mr. John Jay White includes, among other 

 desirable material, a mungoose of the paludinosus group from 

 the Guas Ngishu country, which apparently represents the true 

 robustus of Gray, described from the White Nile. Comparison 

 of this specimen with others of the group in the United States 

 National Museum collection makes it plain that the form found 

 on Mount Kilimanjaro is distinct from robustus, as it also is from 

 the more southern forms of paludinosus. All the water mun- 

 gooses from British East Africa and the Kilimanjaro region have 

 heretofore been referred torobustus. 



Mungos paludinosus rubescens subsp. now 



Type from Mount Kilimanjaro, East Africa, at 4000 feet. Adult d"', 

 skin and skull. United State- National Museum No. \'',\\\- Collected 

 November 8, 1889, by I»r. W. L. Abbott. 



Characters. — A medium sized form, considerably smaller and lighter 

 colored than Mungos p. robustus; size about as in M. }>. rubellus, but col- 

 oration much darker. Skull with comparatively very small audita! 

 bullae. 



Cohn- of type. — Nose to eyes, clear dark sepia ; lips and chin yellowish- 

 buflf; cheeks, forehead, crown, and nape, grizzled; neck, body, and base 

 of tail brighter, with no gray, and with more reddish. Uhderfur sepia, 

 tipped with cinnamon. The long, glossy, overlying hairs of back, black, 

 with or without rings of hazel and hay; overlying glossy hairs of sides 

 and underparts li'_ r hter brown, ringed and tipped with cinnamon-rufous. 

 Legs and feet, blackish-hrown ; tail at base like back, but with long hairs 



l— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. NXV, 1912. (l) 



