340 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



shortly after dawn, one was found already dead ha\Tng been bitten 

 through the neck by a leopard whose tracks were seen in the path. 

 On another occasion we startled one in the early afternoon, that had 

 been ensconced in the hollow under the roots of a fallen tree, no doubt 

 asleep. 



Genetta abyssinica (Riippell). 

 Abyssinian Civet-cat. 



Viverra abyssinica Riippell, Xeue wirbelth. fauna Abyssinien. Saugeth. 

 1835, p. 33, pi. 11. 



Along the Blue Nile and the Dinder River this seemed to be a com- 

 mon species. Specimens were trapped at Bados and Magangani on 

 the Blue Nile and at the latter spot Dr. Phillips shot one that was 

 clambering up the trunk of a large baobad tree in the full sunlight of 

 noon. At Bados, one was caught in a trap and found next morning 

 partly eaten by a large cat, apparently a Caracal, that bounded off in 

 the dusk when surprised. Curiously, we did not succeed in trapping 

 any in the more northern part of our journey between Sennar and 

 Bados, where perhaps they are less common. 



The extraordinary amount of color variation in this group renders 

 the division into races a matter of much uncertainty. Professor 

 Matschie (1902) in his re\-iew of the civet-cats, was able to examine 

 some 240 skins in the Berlin Zoological ^Museum, and recognized no 

 less than thirtv-three forms, all of which mav be considered races of 

 two species, the one ^\'ith a longer-haired, the other with a shorter- 

 haired tail. In the latter group belong the specimens obtained by 

 the Phillips Expedition. Although the propriety of recognizing so 

 many local races may be questioned and the value of certain of the 

 characters considered distinctive is yet to be showTi, the four skins 

 preserved do agree in having the light tail annulations much wider 

 than the dark, and the feet practically of the same hght gray on both 

 the superior and the inferior surfaces, marks which Matschie finds 

 distinctive of the civet-cats of the Red Sea coast {G. schraderi from 

 jNIassawa) and the present species, described by Riippell from between 

 Kordofan and Gondar in Abyssinia. As these specimens are practi- 

 cally topotypes of abyssinica, a brief statement of the variation in 

 color is of interest. This is mainly a matter of the relative amounts of 

 black, rusty, and buff in the pattern, and the degree to which the rows 

 of spots coalesce to form stripes. In two specimens, the ground color 



