﻿6 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 4. N:0 16. 



mensions of the lower jaw are also much smaller, the short- 

 ness of the symphysis being especially striking. In conse- 

 quence of the weakness of the jaws of the Congo Mongoose 

 even the articulation is less strong as the measurements 

 prove. 



The frontal region of the skull is comparatively longer 

 in Mungos i. cafer than in M. i. parvidens so that the distance 

 from the posterior end of the nasals to sutura coronalis is in 

 the latter about eqiial to the length of the parietals from 

 sut. coronalis to sut. lambdoidea. In M. i. cafei% on the other 

 hand, the length of the parietals appear to be only about 

 82 7o of the distance between sutura coronalis and the poste- 

 rior end of the nasals. The same thing may be expressed 

 directly in millimeters in the foUowing way. The skull from 

 Natal of M. i. cafer and the younger of the skulls of M. i. 

 parvidens have nearly equal length of parietals but the fron- 

 tal measUrement of the former is fully 10 mm. longer in the 

 former than in the latter. This difference in proportion is 

 perhaps of deeper importance than the others which chiefly 

 consist in a general and constant decrease in size espe- 

 cially prominent with regard to the dentition and the jaws of 

 Mungos i. parvidens. These latter differences stånd no doubt 

 in connection with a different diet of the South African and 

 tlie Congo Mongooses. As the general dimensions, for in- 

 stance length of head and body, of both forms are almost 

 alike, the small-headed, small-jawed and small-toothed Mon- 

 goose must live on some kind of food for the partaking of 

 which it does not need to develop so much strength or 

 muscular power when seizing, holding or chewing the food. 

 Perhaps it feeds chiefly on berries or insects, while its 

 southern relative preys raostly on vertebrates? The pecu- 

 liar wearing of the anterior teeth of M. i. parvidens describ- 

 ed above is very striking, the more so as the anterior pre- 

 molars do not fit in between each others by far as well as 

 in the South African Mongoose, but there is a great gap 

 even betwen pm^ and pms. This, too, points to a different 

 diet. 



Concerning the »Mfwenge» Mr. Laman has communicated 

 the following: »Mfwenge is a very cunning animal and very 

 elever in catching poultry round the villages where it hides 

 in the grass. It is impossible to catch it alive, and it must 



