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



four.) Judging only from the colouration it could be assum- 

 ed that these specimens belonged to C. fasciatus but the 

 tail is rather short, and when looking at the skulls the teeth 

 were found to be very much smaller than in C. fasciatus 

 at the same time as the whole skull was much more slender. 

 This proves that this Banded Mongoose is a very distinct 

 form which I propose to name as above and which may be 

 described as follows. 



General colour above and below grizzled but rather 

 dark grey, posterior three fourths or a little less of the back 

 banded across with black and rufous. In one specimen 

 about 35 crossbands and in the other 26 may be discerned. 

 The anterior bands are a little narrower than the posterior 

 ones and are less sharply defined. Hairs of the back ante- 

 riorly about 23, posteriorly about 30 — ^35 mm. In the grizz- 

 led parts the long hairs are ringed with black and dirty 

 white (neck and sides) or buffish white (below); above the 

 shoulders the light rings incline to be rufous. This rufous 

 colouration becomes more and more rich at the same time 

 as the crossbands become better defined towards the middle 

 and posterior half of the back. The head rather darker 

 than the neck, blackish or black with narrow whitish rings 

 which disappear on a level with the eyes so that the snout 

 IS entirely black. Upper and lower lips and chin rufous; in 

 the corner of the mouth the rufous colouration extends 

 backwards a little but otherwise the rufous is rather sharply 

 defined from the adjoining black or grizzled parts. Feet 

 glossy black, the black extending on the före legs rather high. 

 up, almost to the elbow. The hairs on the tail are black 

 with påle rufous rings, the black colour dominating, espe- 

 cially towards the tip. 



Length of head and body 44 and 44 Vs cm. ; length of 

 tail with hair resp. about 23Va and 2OV2 cm., without hair 

 resp. about 21 Vä and 19 cm. 



This Banded Mongoose is thus, as it seems, somewhat 

 larger than C. fasciatus and even than the Ruvenzori-race 

 of the same, C. /. macrurus. The proportions between the 

 body and the tail is also different, the length of the latter 

 being in the Congo Mongoose hardly more than half that 

 of the former or in some specimens even less but about 60 

 percent in the typical C. fasciatus, and about 70 percent in 



