116 BULLETIN 99, UNITED STATES Nx\TIONAJ. MUSEUM. 



Mr. Pocock has separated the African civet from the Oriental 

 apecies under the new generic name Civettictis. Wliile admitting 

 the importance of the characters he has discovered in this C/Omiec- 

 tion, I should prefer to recognize the two groups as subgenera, ratlier 

 than full genera, until he can study fresh materiftl of all the species. 



VrVERRA CrVErrA ORIENTALIS Mat«ichie. 



1891. Viverra civetta orientalis Matschie, Arcbiv. f. Naiiifg., p. 352. (Zanzibar 

 Island; type in Berlin Museum.) 



Specimen. — One, as follows: 

 British East Africa: Voi (HeJler). 



The following manuscript notes on the type-specimen of this fonn 

 n-ere made by Holler at the Berlin Museum: 



Tj'pe A5329, Zanzibar Id. (Coll, Ilildebrandt); skin mounted; young, the ekuU 

 mth last molar not in place. Color of upperparts chiefly wliitish silveiy, black spots 

 on sides smaller than white intersjiaces and not well defined; black of mane also 

 flanked by broad white stripes. Arm, foot, and throat black; head mth whole crown 

 and tip of snout whitish, sides of face and band across before eyes black. Color 

 much lighter than the mainland skins I have seen. Skull with all sutures open, last, 

 lower and upper molars not yet erupted. Condyloincisive length, 140; zygomatic 

 breadth, 67; interorbital breadth, 25; postorbital breadth, 22.4; nasals 35.5 X 14, 

 length upper carnassial, 11.6; mandible 102. 



Tlie skin from Voi is without a skull but is apparently adult. It 

 is, I should judge, somewhat darker than the type, and the spots on 

 the sides of the body are well marked and conspicuous against the 

 whitish background; the long hairs of the dorsal mane are decidedly 

 ochraceous and tipped with glossy black; the legs, feet, and terminal 

 half of the tail are brownish black; shoulders grizzly, mixed black 

 and gray or whitish, the spotting not distinct; crown buffy, mixed 

 with blackish and sides of nose white. This skin is conspicuously 

 different from skins in the museum collected in Congo and Cameroons, 

 It is much lighter in color, the underparts whitish or light gray 

 instead of blackish. On the entire sides and upperparts the white 

 predominates, the black spots being much smaller, though more 

 sharply marked, than in the West African skins. 



Genus GENETTA Oken. 



1816. Genetlu Oken, Lehrb. Naturg., ;^tor Theil, 2te Abth., p. 1010, (G. gmetta.) 



On account of the very great amount of individual variation in 

 color and color pattern, the genets are difficult mammals to deter- 

 mine satisfactorily without suitable series for study. Three general 

 types are represented in the collections, and tlie material has usually 

 been sufficient for definite identifications. The dongalana group is 

 characterized by the distinct dorsal mane and long-haired tail; the 

 smaller hettoni by the absence of a distinct dprsal stripe and the very 

 narrow light tail rings; and the stuhlmanni group by the dark dorsal 



