l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. $6 



CROSSARCHUS FASCIATUS COLONUS, new subspecies 



East African Banded Mungoose 



Type from the Southern Guaso Nyiro River, Sotik District, Brit- 

 ish East Africa; adult female, number 162132, U. S. Nat. Mus. ; 

 collected by Edmund Heller, June 21, 1909; original number, 6396. 

 J. Alden Loring. 



Characters. — Size and proportions as in macrurus, but coloration 

 much grayer, the rufous of the shoulders replaced by buffy gray 

 and the feet seal brown. 



Coloration. — General dorsal coloration buffy grayish, lined every- 

 where with blackish ; the posterior back and rump marked by eleven 

 dark cross bands which are well defined only on back, being obso- 

 lete on the sides. Separating the broad dark cross bands are nar- 

 rower light bands of buffy, which on median line become ferrugi- 

 nous. Shoulders and limbs uniform in color with the general body 

 color, the feet and the muzzle dorsally from the level of the eyes 

 dark seal brown. Tail like body color, the terminal one-fourth 

 blackish. Under parts with an ochraceous wash, the hairs basally 

 dark brown ; throat lighter buffy, the chin and upper lip bright 

 tawny, in marked contrast to rest of under parts. 



Measurements. — Head and body, 380 mm. ; tail, 260 ; hind foot, 92. 

 Skull: condylo-basal length, 75.5; basal length, 71; zygomatic 

 breadth, 42.5 ; palatal length, 39 ; greatest diameter of pm*, 7. 



This East African veldt race of the banded mungoose is a much 

 grayer and lighter colored animal than macrurus of Ruwenzori and 

 Uganda. The rich rufous suffusion of the shoulders and the black 

 feet of the latter are wanting, the body color being quite uniform 

 and the black replaced by brown. 



These mungooses are often met with on the grassy plains of the 

 Sotik country, where they live in colonies in burrows on the open 

 veldt. They, however, do not stop long in any locality, but move 

 about in small packs of ten to twenty individuals, which take up a 

 temporary abode in any nest of burrows which they find convenient. 

 From our observations it was apparent that they do not remain more 

 than a day or two in any one set of burrows. 



