32 HELOGALE PARVULA. 



As Oldtield Thomas observed ia the above named ex- 

 cellent monograph , there are in most of the larger Euro- 

 pean Museums typical specimens of Sundevall's Herpestes 

 parvidus; so we possess too one of these type-specimens 

 with its skull. 



In comparing this skull with the figure of the skull of 

 Helogale parvula on p. 308 (P. Z. S. L. 1861) or with that 

 given by Peters on pi. XXV (Reise nach Mossambique) of 

 Herpestes undulatus , I find no difference at all. Oldfield 

 Thomas wrote (I.e., 1882) that in H. parvula the skull 

 is larger and the last molar smaller in proportion , but 

 Thomas gives the length of a skull of H. parvula = 1.82 

 inches, meanwhile Peters said that the skulls of the types 

 of undulatus measure 48 and 46 niM. , or 1.9 and 1.82 

 inches (the Taita-skull, see Thomas, seems to be '/io of an 

 inch larger) , so that I state that there is no difference in 

 length between the skull of H. parvula in the British 

 Museum (and I may add also in the Leyden Museum , as 

 our skull measures too 1.82 inches) and that of one of 

 the types of H. undulata in the Berlin Museum ; the other 

 in the Berlin Museum being somewhat larger and the 

 Taita-specimen in the British Museum is a still larger spe- 

 cimen. The difference in size between the last molars of 

 the two supposed species is too small to take in conside- 

 ration (H. parvula , a has M 2 = 4.0, b has M 2 = 4. 1 , and 

 H. undulata , a has M 2 = 4.0, cf. Thomas , P. Z. S. L. , 

 1882, p. 80). 



According to Gray, Peters and Thomas there is however 

 a difference in color between H parvula and H. undulata , 

 but I remember that it is a well known fact that there 

 is often an enormous variation in color in the different 

 specimens of a given species belonging to the Herpestes- 

 group (see Temminck and Oldfield Thomas) , so that color 

 alone is in this case a character of second order in distin- 

 guishing species. 



In my opinion therefore there is known only a single 

 species of Helogale , //. parvula Sundevall ; this opinion is 



Notes from the Leyden Museum , A^ol. X.I. 



