226 Lloyd's natural history. 



Poiana rickardsoni, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 520. 

 Poia?ia p'censiS) Mivart, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 159. 



Characters — Professor Mivart writes that the coloration is 

 very similar to that obtaining in Ltnsanga ; "but the spots are 

 smaller and show no tendency to run into transverse bands or 

 stripes, except on the middle of the back of the head, and ex- 

 cept a broad mark on each side descending from the back of 

 the head to above the shoulder. The tail is ringed with dark 

 rings, alternately broad and narrow. The muzzle is very 

 pointed. The length of the head and body is about 38 inches, 

 that of the tail, 40 }4 inches." 



Distribution — West Africa (Sierra Leone and Fernando Po). 



This apparently rare animal was originally described from 

 the flat skin of a young specimen, and nothing has been re- 

 corded regarding its habits. It may probably be considered 

 as a rather more specialised form than its Oriental cousins, 

 from which it may be distinguished at a glance by the peculiar 

 arrangement of the dark rings (about 22 in number) on the 

 unusually long tail, of which the tip is black. 



VII. THE HEMIGALES. GENUS HEMIGALE. 



Hemigalus, Jourdan, Comptes Rendus, vol. v. p. 442 (1837) 

 Hemigalea, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1 864, p. 524. 



In all the preceding forms, with the exception of Pbssa, the 

 tail is marked throughout with distinct rings, whereas in the 

 present genus it is, at most, only so at the base. Moreover, 

 whereas in the whole of the former the auditory bulla of the 

 skull is blunted, in Hemigale it is pointed in front, while the 

 carnassial teeth in the latter are relatively smaller and of a less 

 completely sectorial type than in the other genera. A further 

 most distinctive feature of Hemigale is to be found in the cir- 

 cumstance that, in the hind-foot, the pads in the centre are 

 concentrated, so as to form a bald area on the metatarsus, with 



