THE SMALL INDIAN MUNGOOSE. 255 



Characters. — Fur short and harsh, the hairs on the back being 

 barely half-an-inch in length. General colour pale grey, the 

 hairs being finely grizzled with black and creamy-white, those 

 on the under-parts having longer pale tips and less black. 

 Tail with the hairs somewhat longer than those on the body, 

 and uniformly ringed with black and white ; no trace of a dark 

 tip. Limbs coloured like the body ; under surface of tarsus 

 naked. Length of head and body, 13 inches; of tail, 10^ 

 inches. 



Distribution. — West and South Africa (Gaboon and Algoa 

 Bay). 



This small species is very rare, and presents some resem- 

 blance to the Oriental H. auropunctatus. 



X. THE SMALL INDIAN MUNGOOSE. HERPESTES 

 AUROPUNCTATUS. 



Viven-a auropuuetata, Hodgson, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 



v. p. 235 (1836). 

 Herpestes nipalensis, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 578 (1837). 

 Herpestes auropunctatus, Wagner, in Schreber's Saugethiere, 



Suppl. vol. ii. p. 310 (1841); Blanford, Mamm. Brit. 



India, p. 121 (1888); Sclater, Cat. Mamm. Ind. Mus. 



pt. ii. p. 251 (1891). 

 Herpestes pa//ipes, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. xiv. p. 



346 (1845). 

 Herpestes javanicus, Blyth, op. cit. vol. xxi. p. 349 (1852). 

 Herpestes persicus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 554. 

 Calogale nepa/ensis, Gray, Cat. Carniv. Mamm. Brit. Mus. p. 



158 (1869). 



Variety. 



Herpestes birmanicus, Blanford (ex Thomas, 1886), Mamm. 

 Brit. Ind. p. 122 (1888). 



With this species we come to the Oriental representatives of 



