THE NILGIRI BROWN MUNGOOSE. 259 



Characters. — Distinguished from the other uniformly-coloured 

 Indian forms by the black tail-tip. Fur long, harsh, and 

 somewhat ragged ; tail nearly as long as the head and body, 

 or, if the hair be included, longer; heel partially haired. 

 General colour varying from light brownish-grey, speckled with 

 white, to rufous or iron-grey; terminal three or four inches of 

 the tail jet black ; behind this the colour ferruginous for a 

 short distance, and then similar to that of the body ; under- 

 pays sometimes paler than back ; feet generally darker, either 

 rufous-brown or blackish. Under-fur grey to greyish-brown ; 

 longer hairs, with alternations of some four white, and as man) 

 dark brown or black rings, the tips varying from light brown 

 to deep ferruginous-red. Length of head and body, about 20 

 inches; of tail, 19 inches. 



Distribution. — India, from Kashmir southwards, and Ceylon ; 

 but everywhere rare, generally frequenting forests. 



The variety If.jerdoni has the fur very grey. 



XIII. THE NILGIRI BROWN MUNGOOSE. HERPESTES FUSCUS. 



Herpestes fuscus, Waterhouse, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1838, p. 55; 

 Blanford, Mamm. Brit. India, p. 127 (1888). 



Characters.— No black tip to tail ; hairs with three very short 

 light rings, about one-third the length of the dark ones ; colour 

 very dark ; under-fur dark brown. 



Size large; tail rather shorter than head and body, with 

 longer hair; fur long and not very harsh; under-fur lon^, 

 dense, and woolly ; heel hairy beneath. General colour black- 

 ish-brown, minutely speckled with yellow or brownish-white; 

 tail rather, and feet much darker. Length of head and body, 

 18 inches; of tail, with hair, 17 inches. 



Distribution. — Travancore, and Nilgiri Hills of Southern 

 India. 



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