BLACK-FOOTED MUNGOOSE. 269 



lsh ; tail bushy, uniformly blackish-brown. Length of head and 

 body, from 15 to 20^ inches ; of tail, from 7 to 9 inches. 



Distribution. — Mozambique and Zanzibar. 



All the species of the genus appear to be very rare animals ; 

 and nothing is known of their habits. 



III. BLACK-FOOTED MUNGOOSE. BDEOGALE NIGRIPES. 



Bdeogale m'gripes, Pucheran, Rev. Mag. Zool. vol. vii. p. 1 1 1 



(1855); Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 82. 

 Herpestes, sp., Bocage, J. Sci. Lisboa, ser. 2, vol. i. p. 180 

 (1889). 

 Characters. — This imperfectly known form was originally 

 named from a skin from the Gaboon, which Mr. Thomas (op. cit. 

 p. 77) thought might belong to an individual of Herpestes albi- 

 cauda, which had, through some accident, lost the first toe on 

 each foot. Bocage writes, however, that two Mungooses from 

 Angola resemble in appearance, and also in the conformation of 

 their skulls and teeth, Herpestes albicauda; but they differ in 

 their system of coloration, and the absence of the first toe in 

 both the fore- and hind-feet. The fur, composed of shorter 

 hairs ringed with black and white, and without any admixture 

 of the longer ones so abundant in II albicauda, presents a 

 uniform coloration of white speckles upon a blackish ground. 

 The blackness of the limbs is less marked than in the latter. 



If these specimens do not indicate that Bd. nigripes is a good 

 species, they would seem to show that the number of digits in 

 H. albicauda is not constant, and therefore that the genus 

 Bdeogale has no existence. 



Distribution.— West Africa (Gaboon and Angola). 



XVI. GENUS CYNICTIS. 

 Cyniclis, Ogilby, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, p. 48. 

 In this South African genus there are five toes on the fore 

 feet and four on the hind-feet ; the teeth agree in number and 



