NEW MONGOOSE FROM WEST AFRICA. 3H 
the smallest distance between the nostrils in front is 10, and on the dorsal 
surface, where they appear like two narrow oval openings, the nearest points 
are 14 millimetres apart ; the greatest width of the rhynarium outside the 
nostrils is 21 millimetres. 
Both fore- and hind-feet are webbed, the last joint only of the digits 
being free. The plantar surface of the fore-feet extends to the carpal joint, 
or 60 millimetres from the end of the third finger. The plantar surface of 
the hind-feet extends to the base of the first toe only, or 56 millimetres from 
the end of the longest toe. The proportions of the toes are as follows :— 
the fore-feet, 3rd and 4th equal and longest, 2nd shorter by half of pad, 5th 
shorter than 2nd by half of pad, Ist reaches to basal joint of 2nd, or 27. 
millimetres shorter. The hind-feet—Ist small, 31 millimetres short of 2nd, 
which is sub-equal with 5th, reaching to the posterior border of the pads of 
3rd and 4th, which are very nearly equal, the 3rd being slightly the longest. 
The skull and dentition closely resemble H. caffer, but may be distinguished 
by the longer facial portion, the almost horizontal set of the auditory bulle, 
the rather longer and narrower postpalatal shelf, and the larger size of the 
second upper molar, which is about half the size of the first. 
The principal measurements of the skull are given in tabular form, along 
with that of the large male from Benito R. and a fully adult H. caffer (British 
Museum, No. 99.8.4.38) from Ravine Station in British East Africa. This 
latter specimen is unsexed, but, from the size of the teeth, it is presumably a 
female. The skull of a rather younger male, however, gives practically the 
same measurements. 
Type ¢. Benito R. 6. | H. caffer @ (2). 
Greatest length, . : E : 110 119 102 
" width, . 5 : ; 53 67 51 
Premaxilla to orbit, : : 3 38°8 42°5 27°8 
Length of palate, . : a : 62 67 58°5 
Width outside 5 : : ; 33 37 33 

An Account of a Perforated and Distorted Cranium 
in the Mayer Museum.* 
By A. M. Paterson, M.D., Professor of Anatomy ; and F. T. LOVEGROVE, 
M.R.C.S., Eng., Robert Gee Fellow in Anatomy, University College, 
Liverpool. 
The following is an account of a remarkable microcephalic and distorted 
cranium from Eastry, in Kent, in the Liverpool Museums, kindly sent by Dr. 
H. O. Forbes, the Director, to the Anatomical Department of University 
College for examination. With it are compared two others in the Patho- 
logical Museum, University College, Liverpool, all three being cases of double 
symmetrical perforations of the parietal bones. 
(1) The Eastry Cranium. 
The specimen (Figs. 1-4) consists of cranium only. It is scaphocephalic 
and microcephalic: the sutures are obliterated, and in each parietal bone 
behind the vertex is a symmetrical perforation of large size. 



* Reprinted, with slight verbal alterations, from the Journal of Anatomy and 
Physiology, vol. xxxiv., pp. 228-237, 1900. 
