226 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 
Poiana richardsont, Gray, BFoc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 520. 
Poiana poensis, Mivart, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 159. 
Characters.—Professor Mivart writes that the coloration is 
very similar to that obtaining in Zzzsanga ; ‘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% inches.” 
Distribution. West Africa (Sierra Leone and Iernando Po). 
This apparently rare animal was originaily 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) 
Flemigalea, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 524. 
In all the preceding forms, with the exception of Fossa, 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 Hemiga/e 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 Hemiga/e 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 
