wie 
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. 
Viverra auropunctata, Hodgson, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 
Vv. p. 235 (1836). 
Fer pestes nipalensts, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 578 (1837). 
Lerpestes 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 pallipes, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. xiv. p. 
346 (1845). 
Herpestes javanicus, Blyth, of. cit. vol. xxi. p. 349 (1852). 
Herpestes persicus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 554. 
Calogale nepalensis, Gray, Cat. Carniv. Mamm. Brit. Mus. p. 
158 (1869). 
Variety. 
FHlerpestes birmanicus, Blanford (ex Thomas, 1886), Mamm. 
Brit. Ind. p. 122 (1888). 
With this species we come to the Oriental representatives of 
