THE WHITE-TAILED MUNGOOSE, 265 
Size large ; form rather slender; tail bushy, and somewhat 
shorter than the body; under surface of the tarsus and meta- 
tarsus thickly haired as far as the base of the first toe; fur of 
medium length. General colour blackish-grey, the longer hairs 
ringed with black and white, except for their terminal third, 
which is generally black ; under-fur woolly, of a uniform dirty 
grey colour; feet black; hairs on tail very long, in some examples 
with white bases and long glistening black tips, so that the 
whole tail appears black ; .in others with long white tips beyond 
the black, thus rendering the entire tail white. In white-tailed 
specimens the terminal hairs are usually wholly white. Length 
of head and body, from 23 to 26 inches; of tail, 15 to 1534 
inches. 
Distribution—Eastern Abyssinia to Natal, West Africa 
(Guinea, &c.), and Arabia (Muscat). Regarding the remark- 
able variation in the colour of the tail of this peculiar species, 
Mr. Thomas writes: “No one seems to have noticed that 
the black-tailed AZ. Joemfo is not even specifically distinct from 
the typical form, and therefore, of course, possesses all its more 
important structural characters. . albicauda and H. loempo 
cannot even be separated as varieties ; for the only difference 
between them, namely the colour of the tail, seems to be purely 
an individual variation. It is true that for the most part 
specimens from West Africa, representing 4. /oempo, have 
black tails, and those from East Africa white tails; but I have 
seen too many exceptions to this rule to feel justified in regard- 
ing the two forms as varietally distinct. Thus there is in the 
Berlin Museum a specimen from Accra, on the Gold Coast, 
which has a regular white tail, justas thetypical H. aldicauda ; 
and, on the other hand, black-tailed specimens from East 
Africa are byno means rare. Moreover, in the British Museum 
we have two specimens from the Bogos country, Abyssinia, 
received together, the skulls of which are quite identical, one 
