BLACK-FOOTED MUNGOOSE, 269 
ish ; 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 nigripes, Pucheran, Rev. Mag. Zool. vol. vii. p. 111 
(1855); Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 82. 
Lferpestes, sp., Bocage, J. Sci. Lisboa, ser. 2, vol. i. p. 120 
(1889). 
Characters.—This imperfectly known form was_ originally 
named from a skin from the Gaboon, which Mr. Thomas (of. ci¢. 
p. 77) thought might belong to an individual of Herfestes 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, Hervfestes 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 A. 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. nigrifes is a good 
species, they would seem to show that the number of digits in 
H1. albicauda is not constant, and therefore that the genus 
Bdeogale has no exis‘ence. 
Distribution—West Africa (Gaboon and Angola). 
XVE GENUS: CYNICTIS. 
Cynictis, Ogilby, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, p. 48. 
In this South African genus there are five toes on the fore- 
fect and four on the hind-feet ; the teeth agree in number and 
