176 Mr. R. I. Pocock on a 



silvery white, except that parafrontals show through blackish 

 on vertical halt. Thorax showing two very wide JKUvy 

 black vittie. Scutellum with faint sheen of silvery. Abdo- 

 men witii bases of segments 2 to 4 silvery white, more broadly 

 so on sides and venter^ the rest shining black, but with faint 

 sheen of silvery continuation in phices as seen in very 

 oblique lights. Legs blacky tibia3 more or less reddisli ; bases 

 of legs and pleurge silvery. Wings lightly smoky yellowisli, 

 tegulaj pearly white. 



Holotypc, no. 19977 U.S. N. ^1. 



XIV. — A new Gemis of African Mongoose", with a Su(e 

 on Galeriscus. B}' ii. I. PocuCK, F.U.S. 



Cynictis selousi was described by Mr. de Winton * on the 

 evidence of a skull picked up by Mr. 8elous near Bulawayo ; 

 and since the cranial and dental characters agreed tolerably 

 closely with those of C. penicillata, the type of the genus 

 (^t/nictisj no alternative generic refertnce was open to t!ie 

 dcscriber. 



Subsequently Mr. P. C. Reid sent to the Britisli Museum 

 a complete specimen caught on the Linyanti River, and 

 Mr. de Winton published an illustrated description f of its 

 colour, pointing out that tlie blackness of the legs and the 

 absence of the rufous tint on the body confirm the skull- 

 characters in differentiating C. selousi Irom C. peiiicillata. 



Jn 190G Mr. C H. B. Grant secured the species at Wood- 

 bush, in the north-eastern Transvaal, as recorded by Messrs. 

 Thomas and Schwann J, and in 1909 Mr. E. C Chubb § 

 gave a list of several examples taken at Buluvvayo and 

 Inyamandhloveii, in Matabeleland. 



I am not aware of any later recoids or published particulars 

 relating to the species. 



The marked likeness in colour between Ci/inctis selousi, 

 Ichneumia albicauda, and some species of bdi-ofjale — e. g., 

 JS. nigripes — induced me to examine the British Museum's 

 specimens, consisting of the skins procured by Reid and 

 Giant ; and since Cynictis^ Ichneumia ^ and Bdtogale, can 

 easily be distinguished by the number of the digits^ the feet 



« Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) xviii. p. 469 (1896). See also W. L. 

 Sclater, 'Fauna of ."South Africa, Mammals,' vol. i. p. 75 (1901^. 

 t Proc. Zool. Sue. 1901, vol. i. pt. 1. pp. 2-3, pi. i. 

 \ Ibid. 1906, p. 588. § Ibid. 1909, p. 118. 



