External Characters 0/ Cynogale bennettii. 3^13 



underside was described as blackish, and uas tlierefore 

 darker^ instead of ]i<^hter, than the upperside. But since 

 his notes Avere taken from a living specirnen, it is possible 

 that the blackish aj)pearance of the underside was due to its 

 being in shadow. 



As regards the colour of the young, Cantor (J. A. S. B. 

 XV. p. 203, 1846j wrote of Malayan specimens : — " Tlic very 

 young . . . differ from the adult in having a very soft, silky, 

 dense fur, mixed with longer hairs, which are black excejjt 

 on the chest and abdomen, where the apex is silvery. Over 

 the tarsus and the upper surface of the fet^t some of the 

 liairs have a terminal white band close to the black apex. 

 The posterior margin of the ear is hairy and of a silvery 

 colour.^' Since an adult specimen from Malacca sent by 

 this collector to the British Museum is speckled with grey 

 dorsally, it may be inferred that the absence of dorsal 

 speckling is the main distinctive chromatic feature of the 

 newly-born young. 



On the other hand, the two young specimens from 

 N.W. Borneo in the British Museum differ from their 

 mother in having no appreciable white speckling above ; 

 but, as in the adult, there is no such speckling below. 

 These specimens, in fact, bear out Mr. Lydekker^s suggestion 

 that the greyness increases Avith age — at all events, up to a 

 certain point. 



Muzzle and rhinariiini^ (Pl.XIV. figs. 1,2). — The muscular 

 development of the lateral portions of the upper lip, to give 

 mobility to the mystacial vibrissae, imparts a singular aspect 

 to the head, when viewed from above or below, owing to the 

 demarcation of the muzzle from the area behind it by a deep 

 constriction on each side. 



Another peculiarity of the muzzle, to which attention has 

 been drawn by Mivart and others, is the absence of a median 

 vertical groove cleaving a central naked strip of integument, 

 such as is seen passing from the rhinarium to the edge 

 of the upper lip above the incisor teeth in the majority of 

 Carnivores atid all typical Viverrines. But that is not all. 

 This area of the upper lip, in addition to being continuouslv 

 hairy and provided with short vibrissse, is also of unusual 

 length or depth. It differs, indeed, from the corresponding 

 area in all vEluroid Carnivores, let alone the Viverrines and 

 Paradoxurines, and not excepting Crossarchus obscurus, in 

 being about twice the height of the anterior vertical portion 



* For an account of tlie muzzle, feet, and gland'i of the typical 

 Viverrines, gee my paper, P. Z.S. 1915, pp. 131-149. 



