On a new Banded Mungoose from Somaliland. 531 



colour in S. notatus in the Malay Peninsula is conspicuously 

 variable, or, rather, dimorphic, rufous and blue *, whereas in 

 Borneo the two colours seem to be respectively restricted to 

 the lowlands and mountains. On one of the first specimens 

 sent, shot in November 1891, Mr. Hose has noted that he 

 had obtained thirteen specimens exactly like it during the 

 montli ; and since then a considerable number of S. n. orestes 

 have passed through my hands, so that its constancy on the 

 mountain is evidently beyond question. 



LXV. — On a neio Banded Mungoose from Somaliland. 

 By Oldfield Thomas. 



Me. F. Gillett has submitted to my examination the skins 

 of a few mammals which were shot by him when accom- 

 panying, in a sporting capacity, Dr. E. Donaldson Smith's 

 adventurous collecting expedition into Central Somaliland. 

 Among these there are two examples of a Crossarchus be- 

 longing to the group of banded species, but evidently quite 

 distinct from anything hitherto described. 

 It may be called 



Crossarchus somaltcus, sp. n. 



Size of C. fasciatus and gothneh. General colour very 

 pale. Dorsal bands almost obsolete. No black tip to tail. 



Colour grizzled ashy grey on head and fore quarters. 

 Long hairs of back, where in G. fasciatus they are sharply 

 ringed with deep black and bright orange -rufous, indistinctly 

 blackish and dull yellowish white, so that the transverse 

 dorsal bands are almost imperceptible, although they are dis- 

 tinctly present, and not, as in C. gamhianus, lost in the general 

 grizzling. Under surface very sparsely haired, practically 

 naked in the inguinal region, grizzled grey without any 

 mixture of rufous, except just on the chin. Limbs coloured 

 like body, scarcely darkening terminally, even on the ends of 

 the fingers and toes. Tail as in C. fasciatus^ except that the 

 end is grizzled like the rest instead of being black-tipped. 



Skull in general form very similar to that of C. fasciatus. 

 Four median upper incisors very narrow, not touching one 

 another ; but how far this is due to wear I am not at present 



* Cf. P. Z. S. 1886, p. 77. 



