the Mascarene Viverrid Galidictis. 119 



head is more heavily speckled with black, the dorsal inter- 

 spaces distinctly speckled with black, the lateral inter- 

 spaces washed with yellowish, the outside of the fore limbs 

 and the thighs darker ashy grey, owing to the presence in 

 the hairs of more black speckling, which is traceable down 

 the hind leg almost to the toes ; and there is more red in the 

 hairs before the root of the tail and on the basal portion of 

 that organ. The underside is washed with pale dirty yellow, 

 which is everywhere darker than the throat of G. eximius. 

 and nowhere presents the whitish-grey tint seen on the 

 ventral surface of that animal. 



The black stripes have very much the same disposition and 

 width as in G. eximius, but by reason of the darker tone 

 of the interspaces are not so conspicuous. Moreover, the 

 supero-lateral stripe, the uppermost of the series, is partially 

 subdivided over the shoulders, and behind the shoulders is 

 narrower than the homologous stripe in G. eximius, and 

 intercalated between it and the broad lateral stripe there is a 

 thinner shorter stripe which joins the supero-lateral stripe 

 behind the shoulder, and thence passes backwards parallel to 

 it to the root of the tail. In G. eximius this stripe is fused 

 with, or not differentiated from, the supero-lateral stripe. 



hoc. Andevoranto, E. coast of Madagascar, on the same 

 latitude as Antananarivo (R. Martin coll.). 



Type, B.M. reg. 76. 1. 31. 22. 



In addition to the specimen above described (a male), there 

 is in the British Museum a half-grown example resemblino- it 

 ticketed "Madagascar (Rev. C. W. Bewsher)" and in the 

 gallery are exhibited two stuffed specimens, also like it, except 

 that the lateral interspaces are whiter, probably from exposure 

 to light. 



The splitting of Galidictis fasciata (striata) of authors 

 into three forms necessitates pointing out that the type of the 

 genus is the species represented by the specimen, procured by 

 Goudot, which I. Geoffroy iSt. Hilaire named Galidictis 

 striata, and not the species named Mustela striata by 

 E. Geoffroy, nor the one named Viverra striata by Des- 

 marest ; and since that species is almost certainly identical 

 with the one above described as Galidictis ornatus, it is 

 highly probable that the type-species will take the latter 

 name. 



Now all the specimens of this species in the British Mu- 

 seum, as well as the single known example of G. eximius, 

 resemble each other not only in the breadth of the stripes, 



9* 



