138 VI VERRIN^. 



134. Urva cancrivora. 



HODGSON. BLYTH, Cat. 158. 6Wo urva, HODGSON (olim). Viverra 

 fusca, GRAY, apud HARDWICKE, 111. Ind. Zool I. pi. 5. Osmetictis 

 fusca, GRAY, Mag. Nat. Hist. 



THE CRAB MUNGOOS. 



Descr. General colour jackal or fulvous iron-gray ; inner fur woolly ; 

 outer of longstraggling lax hairs, generally ringed with black, white, 

 and fulvous; in some the coat has a variegated aspect; in others an 

 uniform tawny tint prevails, and in a few dark rusty brown mixed with 

 gray is the prevalent hue ; abdomen brown ; limbs blackish-brown ; a 

 white stripe on either side of the neck, from the ear to the shoulder ; 

 tail rufous or brown, with the terminal half rufous. 



Length, head and body, 18 inches ; tail 11 ; weight 41b. 



This curious animal has been found in the South-east Himalayas, 

 extending into Assam and Arrakan. In its habit it is somewhat 

 aquatic, preferring, it is said by Hodgson, frogs and crabs. It lives in 

 burrows in the valleys of the lower and central regions of Nepal. The 

 drawing of the one figured by Hardwicke was taken from a caged indi- 

 vidual at Agra. Colonel Phayre informed Mr. Blyth that it was the 

 only mungoos found in Arrakan. 



Some details of its anatomy were furnished to Mr. Hodgson by Dr. 

 Campbell. It has two glands about the size of a cherry on each side 

 of the anus, which secrete an aqueous fetid humour, which the animal 

 has the power of squirting out with great force. The female has six 

 ventral teats, remote. The bony orbits are incomplete. 



Other genera allied to the mungooses are Galidia and Ichneumonia of 

 Is. Geoffroy, the former from Madagascar. Cynictis, Ogilby, with four 

 toes to each foot, and Ryzcena, Illiger, with the same number, both from 

 South Africa ; and Crossarchus, F. Cuvier, from Sierra Leone. 



Bassaris astuta, Lichtenstein, from Mexico, a peculiar digitigrade, 

 carnivorous animal, is placed here by some systematists, and it has some 

 likeness to Paradoxurus, but it belongs to the sub-plantigrade division, 

 none of the Viverridce occurring in the new continent. 



The next group is well marked by anatomical characters as distinct 

 from the other digitigrade carnivora. 



