30 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



which are advertised by conspicuous markings. The 

 most familiar example is the Skunk of North America, 

 which advertises from afar its appalling odour by its 

 large white tail borne aloft like a banner. Rivals of 

 the Skunk in malodorous properties are the species of 

 Mydaus, a Malayan genus. M. meliceps, the Bornean 

 representative, is very rare, but its congener, M. 

 javanensis, is quite common in Java, and another 

 form is not uncommon in the Natuna Islands. Mr. E. 

 Hose, who collected in the Natunas, told me that 

 his native hunters flatly refused to skin the specimens 

 that he shot, on account of the revolting odour, and 

 Mr. Hose was therefore obliged to skin the animals 

 himself, but he had to pay for his zeal with much 

 nausea and vomiting. 



The Bornean, Javan, and Natuna Islands forms of 

 Mydaus are all darkly coloured animals, striped or 

 otherwise conspicuously marked on the back or 

 head with white a type of coloration which Mr. 

 Pocock shows to be highly characteristic of distasteful 

 Mustelines. In Java Mydaus is mimicked by a non- 

 distasteful Musteline, Helictis orientalis, which is striped 

 with white just like its repulsive model. In Borneo, 

 however, the only species of Helictis occurring in the 

 island, H. everetti, is a cryptically coloured animal, 

 that does not mimic the Mydaus at all. For some 

 reason which can only be guessed at, the Bornean 

 Mydaus is exceedingly rare, whereas the Javan species 

 is fairly abundant. It is quite obvious that if a 

 distasteful species is not dominant, a mimic of it is 

 less likely to acquire immunity from attack than the 

 mimic of an abundant species, and it is also plain 

 that if a distasteful warningly coloured species be- 





