234 THE ETHIOPIAN REGION. [CHAP. 



which the teeth are white by the absence of long hairs on the tail 1 . 

 With the West African genus Potamogale, we come to the first of 

 the two families with tritubercular upper molars ; the present one 

 (Potamogalidce] being represented elsewhere only by the Malagasy 

 Microgale, of which, as already said, the systematic position is 

 doubtful. The potamogales, which attain a couple of feet in 

 length, are thoroughly aquatic in their habits, swimming by the aid 

 of the highly compressed tail. It has generally been considered 

 that there is only a single species, but it has recently been 

 suggested that there may be two. The family is probably an 

 ancient one, although we have no fossil evidence to this effect, 

 Microgale, even if it belong to another family, indicating that the 

 group was among the earlier mammalian colonists of Ethiopia. 

 The golden moles (Chrysochloridcz], which take their name from 

 the brilliant metallic lustre of the fur in the majority of the species, 

 are blind, earless, fossorial insectivores, having the middle toe of 

 the fore foot furnished with an enormously powerful claw. As the 

 moles (Talpida] form a group nearly related to the shrews, so the 

 golden moles are equally nearly related to the tenrecs ( Centetidcz) 

 of Madagascar, from which they may be regarded as a highly 

 specialised offshoot. Accordingly, it may be taken for granted 

 that their ancestors obtained an entry into Ethiopia with the 

 ancestral lemurs. It is not improbable that the prevalence of 

 higher types of mammalian life has been the cause of the assump- 

 tion of mole-like habits in the Chrysochloridce ; the tenrecs, which 

 live in an island where the competition is much less severe, having 

 retained the original primitive type. The golden moles, which 

 may all be included in the single genus Chrysochloris, are mainly 

 confined to South Africa, although one species extends on the 

 east coast as far north as Ugogo. 



Turning to the Carnivora, it is unnecessary to say anything 

 with regard to the Felida, except that three species of felts are 

 common to Ethiopia and India; while the single species of 

 hunting-leopard (Cyncelurus] is likewise found in both countries, 

 the genus being apparently also represented in the Indian Pliocene. 

 In the civet family ( Viverridce) the true civets ( Viverra] and 



1 See Dobson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1887, p. 575. 



