MUNGOOSES. 469 
15 or 16 inches. It is characterised by the tip of the tail being black, and the 
grizzled grey-brown colour of the fur, in which the individual hairs are ringed 
with reddish-brown and creamy-yellow. South of the Sahara this species is replaced 
by the slightly larger but closely allied caffre mungoose (H. caffer), in which the 
hairs are ringed with black and white. In South Africa, as far north as Zanzibar, 
we have also a much smaller species, the slender mungoose (H. gracilis), agreeing 
with the two preceding forms in the black tip to the tail, while in Kordofan the 
nearly equal-sized red-tailed mungoose (H. swnguineus) is distinguished by its 
general fawn-coloured fur, and the red tip to the tail. 
Three other South and West African mungooses of large size are characterised 
by the tip of the tail being of the same tint as the body-colour. The largest and 
most distinct of the African species is, however, the white-tailed mungoose 
THE INDIAN MUNGOOSE (+ nat. size). 
(H. albicauda), in which the length of the head and body varies from 22 to as 
much as 26 inches. This species is distinguished from all the above by the under- 
surface of the ankle being hairy, instead of nearly or quite naked, and also by its 
bushy tail. The general colour is blackish-grey, the longer hairs being ringed with 
black and white, and having the tips black. According to Mr. Thomas, the white- 
tailed mungoose presents a remarkable individual variation in the colour of the 
fur of the tail. The hairs are of considerable length, “in some cases with white 
bases and long shining black tips, so that the whole tail appears to be black; in 
others with a long white tip beyond the black, so that then the tail appears to be 
white; in the latter case the hairs at the extreme tip of the tail being generally 
wholly white.” This species ranges from the eastern part of Abyssinia to Natal, 
and reappears on the West Coast in the Guinea district. 
Of the Oriental mungooses we select for especial notice the common Indian 
