556 DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE VIVERRID. [Nov. &, 
ringed ; orbits, ears, and tip of nose naked, violet ; tail the colour of 
the body, very thick at the base, ending with yellow hairs. 
Herpestes malaccensis, F. Cuv. Mamm. Lithog. t. 
Mangusta malaccensis, Fischer, Syn. 164. 
Herpestes pallidus, var., Schinz, Syn. Mamm. i. 373. 
H. frederici, Desm. Dict. S. Nat. xxix. 60. 
H. leschenaultii, Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. t. 
Hab. Malacca, Pondicherry (Leschenault). 
**#** Smaller; tail like back, much shorter than the body. 
22. HERPESTES BRACHYURUS. B.M. 
Black, hairs yellow-ringed ; under fur brown; face, cheeks, and 
sides of neck yellower ; belly and tail darker; throat pale yellow 
brown ; fore legs and feet blackish ; tail thick, about half as long as 
the body. Length of head and body 18 inches, tail 7} inches. 
Herpestes brachyurus, Gray, Mag. N. H. i. 578, 1836; Voy. of 
the Samarang, Mam. t. 4. f. 123, 1849; Gerrard, Cat. Ost. B. M. 
74. 
Mangusta brachyura, De Blainv. Ost. Atlas, t. 6. 
Hab. Borneo (Malacca). 
The skull is most like that of H. caffer, but shorter; the brain- 
case, the zygomatic arches, and the face are shorter and more ven- 
tricose ; the forehead broader and regularly convex. The constric- 
tion of the front of the brain-case is rather behind the orbit, and 
not much contracted ; the orbit is rather small and complete behind. 
The teeth are normal, and very like in proportion and form to those 
of H. ichneumon, but rather larger in all parts, as the skull is larger ; 
brain-case five-eighths of entire length. 
Length of the skull 3% inches; width of brain-case 12 inch, at 
zygomatic arch 2,}, inches. 
20. ATHYLAX. 
Atilax, F. Cuvier, Mamm. Lithogr. 1826, iii. t. 
Athylax, 1. Geoff. Mag. Zool. 1837; De Blainv. Plates. 
Galera, Brown, Hist, Jam. i. 85, 1756. 
Like Herpestes, but teeth and jaws stronger. Toes 5—5; claws 
blunt. Skull elongate. Teeth 40, normal, very massive, with large 
acute tubercles on the crown; the false grinders 3/4. The lower 
jaw very strong, with a well-marked chin, and a tubercle on the 
lower edge under the posterior end of the tooth-line (De Blainy. Ost. 
Viverra, t. 5). The grinders much longer and broader, with larger 
and higher tubercles, and the hinder upper tubercular grinder much 
larger than in most, if not in any other, of the genera; but in the 
disposition and number of the tubercles they are just like those in 
the other species. 
M. I. Geoffroy compares this genus with his Galidia, and concludes 
that they are distinct (see Mag. de Zool. 1839, p. 25). 
