CO MR. O. THOMAS ON THE [Jan. 3, 



his general arrangement of the group seems to be a very natural one, 

 and has, in its main outlines, been followed here. 



With regard to the genera treated of, I have only taken those 

 found actually on the continent of Africa, and have therefore not 

 included the aberrant forms Galidia, Galidictis, and Eupleres^, which 

 are only found in Madagascar, and of which the species present but little 

 difficulty, so that there is no need for any special revision of them''. 

 Ou the other hand, none of the true Mungooses are indigenous to 

 Madagascar, though one or two of them have been recorded from 

 there; but these would seem either to have been introduced, or the 

 correctness of their locality to have been very doubtful. It must be 

 remembered that the artificial introduction of animals of this group 

 is by no means unlikely, as Mungooses are constantly tamed by the 

 natives, and would thus easily be carried by them from one place to 

 another ^ 



In preparing this paper I have had the advantage of examining 

 the collections, each possessing many typical specimens, contained iu 

 the Berlin, Leyden, and Frankfort Museums, in addition to the large 

 series in our own national collection. I have thus seen nearly 250 

 African Mungooses, including the types of the species described by 

 Gray, Peters, Riippell, Temminck, Smith, and others, the names of 

 these species being marked with asterisks in the synonymy below. 

 All together, of the seventy-five good and bad species described, I have 

 examined the types of thirty-one, the greater part of the remainder 

 being species named either from rough travellers' descriptions, from 

 previously published figures, or else merely in alteration of earlier 

 names. 



I must here thank Prof. Peters of Berlin, and Prof. Schlegel and 

 Dr. Jentink of Leyden for the facilities they have afforded me of 

 seeing the specimens under their charge, and Prof. Milne-Edwards 

 for much useful information with respect to the typical specimens 

 contained in the Paris Museum. 



Before commencing the detailed review of the species, I think it 

 will be useful to make a few remarks concerning the characters which 

 should be especially attended to by any one wishing to name an 

 African specimen of this group. 



In the first place, I would call attention to the variation to be ob- 

 served iu the coloration of certain species : thus in Herpestes gracilis, 

 the thi'ce varieties are extraordinarily different in their general colour, 

 while the plan of coloration and all other characters are precisely 

 identical ; these different colours moreover are not strictly confined 



• These genera all differ from the eoutiiiental Mungooses iu not possessing an 

 alisplienoid canal, a character present in all those treated of here. 



^ Dr. Jentink has recently worked out the species of the genus Gcdklia (Notes 

 Leyd. Mus. i. p. 131, 187U). 



■' The only true I\Iungoose collected without doubt in Madagascar, tliat J know 

 of, is a young individual of C'rossarcliiit> fasciafiis, obtained by Van Dam, and now 

 in the Leyden Museum. Prof. Milne-Edwards iufonns me that, in liis opinion, 

 " Le Vansire"( Herpcsfcs r/alcra), usunlly said to have originally come from Mada- 

 gascar,, was certainly not obtained fhci-e, no other collectovs ImTing met with it 

 in that i.sland since. 



