66 MR. o. THOMAS ON THE [Jan. 3, 



2. Herpestes caffer. 



Viverra ca/ra, Gmel. Linn. S. N. i. p. 85 (1/89). 



H. griseus, Smuts, Enuni. Mamni. Cap. p. 19 (nee Desni.) (1832). 



H. madagascariensis, Smith, S.Afr. Quart. Jouvn. ii. p. 114 

 (1835). 



? Herpestes bennettii, Gray, Loudon'a Mag. N. H. i. p. 578 

 (1837). 



Hah. Africa south of the Sahara. 



Somewhat larger than H. ichneumon, ahout 23 inches. Colours as 

 in that species, with the following exceptions : — The annnlations on 

 the longer hairs are somewhat narrower, and consist of deep shining- 

 black and pure white rings, instead of brown or yellow ones, thus 

 causing the general colour to be a much clearer grey ; and the under- 

 i'ur is dark and dull (not bright) rufous, and sometimes simply dark 

 grey-brown. Underside of hind feet always naked. Skull, compared 

 with that of //. ichnemnon, longer and narrower, the breadth always 

 less than half the length (46 to 48 per cent.). Teeth and other 

 characters as in 7f. ichneumon. 



Dimensions. 



Head 

 and body. 



a. Kingwilliamstown (2Vc«e/y«?8) .. 22'0 



b. S. Africa 23-0 



c. „ 23-0 



d. „ 23-0 



of the muzzle, a dimension not satisfactorily shown by merely taking the "palate- 

 lengtb," because the amount to which the bony palate extends behind the molars 

 Taries considerably, both between difierent individuals and different species. 



With regard to the " basicranial axis," I have been compelled, with some hesi- 

 tation, to use a different measurement from tliat given by Prof. Huxley, because, 

 first, his anterior point, easy enough to take in a bisected skull, cannot be found 

 with any exactitude in a whole one ; and, secondly, in many genera of C'arnivora, 

 for instance in the group at present under discussion, this spot as defined by him 

 for a non-bisected skull ("a point opjjosite the middle of the distance between 

 the optic and ethmoidal foramina ") falls considerably inside the posterior nares, 

 and does not by any means ''lie a little behind the posterior extremity of the 

 vomer," as it does in the Dogs. The axis I propose, however, is easily measured 

 in all states of the skull ; and a similar and corresponding axis may be readily 

 obtained, not only in all the different genera of C'arnivora, but also througliout 

 almost the whole of the Mammalian class. I have, for example, long used 

 this same axis in my notes on Eodents' skulls, where it is always very readily 

 observable. 



This axis, moreover, equally shows, in a horizontal line, what Prof. Huxley's 

 axis shows in an oblique one, namely the combined lengths of the basioccipital, 

 basisphenoid, and prassphenoid bones, which, according to that author, "repre- 

 sent the foundation around and upon which the other parts .ire built." 



The measurements throughout are in English inches and tenths, except in the 

 case of the tables of dimensions of teeth, where, a very small unit being required, 

 they are given in millimetres. 



