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



and on the banks of the smaller rivers of the extreme south of 

 Africa; its principal food consists of frogs, crustaceans, &c." 



6. Herpestes pulverxjlentus. 



H. pulverulentus,\i^agi\. Miinch. Gel. Anzeig. ix. p. 426 (1839). 

 *//. apiculatus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 551 (1864). 



Hab. Eastern half of the Cape colony. 



Size rather small, form somewhat stout. Tail about as long as the 

 body without the head. Soles of hind feet hairy below calcanea ; the 

 rest naked, at least in the centre. Fur rather long, soft, and shining. 

 General colour uniform grizzled grey, the longer hairs annulated 

 with equal-sized rings of black and white or yellow. Uiiderfur 

 brown for its proximal, and grey for its distal half. Tail-hairs long, 

 coloured like the body to the extreme tip. Feet slightly darker 

 than the bod_v. 



Skull very like that of H. gracilis, though somewhat stouter and 

 the teeth heavier. Last molar less than half the length of the last 

 premolar (43-44 per cent.). 



This Mungoose reminds one somewhat of a small H. caff'er, the 

 colour and character of its fur being very similar, though it has not, of 

 course, the long black tail-tip of that species. Its range seems to 

 be rather limited, as all the specimens with exact localities that I 

 have seen are from the eastern half of the Cape colony (x\]goa Bay, 

 KingwiUianistown, Caffirland, Natal, &c.). It is naturally very likely 

 that it will vet be found further north than Natal ; but it is not pro- 

 bable that it will occur iu any number, if at all, in the western 

 districts of the colony, or it would surely have been recorded from 

 there before this. 



I have not been able to find any mention of the habits of this species. 



7. Herpestes punctatissimus. 

 *H. punctatissimus, Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 108 (1853). 

 Hab. West and South Africa (Gaboon, Algoa Bay, Temm.). 

 I have only seen a single specimen of this species, one of the types 



