176 PROF. ST.-GEORGE MIVART ON THE ^LUROIDEA. [Feb. 7, 



The genus is found in South Europe, all Africa, Asia Minor, 

 Persia, and nearly the whole of the Oriental zoological region, and 

 Foochow. 



The genus contains about twenty-one species, of which thirteen 

 are Asiatic and seven African. 



The Asiatic species (thirteen in number) have been carefully 

 worked out by Dr. J. Anderson' ; for the rest (the African seveil 

 species) I may refer to Mr. Oldfield Thomas's paper, recently read 

 before this Society". 



All the species have five digits to each foot ; but the pollex and hal- 

 lux are very small. The claws are longer and less curved than are 

 those of the genera as yet described (cf. fig. 14 G, p. 192). The 

 body and tail are always long, and the legs short. The amount of 

 hair to be found beneath the tarsus varies much. Generally both 

 the tarsus and metatarsus are naked beneath ; but in some indi- 

 viduals of a species in which these parts are naturally naked, the 

 tarsus may be more or less hairy, the hairy part having an ill-defined 

 limit. Thus the specimen oi Herpestes paiudosus^ (No. 61. 6. 1. 3) 

 lias the tarsus hairy beneath, while in another specimen it is quite 

 naked. 



The hair of the body is generally clothed with annulated fur, 

 without any special markings on either shoulders, sides, or belly ; 

 while a few have neck-markings, and one or two species have uni- 

 formly-coloured fur. In all the African forms the hair seems to be 

 more or less annulated ; but in three Asiatic species it is not so. 

 The ears are short and rounded. There is no scent-gland between 

 the penis and testes ; but the anus often opens into the middle of 

 a sac-like depression, deepest on its hinder side, into which depres- 

 sion more or less numerous anal glands and glandular follicles open. 



The skull is elongated, with postorbital processes which are long 

 and pointed, generally enclosing the orbit posteriorly, though some- 

 times not nearl)' joining the malar. As Prof. Flower has pointed 

 out*, the auditory bulla is somewhat pear-shaped— the larger, 

 rounded end being turned backwards and somewhat outwards, a 

 well-marked transverse constriction separating the hinder (and here 

 outer) chamber from the (also dilated and bullate) anterior (and 

 inner) chamber. As Prof. Flower has also remarked, the aperture 

 of communication in the osseous partition between the two chambers 

 is rather larger thau in the Civets, Genets, and Paradoxures. 



There is always an alisphenoid canal ; but this is very short. The 

 exteinal auditory opening is very small and triangular, one angle being 

 directed downwards. There is a foramen or a notch in the floor of 

 the anterior (and inner) chamberof the bulla a little within the opening 

 of the auditory meatus ; and thus we have here an incipient defect 

 of ossification in the floor of that passage ; in Herpestes urv<i this 

 defect is more marked, being rather a fissure than a foramen. The 



' 'Zoology of Weslern Yunnan,' p. 1()8. = On Jan. 3, 188-2. 



^ Or H. yalera. This is the Vausire of BufFon, Hist. Nat. vol. xiii. p. 157, 

 pi. 21. 



4 P. Z. S. 18S9, p. 20 and fig. 9. 



