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



G. elegans is represented in the British Museum by skins and 

 skulls ; and there is a skeleton in the Royal College of Surgeons. 



The fur is of one colour, save that the tail is ringed with black, 

 the hair notannulated. The length of the head and body is about 

 45"'2, and that of the tail is 30""5. The muzzle seems rather obtuse. 

 The claws are long, but considerably ^curved. The tarsus aud meta- 

 tarsus are covered beneath with sparse short hairs, or are^more or less 

 inclined to be bald, but are not so as in Galidictis. 



The skull is very like that of Galidictis ; but the muzzle and palate 

 are narrower relatively, aud the mandibular symphysis is much 

 shorter. There is, again, no alisphenoid canal. The condyloid 

 foramen is exposed. The palate is flat, and not concave posteriorly 

 as in Galidictis. The zygomata are not quite so much arched out- 

 wards. The auditory opening is a more elongated oval. In other 

 respects the skull is as in Galidictis. 



As to the dentition, it is quite like that of Galidictis, save that 

 the canines are smaller, especially the lower ones, the external inci- 

 sors less preponderating. — ^ is smaller relatively. — ^ may be 

 quite small and placed within the hinder part of -^— '. 



The preparation No. 2147 B in the museum of the Roj'al College 

 of Surgeons shows that there is a single pair of rather large anal 

 glands ; aud the anus does not seem to open into any cutaneous de- 

 pression. 



The two other species described by Isid. G. St.-Hilaire differ con- 

 siderably from G. elegans, as that author himself pointed out, and as 

 has been more decidedly indicated by Dr. F. A. Jentink ". I have not 

 had any opportunity of examining G. concolor ; but, on account of 

 its declared resemblance to G. olivacea ^ (which is represented by 

 skins, skulls, aud a skeleton in the British Museum), it must be 

 separated generically from G. elegans if G. olivacea is to be so sepa- 

 rated. Now two courses seem to me feasible : one is to institute a 

 new genus for the species olivacea and concolor ; and the other is to 

 unite Galidia and Galidictis in a single genus. But the differ- 

 ences between the last-named genus and G. elegans seem to me to be 

 as great as those which separate Cynalurus from Felis ; and as 

 G. olivacea (and, as I infer, concolor) seems to me to differ as much 

 from G. elegans as does this last from Galidictis, the more reason- 

 able course seems to me to be to separate them, which I now accord- 

 ingly propose to do under the generic name Hemigalidia. 



In external characters Hemigalidia differs from Galidia in the 

 non-annulation of the tail, in the more pointed muzzle, aud especially 

 in the less arched (more Herpestine and less Viverrine) form of its 

 claws {cf, fig. 14, J and k, p. 192). 



In the skull the bulla is rather more decidedly Herpestiforra than 

 in Galidia. The carotid foramen (for the entrance of the carotid 

 artery) is more conspicuous ; the hind part of the palate is not so 



' As in the specimens in the Roy. Coll. of Surg, museum. 



^ See ' Kotes from the Lejden Museum,' vol. i. p. 131. 



^ On some notes as to the liabits of these forms, see Pollen's ' Faune de 

 Madagascar' (1868), p. 23. 



