1889. | MR. O. THOMAS ON A NEW MUNGOOSE. 623 
group. The premolars are all rather longer both vertically and 
horizontally, and the cusps higher and more distinct. P*, m’, and m* 
are on the whole similar to those of the allied species in their form 
and relative proportions, but are all markedly larger (compare the 
dimensions given below with those on p. 78 of my former paper). 
But it is by the characters of the lower molars that the new species 
may be most readily recognized. As to size simply, the length of the 
two molars combined is in H. grandis 17 mm., while in the largest 
of aconsiderable series of H. albicaudatus this combined length only 
attains to 14-4 mm., its ordinary amount being about 13 mm. In 
structure, as will be seen by Plate LXII. figs. 4 and 5, these teeth in 
H. grandis are more complicated than in the older known form ; 
in m' there is not so much difference, except that the cusps and 
hollows are more marked, and the ridge running round the posterior 
half of the tooth, or “ talon,” is much sharper and better defined. In 
m2, firstly, the two antero-internal cusps, the paracone and metacone 
of Mr. Osborn’s nomenclature of tooth-cusps', which have coalesced 
in H. albicaudatus, are sharply and distinctly separated from one 
another, so that the primitive anterior triangle forming the blade of 
the tooth is as well defined as in m' ; secondly, in the talon, the extra 
median external cusp characteristic of H. albicaudatus (see p. 76, 
fig. 1 of the monograph) is duplicated in H. grandis, being supple- 
mented by a second cusp on its internal slope; then the posterior 
edge of the talon is more developed, crenulated, and with its centre 
sharply and prominently notched in the middle line. As a result 
of this increase in complexity, the size of m® as compared to m! is 
much increased ; for while in H. albicaudatus its length is never more 
than from 80 to 83 per cent. of that of the latter tooth, in H. grandis 
the two teeth are of practically the same length, m? being no less 
than 96 per cent. as Jong as mi. 
In view now of the extreme constancy of the teeth in the present 
group, both in size and structure, I feel that it would be impossible 
to refer the Cambridge skeleton to H. albicaudatus, and can only 
describe it as new, trusting at the same time that its external cha- 
racters will not long remain unknown. 
As will be seen from the figure (Plate LXII. fig. 1), the skull of 
H. grandis is characterized by its slenderness and by the great length 
of its facial as compared to its cranial portion. 
In the skeleton both H. albicaudatus and H. grandis are remark- 
able for not possessing an entepicondyloid foramen to the humerus, 
the bony bar usually closing in this foramen being unossified. All 
other true Mungooses have this foramen closed in by bone, with the 
exception of the aberrant genera Galidia, Galidictis, and sometimes 
Suricata. This fact, combined with the addition of a second allied 
species, gives increased validity to the group ‘‘ Ichneumia,” recog- 
nized as a subgenus in my monograph, but which may possibly in 
the future have to be admitted as a distinct genus. 
Dimensions of the type specimen :— 
Skull. Length (from back of condyle to gnathion) 112 mm. ; basal 
* Amer. Nat. 1888, p. 1072. 
