50 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



rather high up on the sides, and enclosing the whole of the fore- 

 limb*. 



Hind limbs slaty gvey externally, white on inner side ; hind-feet 

 dull whitish above. Tail sharply contrasted brown above and 

 white below. 



Skull on the whole very like that of G. mayori, but rather nar- 

 rower throughout, the muzzle and braincase both unusually narrow. 

 In correlation with this the frontal projection into the parietals is 

 only 6.3 mm. in breadth, as compared with 7,8 in C. mayori. 



Dimensions of the type: — Head and body, 104; tail (imperfect); 

 hindfoot, 25; ear, 17.5. 



Skull, tip of nasals to back of frontals, 19.2 ; zygomatic breadth, 

 12.8 ; nasals, 12 x 3.2 ; interorbital breadth, 4.6 ; breadth of brain 

 case, 11.8; palatilar length, 13; palatal foramina, 5.7; upper molar 

 series, 4.3. 



Habitat. — Kottawa, Southern Province. Alt. 250'. 



Type- — Adult female. B.M. No. 14. 12. 1. 8. Original number 

 17. Collected, 12th April 1913, by Major E. W. Mayor. Presented 

 b}^ the Bombaj^ Natural History Society. 



This species is evidently a lowland hot-country relative of the 

 highland Ccelomijs mayori, distinguished from that animal by its 

 more spinous fur, sharply defined pure white underside, and nar- 

 rower skull. 



H. — The Common Indian Mongoose. 



BY 



R. C. Wroughton. 



The oldest specific name for this animal is " mungo." In Report No. 

 1, I erroneously stated that Gmelin gave no type-locality for the 

 1, species, but this was a mistake, for in his Syst. Nat., p. 84, 1787, 

 he writes " Habitat in Bengala, Persia, aliisque Asi^ callidioribus 

 plagis." The specimens in the Bengal, Bihar, Orissa collection 

 of the Mammal Survey are therefore topotypes, and at last we have 

 a firm foundation for dealing with the species. In all 126 specimens 

 of this animal have been obtained by the Survey, fairly distributed 

 over the whole of India, except the extreme North. A comparison 

 of this large amount of material shows that the Cejdon form is 

 sufficiently different to be ranked as a distinct species. The re- 

 mainder can be divided into four sub-species (geographical races) of 

 mungo, and the further material in the National Collection suffices 

 to establish a fifth. 



The pattern of the colouration throughout the species mungo is a 

 coarse grizzle of some shade of brown and white more or less pure. 



* On one side of the single specimen ; on the other a narrow band of grey 

 tends down nearly to the wrist. 



