60 MR, O. THOMAS ON THE [Jan. 3, 
his general arrangement of the group seems to be a very natural one, 
and has, in its main outlines, been followed here. 
With regard to the genera treated of, I have only taken those 
found actually on the continent of Africa, and have therefore not 
included the aberrant forms Galidia, Galidictis, and Hupleres', which 
are only found in Madagascar, and of which the species present but little 
difficulty, so that there is no need for any special revision of them’. 
On the other hand, none of the true Mungooses are indigenous to 
Madagascar, though one or two of them have been recorded from 
there; but these would seem either to have been introduced, or the 
correctness of their locality to have been very doubtful. It must be 
remembered that the artificial introduction of animals of this group 
is by no means unlikely, as Mungooses are constantly tamed by the 
natives, and would thus easily be carried by them from one place to 
another *, 
In preparing this paper J have had the advantage of examining 
the collections, each possessing many typical specimens, contained in 
the Berlin, Leyden, and Frankfort Museums, in addition to the large 
series in our own national collection. I have thus seen nearly 250 
African Mungooses, including the types of the species described by 
Gray, Peters, Riippell, Temminck, Smith, and others, the names of 
these species being marked with asterisks in the synonymy below. 
All together, of the seventy-five good and bad species described, I have 
examined the types of thirty-one, the greater part of the remainder 
being species named either from rough travellers’ descriptions, from 
previously published figures, or else merely in alteration of earlier 
names. 
I must here thank Prof. Peters of Berlin, and Prof. Schlegel and 
Dr. Jentink of Leyden for the facilities they have afforded me of 
seeing the specimens under their charge, and Prof. Milne~-Edwards 
for much useful information with respect to the typical specimens 
contained in the Paris Museum. 
Before commencing the detailed review of the species, I think it 
will be useful to make a few remarks concerning the characters which 
should be especially attended to by any one wishing to name an 
African specimen of this group. 
In the first place, I would call attention to the variation to be ob- 
served in the coloration of certain species : thus in Herpestes gracilis, 
the three varieties are extraordinarily different in their general colour, 
while the plan of coloration and all other characters are precisely 
identical ; these different colours moreover are not strictly confined 
‘ These genera all differ from the continental Mungooses in not possessing an 
alisphenoid canal, a character present in all those treated of here. 
* Dr. Jentink has recently worked out the species of the genus Galidia (Notes 
Leyd. Mus. i. p. 131, 1879). 
* The only true Mungoose collected without doubt in Madagascar, that I now 
of, is a young individual of Crossarchus fasciatus, obtained by Van Dam, and now 
in the Leyden Museum. Prof. Milne-Edwards informs me that, in his opinion, 
“Te Vansive” ( Herpestes galera), usually said to have originally come from Mada- 
gascar,. was certainly not obtained there, no other collectors having met with it 
in that island sinee. 
