1882. ] AFRICAN MUNGOOSES. 78 
Skulls. 
Basi- 
Palate- Palate- Tne. to cranial 
Length. Breadth. length. breadth. cross line. axis. 
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d. W.Africa.... 425 252 238 138 150 1:46 
Var. robustus. 
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This large species was first mentioned as long ago as 1661 by 
Blacourt, i in his work on Madagascar’. It is there called ‘* Vond- 
sira,” which name forms the basis of Buffon’ s term “ Le Vansire,”’ 
Its reputed occurrence in Madagascar caused Dr. Gray and others 
to believe that there were two species, the one in Africa being natu- 
rally supposed to be distinct ; but now, as no other specimens have 
since occurred in Madagascar, we are justified in concluding that 
Flacourt only saw an introduced specimen, and that it is not “indi- 
genous to that island. 
I have preserved Dr. Gray’s H. robustus as a distinct variety, 
because the skulls show that there is a considerable difference in 
size between this eastern form and that found in the west and south. 
It unfortunately happens that the specimen of H. rodustus in the 
Berlin Museum, the dimensions of the skull of which are given above, 
has no locality recorded for it, so that I do not know any thing 
about the extent of the range of this variety ; the British-Museum 
specimen was obtained from the White Nile. 
On this species the genus ‘‘ Athylax’’ has been formed ; but there 
does not seem to be sufficient reason for its separation from the 
typical Herpestes. 
It is just worthy of note that large specimens of Crossarchus 
obscurus are often so extremely similar in colour and proportions to 
small ones of this species, that an examination of the muzzle or skull 
is needed to show to which group they belong. 
The variation in the hairiness or otherwise of the hind soles of 
this species has already been referred to”. As, judging from Smuts’s 
account of its habits, Cuvier’s name H. paludinosus, the ‘“‘ Marsh” 
Ichneumon, is correct for the ordinary naked-soled individuals, it 
seems probable that those with the hinder portion of the soles hairy 
live on a dry soil, where, one would imagine, they would not have 
to walk in so wholly a plantigrade manner as if they lived where the 
ground was soft and muddy and where a digitigrade animal would 
be hable to sink in at every step. 
Smuts says of H. galera *:—-‘* This animal lives in marshy places, 
1 «Histoire de la grande isle 1 Madagsseot a ie (1661). 
* Above p. 67. 3 Ticit. p. 2! 
