1882. } AFRICAN MUNGOOSES. i7 
The present rather peculiar species has always, in its white-tailed 
form, been recognized as the type of a distinct genus or subgenus, 
for which Geoffroy proposed the name of Ichneumia. No one, how- 
ever, ever seems to have noticed that the black-tailed H. loempo, 
Temm., is not even specifically distinct from the typical form, and 
therefore, of course, possesses all its more important structural cha- 
racters. H. albicauda and H. loempo cannot even be separated as 
varieties ; for the only difference between them, namely the colour 
of the tail, seems to be purely an individual variation. It is true 
that for the most part specimens from West Africa, representing H. 
loempo, have black tails, and those from Kast Africa white tails ; but 
I have seen too many exceptions to this rule to feel justified in re- 
garding the two forms as varietally distinct. Thus there is in the 
Berlin Museum a specimen from Accra, on the Gold Coast, which has 
a regular white tail, just as in the typical H. albicauda; and, on the 
other hand, black-tailed specimens from East Africa are by no means 
rare. Moreover, in the British Museum we have two specimens 
from the Bogos country, Abyssinia, received together, and the skulls 
of which are quite identical, one of which has a black Joempo-like 
tail, and the other has a tail with quite as much white on it as in 
average albicauda. We thus see that the presence or absence of a 
white tip to the tail-hairs is a character upon which no specific 
distinction can be founded; and, in fact, it would rather seem that 
the white tail is the result of a desert life, specimens from sandy 
districts having, as a rule, white, and those from forest regions, black 
tails. 
Ichneumia albescens, 1. Geoff., appears to be simply a pale form of 
this species, in which the longer hairs are fewer in number, so that the 
grey underfur shows more on the surface, and thus gives a generally 
paler colour than usual. 
I. nigricauda, Puch., seems to be quite identical with this species, 
representing the usual West-African black-tailed form. 
With regard to Bdeogale nigripes, Puch., from the Gaboon, I 
have already mentioned my suspicion that it has accidentally lost the 
first toes on all four feet; and it seems very possible that it is really 
only a white-tailed specimen of this species, and not a Bdeogale at all. 
The original description would exactly fit the Accra white-tailed spe- 
cimen already referred to; and that is certainly a true Herpestes, as 
the fifth toes are present on all the feet’. 
Of all the Mungooses, H. aldicauda seems to be the most nearly 
allied to the true Bdeogale, strongly resembling the species of that 
genus in general colour, quality of fur, length and bushiness of tail, 
hairiness of tarsus, proportionally large size of the last molar, and 
most ofall in the presence of the median middle external cusp to the 
last lower molar, a character in which Bdeogale differs from all other 
* Since writing the above I have received a letter from Prof. Barboza du 
Bocage, in which he informs me that the specimen from Angola, referred by him 
(P. Z. 8. 1865, p. 402) to Bd. nigripes, proves on a closer examination to possess 
minute Ist claws to the fore feet, thus strongly confirming my previous opinion 
about that animal. 
