398 ON A NEW RATEL FROM SIERRA LEONE. [ Apr. 6 
Ratels, the fact must be reckoned with in our estimate of the 
characters of JZ. cottoni, and renders all the more remarkable the 
very dark coloration of the back in the type of JZ. signata, a quite 
young animal. 
3. M. concisa Thomas & Wroughton (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 
(7) xix. p. 376, 1907), from Yo, Lake Chad. Separated as a 
species from J/. sel because it is a little smaller and because 
there is a narrow median longitudinal black area extending from 
the posterior end of the lumbar region, over the sacral region to 
the root of the tail, which has no white hairs. The rest of the 
upper surface is iron-grey, the head being only a little lighter 
than the back, and there is no distinct white marginal stripe. 
I find it impossible to give these characters more than subspecific 
value. Indications of darkening of the sacral region may be seen 
in skins from E. Africa scarcely separable from “typical M. ratel ; 
and askin in the British Museum sent by Capt. Flower from 
Khartoum presents nearly the same peculiarities in the coloration 
of the hind-quarters as does the Lake Chad specimen. As for the 
absence of the white hair from the root of the tail, no great 
importance, it seems, can be attached to that character, for of two 
skins in the British Museum, ticketed “‘ Somaliland, R. M. 
Hawker,” one has no white hairs on the base of the tail, whereas 
in the other the white hairs extend about two inches down that 
organ. Only one example of J/. concisa was procured. 
I subjoin a table of the named forms of African Ratels, leaving 
for the present unsettled the question, not a very important one 
in the present instance, as to the exact systematic rank that 
should be assigned to them :— 
a. No white hairs upon the head or back..................... cottoni, Ituri Forest. 
a’. Head white or iron-grey ; a varying amount of grey 
or dirty white or white on the back. 
6. Head and fore part of the neck, especially at the 
side, white and sharply defined from the vest of 
the neck and back, on which the black is markedly 
dominant, very few of the hairs being wholly 
dirty w hite, this pale tint being confined to a sub- 
apical annulus on some of the black hairs ............ signata, Sierra Leone. 
bo’. Head and fore part of the neck sometimes w aintes 
but never apparently very sharply defined by their 
tint from that of the posterior part of the neck 
and the body, which are either wholly white or 
iron-grey, due to a mixture of hairs black or white 
throughout their length. 
e. Head white, back white (? young) or iron-grey ...  lewconota, Congo. 
c’. Head not white, iron-grey like the back though 
a little paler. 
d. No distinct marginal white band; sacral region 
mesially black, no white on root of tail ...... concisa, L. Chad. 
d’, A distinct marginal white band; hind-quarters 
uniformly iron-grey at least to "the root of the 
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