1907.] MAMMALS FROM LIBERIA, 1039 



on the thighs the spots are as lai"ge as on the body; the belly is 

 white and marked with spots both larger and darker than those 

 of the sides ; the tail is dark in the median dorsal line and has 

 indistinct lateral bars which do not encircle it. 



In my recently published observations upon this species, I 

 referred to Sir Harry Johnston's record of the occurrence of 

 ' red ' and ' grey ' cats of this species side by side in Liberia ; 

 but I was unable to ascertain whether the red-haired skin he 

 figured belonged to the strongly spotted form [I", aurata celiclo- 

 gaster) or to the weakly siDotted, almost spotless form {F. aurata 

 aurata). The skins brought back by Mr. Leighton demonstrate 

 that the ' red ' and ' grey ' phases of the species that occur near 

 the Cavally River belong to the strongly spotted type. Hence it 

 may be inferred as probable that the red-haired specimen men- 

 tioned by Sir Harry Johnston also belonged to the spotted type. 

 In that case there is no evidence of the occurrence of the weakly 

 spotted form in Liberia ; nor, so far as I am aware, has it been 

 recorded from Ashanti, Cape Coast Castle, and Accra, whence the 

 large-spotted form has been brought. 



GrENETTA POENSis Waterh. (Plate LIY. fig. 4.) 



Genetta poensis Waterhouse, P. Z. S. 1838, p. 59. 



Genetta poensis Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. (8) iii. p. 286, 1 896 

 (from Mayumba, French Congo). 



The type of this species is in the British Museum. Water- 

 house's description of it is veiy accurate. It is, however, difficult 

 to explain his comparison of the species with Genetta pardina Is. 

 Geoflf. St. H., and still more difficult to understand Dr. Matschie's 

 statement that the two are very likely identical, if he read the 

 description of G. poensis. As a matter of fact, it would be hard 

 to find two more dissimilar species in the genus. G. 2iC(jrdina 

 has a yellowish-grey ground-colour. There are only four or five 

 rows of spots on the sides of the body, and those of at least the 

 two uppermost rows are large, somewhat quadrangular, com- 

 paratively widely separated, with red centres and black rims, and 

 do not coalesce into longitudinal lines. The tail is very distinctly 

 banded with white almost to the end and only the backs of the 

 legs appear to be dusky. In G. poensis, on the contrary, the spots 

 are close-set, solid and numerous ; as many as seven rows are 

 traceable on each side and they coalesce here and there into lines, 

 especially dorsally and on the outer side of the thighs. The 

 limbs are almost wholly blackish brown, with at most a narrow 

 area of paler speckled hairs down the front. The tail also is 

 mostly black, the pale annuli being reduced to lateral patches 

 which are much more distinct in the basal than in the distal half, 

 which is wholly black*. 



* Of the type of G. pardina there are two descriptions and figures extant, namely 

 the originals published in Mag. Zool. 1832, CI. 1, pi. 8, and those in Cuvier's and 

 St. Hilaire's Hist. Nat. Mamm. iii. 1833, livr. Ixvi. The locality was inland of 

 Senegal. To this Matschie adds " North Cameroons and Togoland." 



