1042 MR. R. I. POCOCK ON [Nov. 26, 



the edges of the spots or lines. This is also true of the spots of 

 the third row ; but the smaller spots of the inferior rows are 

 blacker. On the upper pa,rt of the shoulders, the neck and the 

 head, the stripes are well defined and of much the same tint as 

 those of the body, except that the spinal stripe, where traceable, 

 is not wholly black but tinged with red. On the sides of the 

 shoulders and on the thighs the spots are mostly black. The 

 fore-leg is mostly ashy brown or blackish brown, becoming darker 

 distally, but down the front there extends a greyish-yellow stripe 

 of varying width which appears, however, to die out at the wrist. 

 The hind-legs, from the hocks downwards, are greyish- or brownish- 

 black, and there is a varying quantity of hair of the same colour 

 above the hock behind ; but down the front there extends, for a 

 shorter or longer distance, a pale stripe of varying width ; this, 

 however, is sometimes reduced to a mere remnant on the area 

 between the hocks and toes. The tail presents eight black rings 

 separated by seven pale rings, the last black ring being long, and 

 the extreme tip brown above and whitish below. On the upper 

 side of the tail the black stripes are longer than the pale stripes ; 

 but on the under side the pale stripes are longer than the black 

 ones, or at least as long in the proximal half of the organ, 

 although in the distal half the black ones are longer below as they 

 slso are above; the black stripes increase and the pale stripes 

 decrease in length towards the distal end of the tail. The extent of 

 the increase in the length of the black stripes varies, but where it is 

 greatest, the longest is about three times the length of the shortest. 

 Both the black and the white stripes are irregular in shape and 

 never present straight and parallel anterior and posterior borders, 

 and in the proximal half of the tail the black stripes become 

 nari'ower and less intense laterally and inferiorly, whereas the 

 pale stripes become broader and paler. The pale stripes are 

 white below, but above they are yellowish with a varying quantity 

 ■of blackish hairs passing from one black stripe to another and 

 representing the median spinal stripe. 



Length from fore part of nape to root of tail (on flat dried 

 skin) about 375 mm. ( = 15 English inches)*; of tail about 

 525 mm. ( = 21 English inches). 



This is probably the Genet of Liberia which has been identified 

 as Genetta 23ardina Is. Geoffr. St. Hilairef (Mag. de Zool. 1832, 

 01. i. pi. 8) — a species based upon a living specimen said to have 

 come from the interior of Senegal, but which Matschie records 

 from the North Cameroons and the coast of Togoland. G. 2^(1'^- 

 dina, however, may be distinguished from G. johnstoni by having 

 the spots on the upper part of the sides of the body large, wide, 

 separated from each other by wide intervening pale areas and 



* Tlie complete skin would probably have measured another 125 mm. (5 English 

 inches) giving a. total of 500 mm. (20 English inches) from the tip of the nose to the 

 root of the tail. This would make the tail approximately equal to the head and 

 body in length. 



t J. Biittikoff'er, 'Reisebilder aus Liberia,' 1890; H.H.Johnston, 'Liberia,' ii. 

 pp. 703 & 756, 1906. 



