EXTEllNAL CHAR;\CTERS OF MONGOOSliS. 365 



The genus Paracynictis *, recently established for the species 

 described by de Winton as Cynictis selousi, seems to resemble 

 Cynictis in the structure of the feet except that the pollex is 

 suppressed, as well as the hallux. In this respect the feet 

 resemble those of Suricata and Bdeogale. 



The feet of two species of Bdeogale, namely, B. puisa and 

 B. crassicauda, have been figured by Peters t. Although the 

 details of the plantar pads are not very clearly shown, the 

 drawings are tolerably accurate, judging from a spirit-preserved 

 example of B. jniisa, ticketed " Zanzibar (Sir J. Kirk)," in the 

 British Museum. In this example the feet are, on the whole, 

 very symmetrical with respect to the plantar pads and the digits. 

 The latter are shorter and a little thicker than in Mungos, but 

 are webbed approximM.tely to the same extent. There is no 

 trace externally of hallux or pollex. The carpal pad is large and 

 submedian in position, but with a slight external inclination. 

 Behind it there is a small triangular area of naked skin, and in 

 front of it a broad naked area separates it from the plantar pad. 

 All trace of the pollical lobe has disappeared with the pollex. 

 In the hind foot there is a semicircular area of naked skin 

 behind the plantar pad. Apart from this, the entire posterior 

 surface of the metatarsus is covered with hair; and judging from 

 dried skins, the hair in some species extends right down to the 

 plantar pad. In other respects the structure of the feet in this 

 genus is apparently tolerably uniform (text-fig. 6, A, B). 



The last of the tetradactyl Mongooses is Suricata. In length 

 and narrowness the feet resemble those of Cynictis. The claws 

 are perhaps a little longer, and the webs are deeper, but they are 

 not so deep as in Mimgos, being developed to approximately the 

 same extent as in Ariela. On both the fore and the hind foot 

 the web between the third and fourth digits is deeper than the 

 others, and on the hind foot the web between the third and fourth 

 is deeper than that between the fourth and fifth digits. The 

 digits are less symmetrical than in Cynictis, and markedly 

 asymmetrical as compared with those of Bdeogale. The carpal 

 and plantar pads are normal in development, and the external 

 lobe of the plantar pad .of the hind foot is larger, sometimes 

 much larger than the internal lobe. The area above the plantar 

 pad on the hind foot is naked to the tip of the heel, and towards 

 the heel this area rises into a wide, low, laterally expanded pad- 

 like eminence which gives a sinuous outline to the naked tarso- 

 metatarsal area+ (text-fig. 8, A, B). 



* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) xvii. p. 177,1916. An examination of dried skins 

 suggests that the area between the carpal and plantar pads may be overgrown with 

 hair, thus contradicting the geueralisatiofi (p. 358) as to the nakedness of this area 

 in Mongooses. 



f ' Reise nach Mossambique,' Saag. pis. xxvii. & xxviii., 1852. 



X Accounts of the metatarsal area vary. Thomas and, following him, W. L. 

 Sclater correctly described this area as naked. But Mivart and, following hini, 

 Flower and Lj-dekker wrongly described it as covered with hair. Its naked condi- 

 tion does not seem to be subject to variation. 



