CIVET TRIBE 



69 



countries. It has a bare strip on the sole of each hind-foot, and is marked with 

 spots, which are not arranged in distinct lines, and the dark rings on the tail are 

 alternately broad and narrow ; these characters being regarded as sufficient to 

 justify the generic separation of the African animal from the true Asiatic linsangs. 

 The Asiatic palm-civets are represented by two species of an allied genus ; one 

 of these being the West African palm-civet (Nandin-ia binotata), which inhabits 

 Ashanti, Fernando Po, and Angola, but also extends into east central Africa. Its 

 reddish grey coat is typically spotted with black, and there are three streaks on 

 the neck. In Nyasaland it is replaced by the species, or variety, known as 

 Gerrard's palm-civet (N. yerrardi), in which the black spots are smaller and fewer 



WHITE-TAILED MONGOOSE. 



and the dark streaks on the neck absent. In habits these species are thoroughly 

 arboreal and nocturnal ; their food probably consisting of birds and small mammals. 

 Nandinia is considered to be a very primitive type of the civet' family. 



The mongooses and their allies have likewise numerous African representatives. 

 Among them are the long-nosed mongoose (Harpestes naso) of West Africa, and 

 the white-tailed H. albicauda, ranging from Guinea and Nubia down to Cape Colony, 

 and also reappearing in Arabia as far east as Muscat. In length the latter slightly 

 exceeds 38 inches, of which the tail occupies about 16 inches. . Still larger is the 

 giant mongoose (H. grandis), first described from the skull alone. The large grey 

 mongoose (H. caffer) is distributed all over Africa south of the Sahara ; while the 

 slender mongoose (H. gracilis) ranges from Cape Verde to Abyssinia, and thence 

 down the eastern side of the continent into Cape Colony. Another kind, the 

 water-mongoose (H. gcdera), is widely distributed north of the equator, and is also 



