168 CAENIVOEA. 



HERPESTID^. 

 Genus Herpestes, Illiger. 



The Mungooses of India, Ceylon, Burma, Malaya, and Cocliin China, and the 

 Islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, are all referable to this genus, the members 

 of which, in these parts of Eastern Asia, differ among themselves much in the same 

 way as the Eastern Asiatic squirrels. Eleven of the species have annulated fur 

 without any special markmgs on either the shoulder, sides, or belly, while three 

 species are distinguished by neck markings, and another by uniformly coloured, 

 unpunctulated fur. The first of these sections is the parallel of the grizzled, 

 unlineated squirrels, such as S. lokriah ; the second, the equivalent of the 

 lineated group illustrated by such forms as S. macclellandi and H. plantani; and 

 the third may be said to conform to the type of colouring which is distinctive of 

 S. ferrugineus. As in the squirrels, so in the Serpestes, the presence or absence 

 of lineation carries with it no generic difference of skuU, skeleton or teeth : all the 

 characters yielded by their structures contribute to prove that the following species 

 are closely allied to each other in the following sequence, viz.^ H. auropunctatus, 

 JEL. persicus, K. smithi, S. maccarthice, S. pallidus, S. ferrugineus, S. jerdoni^ 

 jff. fuscus, II . javanicus, B.. hrachyurus, JE. vitticollis, H. urva, and H. semitor- 

 quatus. The last mentioned appears to be most closely allied to the African forms 

 S. hadius and JB.. melanurus. I have not examined the skull of H. javanicus, but 

 the skulls of all the others have passed under my observation, and I am enabled 

 to speak with some confidence, as I have examined not only the skulls of the 

 types of the different Asiatic genera, to which these species have been referred, 

 but also the specimens which yielded the external characters, besides the skeletons 

 of the three forms which have been referred to Calogale, OnycJiogale, and Calictis, 

 and all of which are preserved in the British Museum. 



With regard to the external characters of these species, they all carry their 

 lithe and vermiform bodies low, and are very quick in their movements. The fur, 

 with one exception, is annulated by different shades of yeUow and brown, the 

 alternate rings varying from four to twelve in number. The skin is more or less 

 thickly clad on the body and neck, with a fine, silky almost woolly under-pile, 

 generally of two colours, and among which are interspersed the numerous, long, 

 annulated hairs, which effectually conceal it. The tail is either pencilled or unpen- 

 cilled, and in the former case, the base, which is always thick and muscular, is clad 

 with long hairs which slightly shorten as the terminal pencil of hairs is reached, the 

 latter being as long, or longer, than the basal hairs, whereas in the unpencilled tails the 

 hair also is long at the base, longer in some {S. pallidus) than others {JB.. auropunc- 

 tatus), and becomes gradually shorter towards the tip, which in all is well clad. The 

 tail also is much longer in some species than others, equalling little more than haH 

 the length of the body and head in one (M. brachyurus), while in another {R. pal- 

 lidus) with the hair, it nearly equals the length of the trunk and head. All 



