HEEPESTES. 173 



1850, p. 15; McClelland, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1839, p. 150; Horsfield, Cat. Mamm. 

 E. Ind. Co. Mus. 1851, p. 91; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1852, p. 349; Cat. Mamm. 

 As. Soc. Mus. Bengal, 1863, p. 51 ; Jerdon, Mamm. Ind. 1867, p. 136, et Append, p. iii. 

 Herpestesjavanicus, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1852, p. 349. 



I shot a specimen of this Mungoose on the banks of the Irawady at Bhamo, 

 which is the first recorded instance of this species having been procured in Upper 

 Burma, and I am not aware that it has ever been as yet detected in British or Lower 

 Burma. Cantor, however, has stated that it inhabits the Malayan peninsula, so 

 that it will also probably be found to inhabit Burma generally. 



This and S. persicus are the smallest of the Mungooses. The types of H. 

 amropunctatus and S. nipalensis are in the British Museum, and I have examined 

 both and compared them with a series of similar Mungooses shot at Calcutta by 

 myself at different seasons of the year, and also with others procured in Cachar, and 

 with the specimen shot in Upper Burma. All of these examples lead from one to the 

 other, but, as I shall have occasion to indicate under S. persicus, the changes of fur 

 which these animals exhibit are not at all understood, although at the same time the 

 series under consideration does not reveal a single character by which the Nepal, 

 Calcutta, Cachar, and Burman animals can be specifically separated from each other. 



In the typical example of S. auropunctatus, and the exact equivalents of which 

 have been killed by me in the cold weather on the banks of the Hughli at Calcutta, 

 along with examples at other seasons identical in all respects with the type of 

 K. nipalensis. Gray, the general colour is olive-brown, with a golden hue due to the 

 fine yellow annulation of the fur. The sides of the body are slightly paler than the 

 back and not so yellow. The under parts are dirty yellowish- white, faintly annulated 

 on the posterior half of the under surface of the neck and on the belly. The 

 limbs are concolorous with the body. The short hair or pile is purplish brown in its 

 lower two-thirds and pale yellow in its terminal third. It is more profuse than in the 

 type of S. nipalensis, which is represented in the British Museum by a single speci- 

 men, and in which it is shorter, but, at the same time, the coloration is identical with 

 H. auropunctatus. The yellow annulation of the fur of the former is not so distinctly 

 marked as in the latter, and its under parts are less bright, but these differences are 

 so slight that they may be ascribed either to age, sex, or to seasonal changes. 

 The long hair in both is smooth, fine, short, and adpressed, while in a light- 

 coloured yellowish-white example of the species from Agra the fur is much 

 harsher and the annulation is almost wholly faded. The tips of the hairs are 

 dark brown, also their bases, the central brown band being separated from its 

 terminal fellows by two yellow bands, but occasionally a yellow band is added 

 to the base. In the Agra specimen, the brown tip is alone preserved, the rest 

 of the hair being pure yellowish- white, but occasionally the central brown band can 

 be detected. In the example of the species from Upper Burma, the fur is nearly 

 the same as in the dark Calcutta and Nepal examples, only the yellow bands are 

 rather narrower and more orange, and this is the case also with the Cachar specimens ; 

 but these differences are so very slight as to be scarcely perceptible. In the tail. 



