176 CARNIVOEA, 



Herpestes smithii, Gray. Plate VIII, figs. 5 & 6. 



Herpestes smilhii, Gray (Charleswortli), Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. New Series, 1837, p. 578; Proc. 



Zool. Soc. Lond. 1851, p. 131, pi. ±xx.; Temm. Esquisses Zool. pt. i. 1853, p. 97; Blyth, Cat. 



Mamm. As. Soc. Mus. Beng-. 1863, p. 50; Jerdon, Mamm. India, 1867, p. 135. 

 Crossarchus fuhiginosus, Wagner, Schreber, Saugeth. Suppl. ii. 1841, p. 32-9; Schinz, Syn, Mamm. 



1844, vol. i. p. 378. 

 Herpestes ellioti, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1851, vol. xx. p. 162 (foot-note). 

 Herpestes ruhiginosus, Kelaart, Prod. Fauna, Zeylan, 1852, p. 43; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 



vol. XX. 1851, p. 182; vol. xxi. 1852, p. 349. 

 Calictis s7nitJiu, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1862, p. 565; Cat. Carniv. Mamm. Brit. Mus. ] 867, p, 162. 



This species appears to be peculiar to Ceylon, and the type is in the British 

 Museum, London. 



It is a long-haired Mungoose, with well- grizzled fur, somewhat after the 

 fashion of S. pallidus, Wagner, and JS. jerdonii, Gray, but the colour is very much 

 darker and richer. UnKke the former, it has a long black tip to its tail, but in 

 this respect it resembles the latter species, which is pale compared with it and 

 slightly darker than H. pallidus. The insular form differs from these more essen- 

 tially continental species in its rich, ferruginous, and dense fur, and in its relatively 

 larger and heavier head. The woolly underlying pile is pale-brownish. There are from 

 four to five dark-brown, almost black, bands on each of the hairs of the visible fur, 

 and the apical band is brown at its tip, but near its base it passes into a deep orange 

 or rich rufous, and the succeeding dark bands have more or less of this tint at 

 each of their ends. The dark-brown rings are separated from each other by a 

 narrow, pale-yellowish band, and there are from four to five of these. To the two-fold 

 coloured, apical rings and to these yellow bands is due the speckled character of 

 the fur. The orange or rich rufous is especially well developed on the nape of the 

 neck, so that when the head of the animal is thrown upwards a kind of rufous 

 collar is produced. The fine hairs around the eye and in front of it to the nose are 

 rich rufous, and the head generally has a rufous tint, and the grizzling is very fine. 

 The whiskers are black. The ears at their upper thirds, externally, are clad with a 

 patch of short grizzled hairs like those on the sides of the face, while below this the 

 hairs are uniformly pale-rufous and extremely short. The feet are unspeckled and 

 dark-brown. The chin is very finely speckled, and the chest more coarsely so. The 

 claws are moderately developed, and the tarsus, in its centre line, is nude to the heel. 

 The tail for about two-thirds of its length is concolorous with the body, but as its black 

 latter third is reached the rufous is more marked. At its base it is clad with long hairs, 

 but the hairs become shorter as the black end is approached, the hairs of which, how- 

 ever, are longer than those immediately preceding them. On the middle of the sides 

 of the body the fur is about 1-75 inch long, and at the base of the tail it is 2 inches 

 and near its end 1*50 inch, while the black hairs of the tip are 2*75 inches long. 



Inches. 



Length from tip of muzzle to root of tail 14-50 



„ of tail 14-50 



