HEEPESTES. 191 



Hodgson^ describes, on either side of the root of the tail, a " round, hollow, 

 smooth-lined gland secreting an aqueous, foetid humour which the animal squirts out 

 posteally (sic) with great force." This species ranges from Nepal along the Hima- 

 layas to Assam, through Arracan and Burma to Tenasserim, and extends into the 

 south of China, Swinhoe having obtained it from the Eokien hills, near Amoy, and 

 there is an example in the Paris Museum from Kiangse. Its habits have been 

 said to be somewhat aquatic, but they do not appear to be more so than those of 

 S. auropunctatus, which is generally found on the banks of rivers and tanks, where 

 doubtless its food is much the same as that of this so-called crab-eating Mungoose. 



Herpestes semitorqtjatus. Gray. Plate IX, figs. 1 & 2. 



Herpestes semitorquatus, Grray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1846, vol. xviii. p. 211 j Voy. of Samarang, 

 Zool. 1850, p. 15, pi. iii.; Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1864, p. 555; Cat. Carniv. Mamm. 1869, 

 p. 153. 



This species is easily distinguished by the pale area along the side of the neck, 

 from whence it derives its specific name. 



The general colour of the animal is a rich orange-brown, most intensely rufous 

 on the sides of the body, the back and upper parts of the side being finely marked 

 with yellow, which becomes very indistinct on the shoulders and outside of the 

 thighs ; the fore legs and the lower half of the hind legs are dark purplish-brown. 

 The lower half of the sides of the neck from the extremity of the muzzle backwards 

 below the ear to the front of the shoulder, is- a rufous-yellow and clearly marked 

 off from the colour of the upper part of the neck, which is dark rufous-brown and 

 punctulated, while the underlying neck-band is not, and the rufous tint of which 

 increases from before backwards. 



The upper surface of the head is finely punctulated, and is much less rufous 

 than the dorsal surface. The chest and belly are rich rusty-brown without any 

 trace of annulation, and are of the same colour as the sides. The tail is not tufted, 

 and is about two-thirds the length of the body. It is much grizzled, as the hairs 

 have long pale-yellow tips succeeding their black sub-apical bands. The tip is con- 

 colorous with the pale ends to the hairs, the black bands having disappeared. The 

 claws are moderately strong. The basal pile is rather profuse, pale yellowish-brown 

 at its base and orange-yellow towards its tip. The apices of the hairs on the sides 

 are broadly rich orange-red succeeded by a narrower brown band not very distinct 

 from the former, wliile the basal portion of the hair is pale-brownish or yellow. On 

 these parts, the hairs are about one inch long. On the back, where the yellow 

 banding is more distinct, the hairs are about the same length as the former. Here 

 they terminate in a narrow, brown tip succeeded by a yeUow band followed by a 

 very broad, dark-brown, almost blackish band which embraces about one-half the 

 length of each hah% the base of which is yellow. The hairs below the root of the 

 tail are only 1-30 to 1*50 long, and have the same colour as the preceding, only the 



^ L.c, 



