HELICTIS. 193 



MUSTELID^. 



Genus Helictis, Gray. 



* Helictis moschata, Gray. 



Eelictis moscliata, Gray^ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1831^ p. 94_,et^5if/^ 1865, p. 153; Cat. Mamm. Carniv. 



&c., B. M. 1869, p. 14a (in part) ; Schinz, Syn. Mamm. 1844, vol. i. p. 328. 

 Melogale]}ersonata,\^.QiiQQ>S..liOQ\. Voy. de Belanger, 1834, p. 137, pi. v. j Blainv. Osteogr. G. 



Mustela, pi. xiii. 



At Teng-yae-chow in Yunnan, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, I obtained a 

 wolverine whicli I refer to this species, and to wliicli the Pormosan form S. 

 subaurantiaca, Swinhoe, is very closely allied. Two other species have been 

 described, viz., H. orientalis, Horsfd. (= S. fusca, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil._^), and H. 

 nipalensis, Hodg. They have all a strong resemblance to each other in their 

 external characters, all of them being distinguished by certain head-markings 

 which are wonderfully persistent in the different species, although they are, 

 at the same time, the subjects of modifications which, however, are not merely 

 distinctive of the species, but involve subordinate variations in the individuals com- 

 posing them, the tendency being either for the white head-markings to become 

 intensified by extension, or obliterated by the encroachment of the general colour 

 of the fur, the general plan, however, of their distribution being adhered to 

 in all. 



K no other characters than those yielded by these modifications of the external 

 colour of the animals had existed for discriminating the species, I would not have 

 hesitated to regard them all as only local varieties of a common specific type, but 

 this apparent similarity masks certain osteological differences wliich clearly indicate 

 that the divergence from the original stock from which these animals have sprung has 

 been in a two-fold direction, if one or other of them is not the existing representative 

 of the pecuhar features of the primitive stock. Rehable characters for distinguish- 

 ing the species are only yielded by the skulls, and they have been brought pro- 

 minently forward by Dr. Gray.^ The skulls belong to different types, the first 

 distinguished by its shortness, large teeth, short palate, and the small, rounded 

 character of its infra-orbital foramen = S. orientalis ; the second by its greater 

 length, long palate, large teeth, and small infra-orbital foramen = S. nipalensis ; 

 and the third by its long skull and palate, small teeth, and large infra- orbital foramen 

 = H. moschata. But another species has been recognised, the S. subaurantiaca, 

 Swinhoe, described from Pormosa. Swinhoe^ was under the impression, judging from 

 external c^iaracters, that this insular form displayed stronger affinities towards the 

 Himalayan S. nipalensis, Hodg., than to the neighbouring continental S. mos- 

 chata, Gray, but the consideration of the characters of the skull conclusively proves 



^ Guerin. Mag. 1835, pi. xvi. 



- Cat. Camiv. Mamm. B. M. 1869, p. 141. 



^ Proc. Zool, Soc. Lond. 1862, p. 349, et ibid, p. 355, pi. xliv. 



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