HELICTIS. 195 



aurantiaca is not greater than that between different skulls of undoubted S. 

 orientalis. It is also observable that the last-mentioned species presents two types 

 of skull, one in which the orbital contraction of the f rentals is not so narrow 

 as in the other type, and associated with the greater width at this point, 

 the skull, across the anterior border of the squamosal suture, is also broader than 

 in the narrower type, and the ridges of the external orbital angle are much further 

 apart than in the narrow skulls, the upper surface being therefore more flattened 

 than in the narrow form. These differences are in all likelihood due to sex, and it is 

 probable that the broad type represents the male, and the other and more slender 

 skull the female sex. In the British Museum there is only one skull of H. 

 moschata and one of S. subaurantiaca, and it is interesting to observe that the former 

 belongs to the same type of skuU as the broad skull of S. orientalis, and the 

 latter to the narrow form of the skull of that species, and that these two skulls 

 are as intimately related to each other as the supposed male and female skulls of 

 M. orientalis. With these scanty materials, however, it would be premature to say 

 that the Eormosan form is not specifically distinct from the continental wolverine, 

 but it seems to me that the remarkable similarity that exists between the skulls 

 of the type specimens of the species points in the direction of the insular form 

 being only a local variety whose distinguishing characters are as yet confined to its 

 pelage. 



After a careful consideration of Is. Geoffrey's description of S. personata, which 

 was procured in the neighbourhood of Eangoon, and which Blyth regarded as 

 H. orientalis, I am disposed to think that it is more applicable to S. moschata, in 

 wliich the colour accords with that ascribed by Geoffrey to his species, in which 

 also, as in S. moschata, the hair, especially on the thighs and fore arms, is tipped 

 with white, which is not the case in S. nipalensis, which is a dark-coloured form. 

 This species was originally described from Cantor's specimens, and Swinhoe' has 

 observed it in Hainan, Amoy, and Shanghai, so that it has a wide distribution over 

 Eastern Asia. With regard to Shanghai specimens, the latter naturalist remarks 

 that they are more tinged with orange-yellow on the under parts, and that in colour 

 they approach the Eormosan species. 



Swinhoe has mentioned the crepuscular habits of the Eormosan wolverine, and 

 from personal knowledge I am aware that M. nipalensis appears to be essentially 

 nocturnal in its habits, being only seen at night, when it comes out to feed, and it 

 not unfrequently enters the huts of the Bhooteas and Lepchas of Darjeeling. 

 On one occasion, in a Bhootea hut, I kiUed a Nepal wolverine, having mistaken it for 

 a large rat ; but my host was much chagrined at my successful raid on the supposed 

 intruder, as he informed me the animal had been nightly in the habit of visiting 

 him, and that it was not only inoffensive, but most useful in destroying cockroaches 

 and other insects. 



» Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1870, p. 623. 



