58 SOUTH AFRICAN MAMMALS 



Grant. This species puzzled me for a long time, and 

 I first considered it the young or immature form of 

 G. felina. The receipt, however, of a typical adult felina 

 female, with a litter of three young ones, followed shortly 

 afterwards by half-grown young ludia, captured in the 

 Pretoria district, caused me to reject this theory. Then 

 the Rudd Zoological Survey papers appeared, with the 

 result above mentioned. In the Pretoria district it is 

 the commonest species, and G. ruhiginosa is also found 

 here, but so far tigrina has not been brought to me 

 from the district. The collection has had examples of 

 this Genet from the following localities : Pretoria, Eus- 

 tenburg and Pietersburg. 



Genets remain fairly fierce and shy creatures in cap- 

 tivity, lying hidden in their beds of hay or crouched on 

 the trunk of a tree during the day. They are, moreover, 

 quarrelsome brutes, and we have lost a number of them 

 owing to free fights having taken place from time to time 

 amongst the inhabitants of a cage. 



Genus HERPESTES. 



Ears very shorb and broad, hardly projecting above 

 the level of the surrounding hair. There is a narrow 

 naked groove running down from the nose to the upper 

 lip. The hair of the body is of a grizzled appearance 

 owing to the individual hairs being ringed with two 

 different colours. They are from small to medium sized 

 animals, of chiefly carnivorous habits. 



Herpestes caller. Large Grey Mongoose. 

 Groot Vaal Muishond. 



This is the largest species of the genus, measuring 

 some 26 inches in length, exclusive of the tail, which is 



