56 EINAR LONNBEEG, MAMMALS COLLECTED IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 



Felis serval Erxl. 



There are three Servals in the collection. Two of these are rather young and there 

 is no skull to the third, which is a large one. It is thus difficult to decide to which subspeci- 

 es these specimens may belong. They may be regarded as comparatively large-spotted, 

 but the spots are perhaps not quite so large as in hindei. Including the dorsal stripes 

 and rows there are about 17 series of spots in the large specimen. The black cross-bands 

 on the arms and on the throat are strongly developed, and the blackness of the feet is 

 also intense. 



Civettictis civetta Schreber. 



1 J'semiadult from Masisi 1914. It is a rather dark specimen with the spots partly 

 confluent to transverse bars. 



Genets of the Genetta servalina-gTOu-p. 



Four specimens in the present collection belong to the above group. They have' 

 short-haired tails with the light rings narrower than the black and from nine to eleven in 

 number; both hind and fore feet blackish brown, the chin light-coloured; the dark spots 

 of the body everywhere solid, not ring-shaped and so on. 



By these characteristics thy are distinguished from related Genets from Western 

 and Central Africa. 0. angolensis Bocage has the chin black and only 3 or 4 pale tail- 

 rings. It represents, however, as Matschie has suggested, possibly a melanistic aberration. 

 0. dubia Matschie has a short tail with only 6 pale rings; O. foensis Waterhouse, the 

 type^ of which appears to be somewhat melanistic, has the pale tail-rings reduced to la- 

 teral patches. The comparison is difficult to make, but 0. poensis appears to be more 

 small -spotted^ than the present specimens. Pousargue has identified a Genet from Ma- 

 yumba with G. poensis, and his description of this specimen agrees on the whole quite 

 well with three specimens, which the R. Swedish Nat. Hist. Museum has received from 

 Debundscha, Cameroon, although the pale tail rings of the latter are more developed. 

 A striking characteristic common to Pousargue's specimen and those from Cameroon 

 consists in the narrowness of the dark longitudinal streaks of the upper neck. 



G. johnstoni as described and figured by Pocock^ displays also a pattern different 

 from that of Capt. Arrhenius's Genets. In the former ))the spots of the two uppermost 

 rows coalesce wholly or mostly into definite longitudinal stripes», while the corresponding 

 spots of the latter are very distinct. In G. johTistoni the (3) upper rows of spots »differ 

 from the spinal stripe in colour, since they consist of black and red hairs intermixed)) 



1 In accordance with Matschie's key (Verb. d. V. Internat. Zool. Congr. Berlin 1901). 



2 As figured by Pocock, Proc. Zool. Soo. London 1907. 



» Matschie (1. o.) suspects 0. poensis to be identical with 0. pardina Is. Geoff., but Pousargue (Ann. Sc. 

 Nat. Zool., 8 Ser., T. 3, Paris, 1896) has pointed out that the latter has ring-shaped spots, while those of the 

 former are solid, more numerous and close set. G. pardina has the feet »gris jaun4tre », whereas in 0. poensis they are 

 blackish brown. 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1909, p. 1041. 



