HEEPESTES. 179 



impression is that they are examples of one and the same species, and that the 

 smaller size of the type, R. maccarthice, as compared with the larger fulvescent 

 specimen (for the skull of the former proves it to be fully adult), is to be accounted 

 for by its having been kept in confinement, whereas, on the other hand, the darker 

 colour of the smaller specimen seems to be attributable to youth, or it may be that these 

 differences of coloration are explained by the wide diversities of physical conditions 

 which are met with in the little, compact island of which they are the inhabitants. 

 Tliis seems j)robable, because I observe that Kelaart I'ccords that he obtained a 

 darker variety of his S. fulvescens from Newera Elia, which must be at an elevation 

 of from 6,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea, and which he sent either to Calcutta, or 

 to the Zoological Society, London. 



In these specimens, the fur is long, dense, soft and adpressed, as in S. cmro- 

 pimctatus, but much more profuse and still more so than in the Mungooses which 

 are aUied to H. pcdlldus. The underlying pile is also abundant, and about one inch 

 long in the type, and it is pale purplish-brown at its base and yellowish-orange in its 

 two terminal thirds. The tips of the long hairs are pale orange-brown, succeeded 

 by a yellow band of variable extent which is much broader in the Mungoose referred 

 to K. fulvescens, than in Si. maccarthice and in the dark specimen. In the two 

 latter the pale orange-brown tip is succeeded by a bright yellow band, while in 

 the larger S. fulvescens the sub-apical yellow band is much paler, and there are, 

 below, foux alternate brown and yellow bands, the basal portion of the hair being 

 broadly pale-yellow, almost white. In the type, although smaller than the so-called 

 H. fulvescens, a circumstance, I have said, either the result of confinement, or 

 explicable on the supposition that it is the hill form, there are also four alternate 

 brown and yellow bands, but much narrower than in S. fulvescens. In the dark- 

 brown example there are generally six alternate brown and yellow bands, the 

 last being pale-yellow or white, and not much broader than the others, and the 

 face has the peculiarity that long white hairs are interspersed over it. This is the 

 youngest of the specimens, and in its more numerous bands it adheres to the hair 

 colouring, apparently distinctive of young as compared with adult lEerpestes. In 

 the type, the hair of the tail is generally six-banded, and the brown bands in all 

 decrease in breadth towards the tip. On the flanks the hair is 1-70 inches in length, 

 and on the base of the tail 1-90 and at its tip 1-30. In the adult R. fulvescens the 

 hair is somewhat longer. In these three Mungooses the tail has no dark tip, and 

 it gradually decreases in width towards the end, which is not tufted as in U. smitUi 

 and S. jerdonii, and in these respects it resembles S. auropimctatus, but it has a 

 slight rufous tinge which increases towards the tip. It is evident that the simi- 

 larity in the pelage of these Mungooses is so marked as not to yield any feature 

 to separate them specifically from each other. The claws of the ferine speci- 

 mens are much the same as ua H. pallidus, and the upper third of their tarsi is 

 clad. The large specimen {TI. fulvesceiis) measures from muzzle to root of tail 16' 25, 

 and the tail without the hair 11-50, and with it 14 inches. The type of S. maccar- 

 thice. is 12-20 from muzzle to root of tail, the tail being 9 inches long, the hair at the 



