190 CAENIVORA. 



"Mvous iron-grey," many of the hairs being wMte-tipped, those on the tail so much 

 so that the last half is nearly white. The chest and legs are vinous-brown, the chin 

 is white, and the throat greyish, the belly being greyish-yeUow and concolorous with 

 the sides. The top of the head is pale greyish-brown, finely white-speckled, and the 

 muzzle is pale-yellowish. A white area runs along the upper Up and expands 

 oyer the face behind the eye, but below its level, and stretches backwards, to 

 the ear, below and behind which it becomes defined into a pure white band that 

 reaches along the side of the neck, nearly to the shoulder. It is the equivalent of the 

 black band in the same region in E. vitticoUis. The ears are finely clad with very 

 short, greyish hairs, and there is a pencil of hair external to and within their upper 

 angles as in many other Serpestes. The claws are moderately developed, and not 

 quite so much compressed as in some other Asiatic Eerpestes. The upper two- 

 thirds of the tarsus, as in E. fuscm and E. semitorquatus, are thickly clad with 

 hair. 



The fur on the sides is 2-70 long, and on the base of the tail 3-50 inches. The 

 underlying pile is very fine and wooUy, and about 1-20 long, the lower portion 

 of it being pale purphsh-brown, and the tip pale-yellowish. It is rather profuse. 

 The long hairs have generally five broad bands, the terminal band being pure 

 white, below which there is a very broad, brown band, equalling more than one-third 

 the length of the hair, followed by a white band of nearly similar width, after which 

 there is a narrower brown and then a basal white band. On the tail hairs, there are 

 generally seven bands, but, near the end, there are only three, consisting of a broad 

 white band at each extremity of the hairs with a narrow, pale, intervening brown 

 band, the basal band having more or less rufous about it. 



Inches. 



Length of head and trank 1^ " 



„ of tail without hair 10-80 



„ „ with hair 12'50 



The skull and muzzle are narrower and more elongated than in E. semitor- 

 qtiahis. The skull differs from those of E. vitticoUis, E. palliclus, E. smithii, and 

 E. jerdonii in the concave character of the upper surface of the muzzle, and in this 

 respect it resembles E. semitorquatus. The post-orbital contraction is less marked 

 than in these species, and the brain-case is broader and does not contract to the 

 same extent posteriorly, in front of the lambdoidal ridge, as in E. pallidus, E. mac- 

 cartJiicB, E. smithii, and E. Jerdonii, and in these particulars it is resembled by 

 E. vitticoUis, E. brachyurus, and E. semitorqzmtus. The orbit in the skull of 

 Hodgson's type in the British Museum is imperfect, but the su.tures are all intact 

 and the post-orbital processes are well developed, so that it appears probable that 

 the orbit is closed in adult life. The leading featiu'es of the under stu'face of the 

 skull are the shortness of the nasal portion of the palate, and its comparatively 

 great breadth, which equals the transverse diameter of the foramen magnum. The 

 palatal border of the posterior nares is arched. The last lower molar is quadricus- 

 pidate, with three external cusps and one internal cusp. 



