7. GALIDIA. 55 



compressed. The palate is very narrow behind. Teeth 38 ; the 

 upper false grinders compressed ; the flesh-tooth considerably longer 

 than broad in front, with a roundish inner lobe on the front edge, 

 separated from the other lobe by a notch ; the tubercular grinders 

 transverse, triangular, broad, with a small lobe in the middle of the 

 hinder edge. There is no second tubercular grinder, in the upper 

 jaw. Length of skull 2" 9'", of nose 9'" ; width of brain-case 11'", 

 of zygomatic arch 1" 5'". 



Section B. Subplantigrade. T%e underside of the toes and more or less 

 of the back of the tarsus near the foot bald and callous. The Jlesh- 

 tooth is massive and strong ; the tubercular grinder large, broad. — Gray, 

 P. Z. S. 1864, p. 621. 



Tribe IV. GALIDIINA. 



The hind part of the tarsus hairy to the sole ; the tail bushy. 



7. GALIDIA. 



Ears elongate. Body slender. Legs short. Tail elongate, cylin- 

 drical, rather larger at the end, ringed ? Toes 5/5, arched, webbed ; 

 front subequal; the toes and sole bald; the tarsus hairy behind. 

 Claws acute, compressed, retractile. Skull rather ventricose ; face 

 short ;, forehead arched ; crown flat. Teeth 36 or 38 ; false grinders 

 I . f, front very small ; flesh-tooth triangular, elongate, longer than 

 broad, and falls early ; tubercular grinders ^, transverse, the second 

 very small (see skuU, G. elegans, Geoff. Mag. do Zool. 1839, 1. 17). 



Galidia, I. Geoff. Compt. Rendus, 1837, p. 580 ; Mag. de Zool. 1839, 

 pp. 27, 38, t. 14, 17; Gray, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 522. 



"We only possess Galidia elegans ; and the feet of that species have 

 no relation to those of an Herpestes, to which M. I. Geoffroy com- 

 pares them ; they are much more those of a Genet, having short, 

 arched, webbed toes and very a,cute retractile claws. 



* Tail ringed; " soles of hind feet narrow.'' Galidia. 



1. Galidia elegans. B.M. 



Dark chestnut-brown ; tail nearly as long as the body, black-ringed. 

 Length 15 inches, tail 12 inches. 



GaUdia elegans, 1. Geoff. Mag. de Zool. 1839, p. 27, t. 14, 17 ; Gray, 



P. Z. S. 1864, p. 623. 

 Margusta (Galidia) elegans, Blainv. Ost. t. 9. 

 Genetta?, A. Smith, S. Afr. Quart. Jown. p. 62 (see I. Geoff.). 

 Vounsira, Flacourt, Histoire de Madagascar, p. 154, 1661. 

 Vausire, Buffon 8f Daubenton ? 



Hob. Madagascar (called Voimsira). 



Skull oblong, rather elongate ; forehead shelving, rather convex ; 

 the crown flat ; the brain-case nearly two-thirds the entire length. 

 False grinders f, the first very small, deciduous, the second and 



