APPENDICES 357 



APPENDIX E 



I CONSIDER that a ringed tail, even where no other vestige of ancestral 

 marking exists, is sufficient indication that the possessor of it descended from 

 either a resetted, or a spotted, or a striped ancestor. This is one of those 

 features of which it cannot be said, when it exists alone as marking, that it was 

 brought about by natural selection to harmonise with the surroundings of the 

 animal, as a plain body with only the tail mottled would be too great an 

 absurdity in defence of harmonisation. 



The following list will give some idea of the number of different animals 

 which have ringed tails : — 



No. I. — All Leopards, Tigers, the Cheetah, and all spotted and striped 

 Cats, have ring-tails. 



No. 2. — A number of Civets and Genets, whose bodies are either spotted 

 or striped, have ring-tails. 



No. 3. — The Delundung {Prionodon gracilis) and Hemigalea Hardwickii 

 are ring-tailed. 



No. 4. — A Hill Fox ( Vulpes montanus) is brownish-yellow with faint rings 

 on its tail. I saw another ring-tailed Fox in the Durham Museum. 



No. 5. — The red-armed Squirrel of Fernando Po {Sciurus rubi-brachiatus) 

 has a grey-brown body and a ringed tail. 



No. 6. — The Grissled Squirrel {Sciurus punctatus) of West Africa has a 

 ringed tail. 



No. 7. — The Burmese Squirrel {Sciurus pygerythrus) is ring-tailed. 



No. 8. — The Coati {Nasua rufd) and Bassaris astuta have ring-tails and 

 plain bodies. 



No. 9. — A Lemur, a Marmoset, and a spotted Ichneumon, of Jamaica, have 

 ring-tails. 



No. 10. — The African Linsang {Poiana poensis) is spotted and also ring- 

 tailed. 



No. II. — The 'Pa.-aA. {CElurus fulgens) is ring-tailed. 



No. 12. — The Racoon {Procyon lotor), and the Egyptian Cat, though quite 

 plain, have ring-tails. 



