20 PRIMATES, CARNIVORES AND UNGULATES 



sometimes indistinct: the stripes occasionally entirely absent. 

 Neck with dark stripes and bars. Feet dark. Tail, more than 

 two-thirds the length of head and body, with a light tip and 

 seven light bands. Head and body about 25 inches. 



Specimens of this animal seem to have been frequently 

 sent home from the Peninsula during the first half of the last 

 century but it is now decidedly rare. The suggestion has been 

 made to me that it never was native but only an introduced 

 cage animal that has not succeeded in establishing itself: as it is 

 now found in such remote and unusual spots as the Comoro 

 Islands and Socotra, I think this theory very reasonable. 



Genus Hemigale: 



The tree-civets of this genus are peculiar in being banded 

 instead of striped and in having the hair on the back of the 

 neck growing upwards. The soles of the feet are naked only 

 to a small extent, the body and neck are elongated and slender 

 and the muzzle is very pointed. One local species only. 



23.* Hemigale HARDWICKEI (Gray). The Slender Banded 

 Civet. Blanford, p. 117. 



Malay name " Musang blang " or " Musang batu." 



Ground colour pale brownish. Two dark brown stripes 

 on the nape broadening on the shoulders, five or six broad bands 

 across the back and others on the basal portion of the tail, 

 the terminal half of which is dark brown. Face striped with 

 dark brown. Head and body about 21 inches. 



The Peninsula : recorded from Trang but not reaching 

 Tenasserim. 



Genus Prioxodox. 



The Weasel-civets are of an exceedingly slender form and 

 are clad with velvet-like fur. The feet are covered with hair 

 beneath and are armed with sharp retractile claws : the tail is 

 very long and cylindrical. They are the smallest members 

 of the family. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



