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REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXLII : 
The discovery of a Mangusta in Spain is important for 
animal Geography. 
J. E. Gray mentions in the Ann. of Nat. Hist. ix. p. 50, that Captain 
Widdrington had brought from Sierra Morena an Ichneumon (along 
with a Felis pardina), to which he gives the name of Herpestes Wid- 
dringtonii ; — fur black and white, grisled; side of the nose, feet, and 
end of tail blackish ; the hair of the back is long, black, with three broad 
white rings, and a very fine brownish tip ; under fur soft, bay coloured ; 
hairs of the face short and adpressed; throat and belly nakedish; ears 
short, rounded, covered with short soft fine ringed hairs ; body twenty- 
two, tail twenty inches. Very nearly allied to H. ichneumon, but it 
differs from that species in the hairs being much shorter, and having 
only three rings ; while the hairs of the back of the H. ichneumon are 
white, with seven broad black rings, leaving a long white base, and only 
narrow rings between the black ones above. It would be another im- 
portant fact for the geographical distribution of animals, if the Para- 
doxurus Nuhice, Fr. Cuvier (Mammif. 71 livr.), was actually a native of 
Nubia, whence Burton is alleged to have brought it. It agrees so much 
with our P.felinus, that one might believe the description of the P. 
Nubice was drawn from this specimen. What, however, I much doubt, 
is the assertion that its habitat is Nubia, since, of the whole genus, no 
species is known from Africa; and from the carrying about of specimens, 
their secondary dwelling is often taken for their original. 
J. E. Gray has given a remarkable specimen of his love of making 
genera, in the Ann. x. p. 260, as, from a very doubtful drawing in Hard- 
wicke’s Illustrations of Indian Zoology, which he at first looked upon as 
Viverra fusca, he has characterized a genus Osmetectis, without knowing 
any thing of the nature of the teeth, or of the structure of the soles. He 
believes he has discovered in it the Indian representative of the Nasuce. 
I, on the contrary (Schreb. Suppl. ii. p. 289), have guessed it to be a 
Paradoxurus. 
Canina. — Gray has given some notices on the Wild Dogs 
of New Holland, in his Journal of Two Expeditions in North- 
west and Western Australia. 
Besides the Dingo, he saw in North-western Australia, a totally dif- 
erent dog. Its colour is the same, but partly with a blackish tinge ; 
the nose is long, thin, and very pointed, like that of the greyhound, but 
the shape is more sturdy. According to the report of some of his tra- 
velling companions, who had been at Timor, this dog must agree with 
the one common in that island (Canis rutilans), which is the more pro- 
bable, as it was only seen in the company of natives ; whilst the Dingo 
was found in some regions abundant in the wild state. 
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