ALLEN — AFRICAN CARNIVORA 
27 
similarity. It resembles 7c/inewmm in external form, in its long heavy 
overhair, and in having furred palms and soles, thus differing in this 
latter respect from both Herpestes and Atilax. It has the light and 
rather weak dentition of Herpestes, but the skull is relatively much 
shorter, broader and heavier than in the latter, with the postpalatal 
region correspondingly shorter and wider. The short, thick tail also 
contrasts strongly with the attenuate tail of Herpestes. 
Xenogale microdon sp. nov. 
Type, No. 51625, cf ad., Akenge, Belgian Congo, December 4, 1913; Herbert 
Lang and James P. Chapin, American Museum Congo Expedition. Original No. 
2194. 
Small-toothed, with a general external resemblance to the Atilax group. 
Upper parts of body with the overhair black broadly annulated with rufous, 
giving a grizzled effect of deep black and ochraceous orange; the individual 
hairs are light at base passing into black, the outer half black ringed and tipped 
with ochraceous or wholly black; underfur pale buff, darker at extreme base; 
tail like [the back at base, becoming lighter apically without distinctive change 
(to black or white) at tip, the hairs individually buff at base, broadly ringed with 
black near the middle and subapically ringed with whitish; limbs uniform brown- 
ish black to intense black (in different individuals) ; head distinctly lighter than 
body, the hairs short and conspicuously tipped with whitish, giving a grizzled 
grayish effect ; ventral area similar to the back but more suffused with rufous 
which prevails over the black; foreneck from the axillar line to lower part of the 
throat blackish the hairs conspicuously tipped with whitish, giving a grizzled 
effect ; chin, sides of head and top of nose with a brownish tone, the hairs extremely 
short; palms and soles bare as in Ichneumia. (A fuller description, with detailed 
measurements and illustrations of cranial and external characters, will appear 
in the final report on the Congo Carnivora.) 
THE GENERIC NAMES MUNGOS AND HERPESTES 
The specific name mungo dates from Gmelin, 1788 (Syst. Nat., I. 
p. 84), Viverra mungo being the second species of his genus Viverra. 
His Viverra mungo was based primarily on the banded mongoose of 
Africa, although the habitat is given as India, and references to various 
indeterminate Asiatic species are included among his bibliographic 
citations under V. mungos. 
As no diagnosis is given by which the species can be identified it 
must be determined by the first identifiable reference. The first ref- 
erence is ^‘Schreber, Saugethiere, III, p. 430, t.CXVIA, CXVIB.^^ 
Schreber^s plate CXVI is an accredited copy of Buff on’s figure of ‘‘La 
Mangouste.” Buff on and Daubenton supposed that their specimens 
