MUNGO OSES. 
475 
having hitherto been obtained of it. It is of about the same form and size as the 
Egyptian mungoose, with the full number of premolar teeth, and with the soles of 
the hind-feet completely covered with hair as far as the roots of the toes. The 
tail is about equal in length to the body, and the general colour is a uniform pale 
brown, becoming lighter on the head, the individual hairs having but one or two 
rings of different colours. 
The four remaining mungooses to be mentioned under this heading collectively 
constitute the genus Crossarchus, which is distinguished from the preceding by 
having only three premolar teeth on either side of each jaw, and likewise by the 
under-surface of the hind-feet being completely naked. A further distinction 
between the two is to be found in the circumstance that, while in Meller’s mungoose 
the cusimanse (J nat. size). 
the palate of the skull is concave, in the members of the present genus it is com¬ 
pletely flat. All are of burrowing habits. 
Of the four species, the cusimanse (C. obscurus ), ranging in West Africa from 
the Camerun Mountains to Sierra Leone, and the Gambian mungoose( C. gambianus) 
of the Gambia have uniformly-coloured and grizzled fur. The former, which is 
figured above, is of a dull brown colour, with yellow tips to the hairs, while the 
latter is grey, with the hairs ringed. On the other hand, the East African species, 
namely, the zebra mungoose (C. zebra) and the banded mungoose ( C. fasciatus), have 
the back banded with transverse stripes, which are narrow in the former and broad 
in the latter, as shown in the illustration on the next page. The zebra mungoose, 
which is confined to Abyssinia, is further distinguished by the rufous colour of 
the under-parts; while in the banded mungoose, of which the range extends from 
