190 
THE MAMMALS OF EOTPT. 
Subfamily HERPESTINJE. 
HERPESTES. 
Ichneumon, Lacep. 1797 (preoccupied in Insecta). 
Herpestes, Illiger, Prodr. Mamm. 1811, p. 135. 
The two species of this gi nus found within the area treated of in this book show 
such dissimilarity in shape of body and formation of skull and teeth, that they might 
be regarded as distinct genera; but this course is not generally followed, owing 
to the existence of intermediate forms, notably a species found in West Africa, 
H. naso, de Winton (Bull. Liverpool Mus, 1901, vol. iii. p. 35), in which the body- 
form of a. albicauda is combined with the skull and teeth characters of H. ichneumon. 
At the same time, as a registering name for the form of teeth found in E. albicauda, 
the subgeneric name Ichneumia, Is. Geoffr., is found useful. 
Dentition : i. c, ^ pm. m. f = 40. 
Herpestes ichneumon, Linn. (Plate XXVII.) 
Mus pharaonis, Alpini, Hist. Nat. Algypt. 1735, t. 14. fig. 3 {fide Hasselq.). 
Meles [Ichneumon), &c., Linu., Hasselquist, Iter Falsest. 1757, p. 191. 
Viverra ichneumon, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. x. vol, i. 1758, p. 43; Eorskal, Descr. Anim. 1775. 
Ichneumon pharaon, Lacep. Buffon, ed. Ibmo, vol. xiv. 1799, p. 155 (vol. vi. p. 110); Geoffr. 
St.-H. Descr. de PEgypte, Hist. Nat. vol. ii. 1818, p. 137; id. ibid. ed. 2, 8vo, vol. xxiii. 
1828, p. 166, et Suppl. p. 206; F. Cuv. Hist. Nat. Mamm. 1821. 
Ichneumon cegyptioe, Tiedem. Zool. i. 1808, p. 364. 
Herpestes pharaonis, Desm. Bncycl. Method., Mamm. 1820, p. 213. 
Herpestes num.idicus, F. Cuv. Hist. Nat. Mamm. iv. livr. 68 (1834). 
Herpestes ichneumon. Hemp. & Ehrenb. Syrnb. Phys. dec. ii. 1832, A; Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1882, p. 64. 
[Form much elongated and weasel-like ; legs very short; feet plantigrade, the soles 
of the tore and hind feet completely naked to the wrist and heel; ears short, rounded, 
scarcely appearing above the fur; tail very long, much tapered, with brush-like tuft 
of long black hair at the end ; coat very harsh and straight. 
General body-colour dark badger-grizzled, with distinct ticking of the black and white 
on the head, where the hairs are very short and more finely ringed ; face rather darker 
and less grizzled ; all the feet and the tip of the tail black ; throat and under side 
darker than the upper parts. Under-fur brick-red, with dark simt-brown bases on most 
of the dorsal surface, the brick-red graduating into yellow or buff on the neck and 
under parts, but the chest and belly often lack this brighter colour, and are therefore 
