192 
THE MAMMALS OF EGTPT. 
coffer. Smith, Abyssinia, Dr. Riippeil, 1811 also a stutfed female specimen with the 
skull removed, labelled “ IV. N. 86. H. coffer. Smith, Schoa, Dr. E. Riippeil, 1832,” 
which is supposed to be the animal whence tlie skull was obtained. This specimen 
measures •— 
mm. 
Snout to vent.500 
Vent to tip of tail.365 
A male of E. coffer, from the Cape, presented and collected by Herr v. Ludwig in 
1837, measures:— 
mm. 
Snout to vent.. 
Tail with the terminal hairs. 530 
The dentition of these two specimens, although they are of different sexes, is 
specifically the same. The skulls so closely resemble those of H. ichneumon, that there 
seems no valid reason why they should not both be regarded as belonging to that 
species. 
In a skeleton with the ligaments intact, preserved in the same Museum and collected 
‘'y Riippeil in Egypt in 1823, there are 30 caudal vertebrae (the two terminal of which 
are minute cartilages, the last vertebra being only 1-5 mm. in length, and the pen¬ 
ultimate 4*3 mm. long), 3 sacral, 6 lumbar, and 14 dorsal. The measurements of the 
skeleton arefrom tip of premaxillaries to first caudal vertebra along curve of spinal 
column 540 mm. ; from end of first caudal vertebra to end of last 542 mm.; extreme 
length of skull from premaxillae to exoccipital protuberance, 113 mm.; extreme length 
of lower jaw 78 mm. 
Skulls of mummied Herpedes ichneumon 
in Berlin 
Museum. 
No. 1. 
No. 2. 
No. 3. 
No. 4. 
mm. 
mill. 
tiitn. 
mill. 
LTpper border of foramen magnum to tip of premaxillaries . . . 
luo 
105 
103 
102 
(Greatest zygomatic breadth. 
'} 
57 
55 
54 
Minimum frontal diameter. 
18 
21 
23 
18 
xhis ichneumon has been acci edited with the destruction of the eggs of the 
crocodile of the Nile—a belief as old as the days of Herodotus,—and thus it prevented 
the undue inciease of that formidable monster. Diodorus Siculus remarks that there 
would have been no sailing on the Nile but for the ichneumon. The fact that it 
would eat the eggs of the crocodile, if it came across them when in quest of food, 
was sufficient to raise it in the estimation of the ancient Egyptians to such a degree 
that it became a sacred animal. 
The cult of the ichneumon arose in the Nome of Heracleopolis in Middle Egype. 
The most probable of the reasons given for its being revered is its ability to 
successfully combat the asp and to protect itself from its poisonous bite. At the 
