ICTONYX LIBTCA. 
243 
IcTONTX LiBYCA, Ehrenb. (Plate XXXVIII.] 
Mustela libyca, Hemp. & Ehrenb. Symb. Phys. dec. ii. k, 1832. 
Mephitis africana, var. Licht. Abb. Ak. Berl. 1836, p. 284. 
"i let onyx frenata, Sundev. K. Vetensk.-Ak. Handl. 1842, p. 212, pi. iv. f. i. 
Zorilla vaillantii, Loche, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1856, p. 497, pi. 22. 
Zorilla frenata, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 151. 
Rhabdogale multivittata, Wagn. Schreb, Sang. Suppl. ii. 1841, pi. 133 b, p. 221. 
A young one from the margin of the Libyan Desert, Gizeh, Dr. Walter Innes, Bey. 
Head sharply triangular, with the nose sharp and projecting ; ears rounded. Claws' 
of fore foot rather long, moderately curved and sharp. Claws of hind foot much 
shorter. A white band extends from before the ear, a little above the eye, across to the 
other ear, thence descending behind the angle of the mouth. A white band also runs 
forward to a little in front of the symphysis of the lower jaw and is continued backwards 
to the oral angle. This band is separated from the margin of the mouth by a narrow 
black band arising at the angles of the mouth anterior to the white bands, and passing 
as a broad blackish-brown band across the eyes, but not continuing to the sides of the 
nose and upper margin of the mouth, which are white. The fur on the body is from 
about 40 to 50 mm. long, and sometimes even longer. Behind the white frontal line 
there is a broad black band, which is succeeded between the ears by a broad white band, 
continued along the side of the neck to the front of the shoulder and separated from 
its fellow of the opposite side by a blackish-brown narrow longitudinal line, more or 
less broken up with white. The rest of the upper surface of the body is covered 
with elongated white and black spots, arranged more or less longitudinally, there 
being three bands more prominent than the rest—viz., one broad white band passing from 
above the shoulder to the groin and another on the middle of the back,—but they also 
are more or less broken up by the length of the fur. The fore leg, the hind leg 
from the knee, and the whole of the under parts from behind the white chin are black. 
The tail is abruptly rounded and clad with long hair ; those of the upper side are 
white at their base, with a broad black ring and long white tip; those on the lower 
side are less pure white basally, and have black tips which increase in extent towards 
the distal end of the tail, so that beneath the tip of the tail the hairs are nearly wholly 
black, thus producing an effect suggestive of the animal having trailed its tail in 
some black substance or having singed it by fire. 
Measurements. 
c?. Head and body 270 mm., tail 165, hind foot 37, ear 20x18, bone of penis 38. 
$ . Head and body 240 mm., tail 138, hind foot 34, ear 19x18. 
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