THE BANDED MYRMECOBIUS. 
399 
distinct bands, I may observe, are not nnfrequently slightly 
interrupted in the middle of the back. The under parts of 
the head and body, which are much less densely clothed with 
fur than the upper, are white, or yellowish white, as are also 
the inner parts of the limbs. A black mark, commencing 
about midway between the eye and the tip of the muzzle, 
runs backwards through the eye, and terminates near the 
anterior angle of the ear : the dark hairs forming this mark 
are shorter than on the adjacent parts, and those on either 
side of the mesial line are pointed in opposite directions. 
A white mark borders the black one just mentioned both 
above and below, but the upper white mark, which runs 
immediately above the eye, is indistinct. The hairs of the 
moustaches are black, and neither long nor numerous. The 
ears are rather small, narrow, and pointed; they are well 
clothed with small hairs, internally of a rusty yellow colour, 
externally almost black, but sometimes reddish. The feet arc 
of a pale rust colour. The tail is bushy, and about equal to 
the body in length, and owing to the hairs which spring from 
its sides being longer than elsewhere, has a flattish appearance. 
The hairs are rusty red at the root, black beyond, and white at 
the point, the black and white being in about equal proportions. 
The hairs springing from the upper surface of the tail display 
very little of the rust colour, but those on the under surface 
are so coloured that the whole mesial portion of the tail is of 
a bright rusty hue. 
In young specimens of the Myrmecobius in the British 
Museum collection, the white bands on the back are less 
defined than in the adult; the hairs of the tail are compara¬ 
tively short, and, when in their natural position, the visible 
portion of each hair is yellow. 
The adult specimens are subject to some variety in their 
colouring: in some, the pale bands on the back are of a 
cream colour, and the rusty red of the fore parts of the body 
