MAMMALS OF LIBERIA 583 
Crossarchus obscurus IF. Cuvier. Short-tailed Mongoose 
Crossarchus obscurus F. Cuvier, Mammiféres, part 47, pl. 199, 1825: Gambia. 
Size large, about as large as the preceding, but tail short, about two-fifths of total length; 
color a grizzled brown. West Africa. 
This seems to be a common species in Liberia. Biittikofer secured several 
specimens and mentions three young from one nest at Robertport. He notes 
that it is often kept tame in the houses of the natives and we saw this at several 
places. At Paiata a youngish one had the run of the village, and frequently 
visited our quarters to pick up bits of meat from the specimens being prepared, 
or would eagerly lay hold of a large carcass if one were being skinned, and tug 
away at it as if it really expected to carry it off. Not only did it eat meat greedily 
but it liked crackers too, and when given a piece would hold it down with its 
fore feet and bite off portions. Although only its milk teeth were in place, these 
seemed useful in seizing and tearing its food. Its utter fearlessness was one of its 
attractive characteristics at this stage, for it showed no sign of timidity even if a 
crowd of natives gathered about, as often happened, but ran in and out among 
them with perfect composure. The claws of the fore feet are unusually large in 
this mongoose and indicate that it is a good digger, although we saw nothing of 
its habits in a wild state. Biuittikofer, however, mentions that it makes round 
holes in the ground in digging out the larvae of beetles. It is of diurnal habits. 
FELIDAE Cats 
Felis pardus reichenowi (Cabrera). West African Forest Leopard 
Panthera pardus reichenowr Cabrera, Bol. Soc. Espa. Hist. Nat. Madrid, vol. 18, p. 481, 1918: 
Yoko, Cameroons. . 
A leopard with the ground color of the body a dull buffy, darkened along the back. 
In his notes on the African leopards, the late Dr. J. A. Allen showed that the 
race F’. p. leopardus is based on the leopard of Senegal, so that it seems unlikely 
that the animal of the West African forest region should be the same. We are 
therefore using for it Cabrera’s name, based on the Cameroons animal, assuming 
it to be the same as that of Liberia. Several skins were seen in the hands of 
natives, one of which was bought and seems to be of a peculiar dull aspect in the 
median area, darker than available skins of the East African leopard. 
This is a rather common species throughout the forested country traversed, 
and occasionally carries off a dog or a goat. We did not see it alive, though tracks 
were found, sometimes close to the villages. Biittikofer mentions that one carried 
off a goat from the mission at Robertport, and that young ones now and then 
are brought to the coast for sale by the natives. 
Pocock (1907) has called attention to the peculiar dusky (rather than yellow- 
ish) shade of leopards from Sierra Leone and Ashanti due to the grayer hue of the 
pale interspaces and the closeness of the spots. 
We were shown the skin of a leopard that had been killed just before our 
arrival at a Firestone plantation by one of the men in charge, who, coming from 
a short hunt in the forest at dusk carrying a dead monkey, found himself followed 
