082 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
specimens, two of which were kept alive for some time as kittens and became 
very tame, climbing up the table-leg to eat food at meal times. When no big- 
ger than rats, they pursued the rats that infested the house and presently rid 
the place of them altogether. 
Galerella melanura (Martin) 
Cynictis melanura Martin, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1836, p. 56: Sierra Leone. 
A small slender mongoose, grizzled ochraceous and black, with a black tail-tip. Sierra Leone 
to Gold Coast. 
Stampfli secured two small mongooses in Liberia, one each on the Junk and 
the Farmington rivers. These are referred by Jentink to Herpestes gracilis 
but probably are the same as G. melanura of Wroughton’s revision of the mem- 
bers of the gracilis group (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 20, p. 110, 1907). 
He mentions also specimens in the British Museum from Ashanti and the Gold 
Coast and regards this as a distinct species. We saw nothing of it. 
Atilax pluto (Temminck). Marsh Mongoose 
Herpestes pluto Temminck, Esquisses Zool. sur la Cote de Guiné, 1853, p. 95: Dabacrom, Gold 
Coast. 
A large species with uniform dark-brown coloring, much darkened by long black hairs; head 
minutely grizzled with gray, the sides with rufous; feet blackish brown, under fur grayish brown. 
West African forest area. 
Jentink records as Herpestes pluto specimens from the Junk and the Du 
rivers obtained by Biittikofer and his associates, but makes no special comments. 
The late J. A. Allen recognized the marsh mongooses as forming a separate 
genus, Atilax, distinguished from Herpestes by the large size, generally dark 
color, free instead of partly united toes, first digit of each foot present, premolars 
only three above and below. He described, besides the well-known species 
paludinosus of South and Hast Africa, a larger-toothed animal which he named 
macrodon, from the West African forest area. This should perhaps stand rather 
as a subspecies of A. pluto, although actual intergradation is not yet shown. 
We secured a single specimen of this large mongoose at Gbanga, but on at 
least two other occasions single animals were seen, one in the early forenoon the 
other in the heat of midday, the latter trotting leisurely along the trail at the 
edge of the forest. While travelling, this mongoose holds the tail slightly curved 
upward in a characteristic manner. An interesting feature of our specimen is that 
it has a very small first upper premolar on each side, showing that this tooth may 
sometimes be present, although its usual absence is one of the chief reasons for 
elevating the group to generic rank. The skull measures: condylobasal length 
105.5 mm., basal length 100, zygomatic width 61, mastoid width 41.3, upper 
cheek teeth 39.8, across molars 37.5. 
Miller has recorded as H. galera a skull from Mount Coffee. 
