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Show MR. BLANFORD ON NEW MAMMALS FROM SIND. [Nov. 17, cent at the base, and the remaining portion composed of short alternating rings of white and ferruginous, there being sometimes as many as six alternations in each hair, the extreme tips being ferruginous. On the lower parts the colour is a little paler, and the rings on the hairs are less distinct; upper portions of the feet rather darker red, soles of feet and lower part of tarsus bare. The hair on the tail is long ; and the white rings on the hairs gradually disappear backwards, the tip being entirely red. Dimensions (from a dried skin and, in consequence, only approximate), head and body 15 inches; tail (vertebrae not preserved) to end of hairs the same. The hairs on the hinder part of the back are fully If inch long. Tarsus and hind foot to end of claws 2-8 in. In general form this Mungoose closely resembles H. griseus*', Geoffr., so much so that I was at first doubtful whether it was more than a rufous variety of it. But not only is the colour very distinct, but the skull shows some important differences. The orbit is incomplete behind ; this is certainly the case in the young of H. griseus, but not to the same extent as in H. ferrugineus. The nasal bones are longer in H. griseus, their posterior termination being behind a line connecting the anterior edges of the orbits in the skull, whereas in the new species the nasals terminate posteriorly in front of the same line. The breadth across the frontal region immediately behind the postorbital processes is considerably less in H. griseus, and the auditory bullae are differently shaped. The skull, extracted from the skin of H. ferrugineus, measures :- inches. Length from upper "edge of foramen magnum to anterior termination of intermaxillary bone 2*7 Left nasal bones along the suture between them .. 0-54 Breadth across widest part of zygomatic arches .. 1-38 Breadth of frontal region where narrowest (behind postorbital processes) 0*62 Length of lower jaw from the angle to the anterior alveolar margin 1 *85 But a single specimen of this interesting new form has been obtained. H. PERSICUS, Gray, P. Z. S. 1854, p. 554; Cat. Cam. &c. Mamm. Brit. M u s . 1869, p. 151. Brownish grey above, very minutely intermixed with greyish white ; brCwnish white, almost isabelline, below. Fur rather soft; hairs rather short, being rather more than half an inch long in the middle of the back, blackish at the extreme base, then very light brown for some distance, followed by a dark brown, and this again by a pale whitish ring, the extreme tip of each hair being dark brown. All the hairs of the tail are particoloured and ringed ; there is no tip of any uniform colour. * It appears highly probable that this is Viverra ichneumon, var. j3, of Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 63; Viverra mungo, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 84. |
