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Show 60 MR. O. THOMAS ON T H E [Jan. 3, his general arrangement of the group seems to be a very natural one, and has, in its main outlines, been followed here. With regard to the genera treated of, I have only taken those found actually on the continent of Africa, and have therefore not included the aberrant forms Galidia, Galidictis, and Eupleres1, which are only found in Madagascar, and of which the species present but little difficulty, so that there is no need for any special revision of them2. On the'other hand, none of the true Mungooses are indigenous to Madagascar, though one or two of them have been recorded from there; but these would seem either to have been introduced, or the correctness of their locality to have been very doubtful. It must be remembered that the artificial introduction of animals of this group is by no means unlikely, as Mungooses are constantly tamed by the natives, and would thus easily be carried by them from one place to another 3. Iu preparing this paper I have had the advantage of examining the collections, each possessing many typical specimens, contained in the Berlin, Leyden, and Frankfort Museums, in addition to the large series in our own national collection. I have thus seen nearly 250 African Mungooses, including the types of the species described by Gray, Peters, Riippell, Temminck, Smith, and others, the names of these species being marked with asterisks in the synonymy below. All together, of the seventy-five good and bad species described, I have examined the types of thirty-one, the greater part of the remainder being species named either from rough travellers' descriptions, from previously published figures, or else merely in alteration of earlier names. I must here thank Prof. Peters of Berlin, and Prof. Schlegel and Dr. Jentink of Leyden for the facilities they have afforded me of seeing the specimens under their charge, and Prof. Milne-Edwards for much useful information with respect to the typical specimens contained in the Paris Museum. Before commencing the detailed review of the species, I think it will be useful to make a few remarks concerning the characters which should be especially attended to by any one wishing to name an African specimen of this group. In the first place, I would call attention to the variation to be observed in the coloration of certain species : thus in Herpestes gracilis, the three varieties are extraordinarily different in their general colour, while the plan of coloration and all other characters are precisely identical ; these different colours moreover are not strictly confined 1 These genera all diifer from the continental Mungooses in not possessing an alisphenoid canal, a character present in all those treated of here. 8 Dr. Jentink has recently worked out the species of the genus Galidia (Notes Leyd. Mus. i. p. 131, 187i»). '' The only true Mungoose collected without doubt in Madagascar, that I know of, is a young individual of Crossarchus fasciatus, obtained by Van Dam, and now in the Leyden Museum. Prof. Milne-Edwards informs m e that, in his opinion, " Le Vansire"( Herpestes galera), usually said to have originally come from Madagascar,, was certainly not obtained there, no other collectors having met with it in that island since. |