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Show 74 MR. O. THOMAS ON THE [Jail. 3, and on the banks of the smaller rivers of the extreme south of Africa ; its principal food consists of frogs, crustaceans, &c." 6. HERPESTES PULVERULENTUS. H. pulverulentus,Wagn. Munch. Gel. Anzeig. ix. p. 426 (1839). *H. apiculatus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 551 (1864). Hab. Eastern half of the Cape colony. Size rather small, form somewhat stout. Tail about as long as the body without the head. Soles of hind feet hairy below calcanea ; the rest naked, at least in the centre. Fur rather long, soft, and shining. General colour uniform grizzled grey, the longer hairs annulated with equal-sized rings of black and white or yellow. Underfur brown for its proximal, and grey for its distal half. Tail-hairs long, coloured like the body to the'extreme tip. Feet slightly darker than the body. Skull very like that of H. gracilis, though somewhat stouter and the teeth heavier. Last molar less than half the length of the last premolar (43-44 per cent.). Dimensions. Head and body. Tail. Hind foot. a. S. Africa! Co-types of II. api- f 14*0 b. „ J culatus, Gr \ 14*0 c. „ 15*0 Skulls. Palate- Length. Breadth, length. fl. Kingwilliamstown (Trevelyan) .. c. 2*7 1*39 1*38 b. S. Africa .... c. 2*65 1*33 1*35 11*5 2*4 11*3 26 11*4 2*3 10*0 2*4 Inc. to Basi- Palate- cross cranial breadth. line. axis. •89 *95 - •88 *95 - This Mungoose reminds one somewhat of a small H. caffer, the colour and character of its fur being very similar, though it has not, of course, the long black tail-tip of that species. Its range seems to be rather limited, as all the specimens with exact localities that I have seen are from the eastern half of the Cape colony (Algoa Bay, Kingwilliamstown, Caffirland, Natal, &c). It is naturally very likely that it will yet be found further north than Natal ; but it is not probable that it will occur in any number, if at all, in the western districts of the colony, or it would surely have been recorded from there before this. I have not been able to find any mention of the habits of this species. 7. HERPESTES PUNCTATISSIMUS. *H. punctatissimus, Temm. Esq. Zool. Gum. p. 108 (1853). Hab. West and South Africa (Gaboon, Algoa Bay, Temm.). I have only seen a single specimen of this species, one of the types |