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Show 1882.] AFRICAN MUNGOOSES. 75 obtained by Dr. Brehm at Algoa Bay, and now preserved in the Leyden Museum. Temminck, in his original description, mentions another specimen, from the Gaboon ; but I am told by Dr. Jentink that this is not now in the Leyden Museum. The following is a description of the Algoa-Bay specimen :- Fur short and harsh, the hairs on the back barely half an inch long. General colour all over pale grey, the hairs finely grizzled with black and creamy white ; belly like the back, except that the hairs have longer pale tips and less black. Tail-hairs rather longer than those on the body, uniformly annulated with black and white ; no trace of a darker tail-tip. Feet and legs like the body ; soles naked. Dimensiotis (Algoa Bay). Head and body ,.. 13*0' Tail 10*2 Hind foot 1*75 The skull is so imperfect that the only measurements obtainable are the following, which Dr. Jentink has kindly taken for m e :- Palate-breadth 0*74 Incisors to cross line 083 This small species bears a certain resemblance to some of the smaller Indian Mungooses, especially II. auropunctatus, Hodgs., though it has much shorter fur than that species. It appears to be very rare, as there seem to have been no specimens recorded in addition to the two mentioned by Temminck, of which, as mentioned above, only one is now in the Leyden Museum. I may here mention that an examination of the type of H. microcephalia, Temm.", a species of which the locality was not known, has convinced m e that that name must stand as a synonym of H. auropunctatus, the specimen being quite similar to the types of Hodgson's species preserved in the British Museum. 8. HERPESTES (ICHNEUMIA) ALBICAUDA. H. albicaudus, G. Cuv. Regne Anim. ed. 2, i. p. 158 (1829). *H. leucurus, Ehrenb. Symb. Phys. pl. 12. Decas 2 (1830). Ichneumia albescens, T. Geoff. Mag. Zool. 1839, pp. 16 & 35 (description, not figure) (1839). *H. loempo, Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 93 (1853). Ichneumia nigricauda, Puch. Rev. et Mag. Zool. vii. p. 394 (1855). IBdeogale nigripes, Puch. t. cit. p. 111 (1855). *II.pluto, Gray, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 552 (nee Temm.) (1864). Ichneumia abu-wudan, Fitz. & Heugl. Sitzungsb. Ak. Wien, liv. Abth. 1, p. 561 (1866). Hab. East Abyssinia to Natal, and West Africa (Guinea & c ) . Size large, form rather slender. Tail bushy, rather shorter than 1 Apparently somewhat stretched. 2 Esq. Zool. Gnin. p. 113 (1853). |