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Show 250 DR. 0. I. FORSYTH MAJOR O N [Mar. 19, one or more other forms, quite certainly to one other species ; and this has been going on to the present day', although A. Waguer, Schlegel, and P. L. Sclater had, in succession, arrived at the truth. Sclater, moreover, was the first to point out that, as in some other species of the genus, the sexes have a different coloration in the true L. mongoz. To begin with the description of " The Mongooz " by G. Edwards. " The Mongooz is less than a small cat. This was a female.- The head of this animal is shaped much like that of a fox, and is wholly covered with hair : the eyes are black, with orange-coloured irides, or circles round the eyes: the hair is black and joins between the eyes, tending downwards in a point toward the nose, which is also black; but there is a space between the eyes and nose purely white, which reaches under the eyes, on the sides of the head. The upper part of the head, neck, back, tail, and limbs is of a dark-brownish ash-colour, the hair being something woolly ; the underside of the body is white . . . . ; all the paws are covered with short hair of a light ash-colour ; the tail is long, the hair is pretty thick and soft, and appears to have a mixture of lighter and darker parts all over the body."' That E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's Lemur albimanus is a synonym of L. mongoz was not recognized at the time, because the species was founded apparently upon a male specimen, as results from the description of the coloration 2. Possibly for the same reason Fr. Cuvier's excellent description of the " Mongous cVAnjouan" has been generally overlooked :- " J'ai eu en menae temps deux males et deux femelles de Mongous, auxquels la description que je viens de donner convenait egalement sous tous les rapports. Mais j'ai posse'dc uu male qui avait avec ees animaux la plus grande ressemblance, et qui en differait cependant par quelques points assez remarquables pour que je croie devoir le faire connaitre ici. " Ce Maki avait ete emmene d'Anjouan .... II ctait male et tres-adulte, toutes les parties supcrieures de son corps, et le sommet de la tote lui-meme, etaient d'un gris jaunatre, resultant de poils alternativement colores sur leur longueur, de gris sale et de noir; ce gris etait plus pur sur les jambes de devant, et sur les cote's 1 Cf. e.g. A. Milne-Edwards and E. Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. d'Hist. Nat. (2) x. p. 22 (1888).-A. Grandidier et A. Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat, des Mammiferes (Hist.. . . de Madagascar, ed. A. Grandidier), v. Atlas ii. pis. 133- 153 (1890).-F. A. Jentink, Mus. d'Hist, Nat des Pays-Bas, xi. Cat. Syst. des Mammiferes, pp. 68-72 (1892).-H. O. Forbes, A Handbook to the Primates, i. pp. 71-73 (1894). -Trouessart, Catal. M a m m . tam viv. quam foss. i. p. 57 (1898-99). 2 " Pelage gris-brun en dessus : poils d'un roux cannelle sur les cotes du cou : poitrine blanche: ventre roussiitre : mains blanches " (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Tableau des Quadrumanes, Ann. Mus. d'Hist. Nat. xix. p. 160, 1812).-" Gris en dessus avec la gorge et la poitrine blanches, le ventre roussatre; fraise d'un roux cannelle se prolongeant superieurement assez pour entourer l'oreille. Oe dernier caractere distingue mieux l'espece que la couleur des mains, qui sont blanchatres ou d'un fauve sale " (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Catalogue m6tho-dique, p. 72. 1851). |