H e k p e s t e s s m i t h h , Gray. Plate VIII, fig s . 5 & 6 .
Herpestes smibhii, Gray (Charlesworth), Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. it New Series, 1887, p. 578; Proc.
Zool. Soc. Lond. 1851, p. 181, pi. xxx.; Temm. Esquisses Zool. pt. i. 1858, p. 97; Blyth, Cat.
Mamin. As. Soc. Mus. Beng. 1868, p. 50; Jerdon, Mamm. India, 1867, p. 185.
Orossarchus rubiginosus, Wagner, Schreber, Saugeth. Suppl. ii. 1841, p. 829; Scbinz, Syn. Mamm.
1844, vol. i. p. 378.
Herpesies ellioti, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1851, vol. xx. p. 162 (foot-note).
Herpestes rubiginosus, Kelaart, Prod. Fauna, Zeylan. 1852, p. 48; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng.
vol. xx. 1851, p. 182; vol. xxi. 1852, p. 849.
Calictis smit/iii, Gray,Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1862, p. 565; Cat. Carniv. Mamm. Brit. Mus. 1867, p. 162.
This species appears to be peculiar to Ceylon, and the type is in the British
Museum, London.
I t is a long-haired Mungoose, with well-grizzled fur, somewhat after the
fashion of H. pallidus, Wagner, and S . jerdonii, Gray, but the colour is very much
darker and richer. Unlike the former, it has a long black tip to its tail, but in
this respect it resembles the latter species, which is pale compared with it and
slightly darker than JET. pallidus. The insular form differs from these more essentially
continental species in its rich, ferruginous, and dense fur, and in its relatively
larger and heavier head. The woolly underlying pile is pale-brownish. There are from
four to five dark-brown, almost black, bands on each of the hairs of the visible fur,
and the apical band is brown at its tip, but near its base it passes into a deep orange
or rich rufous, and the succeeding dark bands have more or less of this tint at
each of their ends. The dark-brown rings are separated from each other by a
narrow, pale-yellowish band, and there are from four to five of these. To the two-fold
coloured, apical rings and to these yellow bands is due the speckled character of
the fur. The orange or rich rufous is especially well developed on the nape of the
neck, so that wken the head of the animal is thrown upwards a kind of rufous
collar is produced. The fine hairs around the eye and in front of it to the nose are
rich rufous, and the head generally has a rufous tint, and the grizzling is very fine.
The whiskers are black. The ears at their upper thirds, externally, are clad with a
patch of short grizzled hairs like those on the sides of the face, while below this the
hairs are uniformly pale-rufous and extremely short. The feet are unspeckled and
dark-brown. The chin is very finely speckled, and the chest more coarsely so. The
claws are moderately developed, and the tarsus, in its centre line, is nude to the heel.
The tail for about two-thirds of its length is concolorous with the body, but as its black
latter third is reached the rufous is more marked. At its base it is clad with long hairs,
but the hairs become shorter as the black end is approached, the hairs of which, however,
are longer than those immediately preceding them. On the middle of the sides
of the body the fur is about 1 '7 5 inch long, and at the base of the tail it is 2 inches
and near its end 1 '5 0 inch, while the black hairs of the tip are 2 '7 5 inches long.
Inohes.. ;
Length from tip of muzzle to root of t a i l ..................................................... 14-50
» of tail . . . . . . . . ■ . • . . 14-50
The skull of H. amithvi is closely allied to those of S . palUdm, S . jerdonii
a n dM. maccarthia, but it differs from the first in its wider brain-case and th^
slightly greater width between the orbite and the longer alveolar border; but the
most marked features are the basal.breadth of the skull and the character of the
palatal margin of the posterior nares, which is concave from behind forwards, and not
marked by any median ridge or backwardly projecting spine, as sometimes occurs
in M. pallidus. The hinder portion of the suture pf the nasals and the whole
of the premaxillary suture have disappeared. The orbit is entire. The skull is
large for the dimensions of the animal. The last lower molar has two prominent
antenor cusps, with the margin of the posterior division of the tooth somewhat
divided.
The skeleton of the type of this species is in the British Museum, and having
carefully examined it, I am in a position to state that I f in no way differs genetically
from the skeletons of Herpeatea cmropwnctatua and M. moccwrthice. A
rudimentary, hypapophysial ridge is developed on the cervical vertebrae, becoming
very obscure on the last segment, hut in the fifth the posterior nodular end is
partially bifid. The spinous processes of the dorsal vertebrae are long and strongly
developed. On the transverse process of the sixth dorsal a small tubercle is developed,
which gradually becomes transferred to the back of the process and nearer
to its root, so that on the eleventh vertebra it occupies the position of an anapo-
physis. I t is distinctly bifurcated on the twelfth, and is a true -anapophysis on
the thirteenth vertebra, whilst it suddenly disappears on the fifth lumbar. Mammillary
processes begin to show themselves on the eleventh dorsal segment. There
are in all 26 ribs, and the vertebral formula is 0. 7, D. 13, L. 7, S. 3, 0. 29=59
The primary transverse prooesses of the caudal vertebrae are strongly developed to
the seventh, beyond which they become more and more transferred to the hinder
extremity of the centrum, and are all but lost on the twelfth segment. The
secondary transverse prooesses begin to develope, as in all Serpeatea, on the anterior
border of the primary transverse processes, and on the part of the centrum immediately
in front of them, and gradually more forwards, at last occupying the anterior
portion of the centrum, and disappearing after the primary transverse processes
have been lost. The spinous or neural ridge exists as far backwards as the tenth
caudal vertebra, but, beyond that, it becomes reduced to a posterior eminence on
the bodies as far as the seventeenth segment. The remains of the zygapophyses
and metapophyses can be detected as far as the twenty-first segment of the tail.
The caudal bodies increase in length to the fourteenth vertebra, beyond which
they more quickly diminish in diameter than in length, Chevron bones begin as
a pair of nodules on the second vertebra, but, between the third and fourth,
they are developed into an osseous canal, and retain this character to the ninth
vertebra, where they are again resolved into two pieces-and gradually revert to
their original, nodular character. The shoulder and pelvic girdles conform essentially
to the structure of these parts in Serpeatea, as also the limb bones and the
sternum.