“ fulvous iron-grey,” many of tlie hairs being white-tipped, those on the tail so much
so that the last half is nearly white. The chest and legs are vinous-brown, the chin
is white, and the throat greyish, the belly being greyish-yellow and concolorous with
the sides. The top of the head is pale greyish-brown, finely white-speckled, and the
muzzle is pale-yellowish. A white area runs along the upper lip and expands
over the face behind the eye, but below its level, and stretches backwards to
the ear, below and behind which it becomes defined into a pure white band that
reaches along the side of the neck, nearly to the shoulder. It is the equivalent of the
black band in the same region in 3 . vitticollis. The ears are finely clad with very
short, greyish hairs, and there is a pencil of hair external to and within their upper
angles as in many other Herpestes: The claws are moderately developed, and not
quite so much compressed as in some other Asiatic Herpestes. The upper two-
thirds of the tarsus, as in H. fuscus and 3 . semitorquatus, are thickly clad with
hair.
The fur on the sides is 2-70 long, and on the base of tiie 3-50 inches. The
underlying pile is very fine and woolly, and about T20 long, the lower portion
of it being pale purplish-brown, and the tip pale-yellowish. I t is rather profuse.
The long hairs have generally five broad bands, the terminal band being pure
white, below which there is a very broad, brown band, equalling more than one-third
the length of the hair, followed by a white band of nearly similar width, after which
there is a narrower brown and then a basal white band. On the tail hairs, there are
generally seven bands, but, near the end, there are only three, consisting of a broad
white band at each extremity of the hairs with a narrow, pale, intervening brown
band, the basal band having more or less rufous about it.
Inches.
Length of head and t r u n k ............................................. . . 18*0 „ of tail without hair . . . . . . . . . 10*80 ,, „ with hair . . . . . . .. ■ . . 12*50
The skull and muzzle are narrower and more elongated than in 3 . semitorquatus.
The skull differs from those of 3 . vitticollis, 3 . pallidus, 3 . srnithU, and
3 . jerdonii in the concave character of the upper surface of the muzzle, and in this
respect it resembles 3 . semitorquatus. The post-orbital contraction is less marked
than in these species, and the brain-case is broader and does not contract to the
same extent posteriorly, in front of the lambdoidal ridge, as in 3 . pallidus, 3 . mac-
carthice, 3 . smithw, and 3 . jerdonii, and in these particulars it is resembled by
3 . vitticollis, 3 . brachyv/rus, and 3 . semitorquatus. The orbit in the skull of
Hodgson’s type in the British Museum is imperfect, but the sutures are all intact
and the post-orbital processes are well developed, so that it appears probable that
the orbit is closed in adult life. The leading features of the under surface of the
skull are the shortness of the nasal portion of the palate, and its comparatively
great breadth, which equals the transverse diameter of the foramen magmm. The
palatal border of the posterior nares is arched. The last lower molar is quadricus-
pidate, with three external cusps and one internal cusp.
Hodgson1 desoribes, on either side of the root of the tail, a “ round, hollow,
smooth-lined gland secreting an aqueous, fcetid humour which the animal squirts out
posteally («¿) with great force.” This species ranges from Nepal along the Himalayas
to Assam, through Arracan and Burma to Tenasserim, and extends into the
south of China, Swinhoe haring obtained it from the Holden hills, near Amoy, and
there is an example in the Paris Museum from Kiangse. Its habits hare been
said to be somewhat aquatic, but they do not appear to be more so than those of
S . cmropmtctatm, which is generally found on the banks of rivers and tanks, where
doubtless its food is much the same as that of this so-called orub-eating Mungoose.
Herpestes semitobquatus, Gray. Plate IX, figs. 1 & 2.
Herpestes semitorguatus, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nit. Hist. 1846, vol. iviii. p. 211 ; Voy. of Sifnarane
Zool. 1860, p. 16, pi. rii.; Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1864, p. 666; Cat. Camiv. Manim. 1869’
p. 153. 3
This species is easily distinguished by the pale area along the side of thè neck,
from whence it derives its specific name.
The general colour of the animal is a rich orange-brown, most intensely rufous
on the sides of the body, the back and upper parts of the side being finely marked
with yellow, which becomes very indistinct on the shoulders and outside of the
thighs; the fore legs and the lower half of the hind legs are dark purplish-brown.
The lower half of the sides of the neck from the extremity of the muzzle backwards
below the ear to the front of the shoulder, is a rufous-yellow and clearly marked
off from the colour of the upper part of the neck, which is dark rufous-brown and
punctulated, while the underlying neck-band is not, and the rufous tint of which
increases from before backwards.
The upper surface of the head is finely punctulated, and is much less rufous
.than the dorsal surface. The chest and belly are rich rusty-brown without any
trace of annulation, and are of the same colour as the sides. The tail is not tufted
and is about two-thirds the length of the body. I t is much grilled as the hairs
have long pale-yellow tips succeeding their black sub-apical bands. The tip is concolorous
with the pale ends to the hairs, the black bands having disappeared The
claws are moderately strong. The basal pile is rather profuse, pale yellowish-brown
at its base and orange-yellow towards its tip. The apices of the hairs on the sides
are broadly rich orange-red succeeded by a narrower brown band not very distinct
from the former, while the basal portion of the hair is pale-brownish or yellow. On
these parts, the hairs are about one inch long. On the back, where the yellow
banding is^ more distinct, the hairs are about the same length as the former. Here
they terminate in a narrow, brown tip succeeded by a yellow band followed by a
very broad, dark-brown, almost blackish band which embraces about one-half the
length of each hair, the base of which is yellow. The hairs below the root of the
tail are only 1*30 to 1*50 long, and have the same colour as the preceding, only the
■ I *