subterminal and basal yellow bands are broad, especially the latter, while the
blackish band diminishes in size as it is traced backwards, so tha t th e tail is a dirty
rufous-yellow. The ears are clothed with short, finely-speckled hairs. The tarsus
of this species is completely clad in its upper two-thirds, but the inner portion of
the lower half oyer the metatarsus is bare. In H. brachyurus the tarsus has much
the same character, whilst in S . vitticollis i t is wholly nude on its under surface,
as in 3 . pallidus. The claws are moderately developed.
Inches,
Length of head and trunk 17-30
■ „ of tail without hair. . • . ■ • • . . 10‘50
„ ,, with hair . . 11’70
The skull of this species is distinguished by its short, rather broad muzzle,
and by apparently an imperfect orbit, as all the sutures are lost, and yet the
two processes are far apart. The nasal portion of the palate is rather short and
moderately broad, considerably less so than in 3 . urva. The post-orbital contraction
is well marked. The ridges from the orbital processes of the frontal are separate to
the middle of the parietals, but form two prominent lines.
Habitat.—Borneo,
MUSTELIDÆ.
Genus H e l i c t i s , Gray.
* H e l ic t i s m o s c h a t a , Gray.
Helictis moschata, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 94, et ibid, 1865, p. 158; Cat. Mamm. Carniv.
&c., B. M. 1869, p. 148 (in part) ; Schinz, Syn. Mamm. 1844, vol. i. p. 828.
Mekgale personata, Is. Geoff. Zool. Voy. de Bélanger, 1884, p. 187, pl. v. ; Bkinv. Ostéog-r. G
Mustek., pi. xiii.
At Teng-yue-chow in Yunnan, a t an elevation of 6,000 feet, I obtained a
wolverine which X refer to this species, and to which the Tormosau form B .
mbmnmtiaca, Swinhoe, is very closely allied.' Two other species have been
described, viz., H. orienialie, Horsfd. ( = B . fm ca , Is. Geoff. St.-Hil.1), and B .
nipalensis, Hodg. They have all a strong resemblance to each other’ in their
external characters, all of them being distinguished by certain head-markings
which are wonderfully persistent in the different species, although they are,
a t the same time, the subjects of modifications which, however, are not merely
distinctive of the species, but involve subordinate variations in the individuals composing
them, the tendency being either for th e white head-markings to become
intensified by extension, or obliterated by the encroachment of the general colour
of the fur, the general plan, however, of their distribution being adhered to
in all.
I f no other characters than those yielded by these modifications of the external
colour of the animals had existed for discriminating the species, I would not have
hesitated to regard them all as only local varieties of a common specific type, but
this apparent similarity masks certain osteological differences which clearly indicate
th a t the divergence from the original stock from which these animals have sprung has
been in a two-fold direction, if one or other of them is not the existing representative
of the peculiar features of the primitive stock. Reliable characters for distinguishing
the species are only yielded by the skulls, and they have been brought prominently
forward by Dr. Gray.2 The skulls belong to different types, the first
distinguished by its shortness, large teeth, short palate, and the small, rounded
character of its infra-orbital foramen = JET. orientalis ; th e second by its greater
length, long palate, large teeth, and small infra-orbital foramen = 3 . nipalensis;
and the third by its long skull and palate, small teeth, and large infra-orbital foramen
= 3 . moschata. But another species has been recognised, the 3 . subaurantiaca,
Swinhoe, described from Formosa. Swinhoe8 was under the impression, judging from
external characters, that this insular form displayed stronger affinities towards the
Himalayan H. nipalensis, Hodg., than to the neighbouring continental H. moschata,
Gray, but the consideration of the characters of the skull conclusively proves
1 Guerin. Mag. 1835, pi. xvi.
8 Cat. Carniv. Mamm. B. M. 1869, p. 141.
3 Proc. Zool, Soc. Lond. 1862, p. 349, et ibid, p. 355, pi. xliv.
A 2