HERPESTIDÆ.
Genus H e r p e s t e s , Illiger.
The Mungooses of India, Ceylon, Burma, Malaya, and Cochin China, and the
Islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, are all referable,to this genus, the members
of which, in these parts of Eastern Asia, differ among themselves much in the same
way as the Eastern Asiatic squirrels. Eleven of the species have annulated fur
without any special markings on either the shoulder, sides, or belly, while three
species are distinguished by neck markings, and another by uniformly coloured,
unpunctulated fur. The first of these sections is the parallel of the grizzled,
unlineated squirrels, such as S. lohriah; the second, the equivalent of the
lineated group illustrated by such forms as S. macclellandi and R . plantani ; and
the third may be said to conform to the type of colouring which is distinctive of
S. ferrugineus. As in the squirrels, so in the Rerpestes} the presence or absence
of lineation carries with it no generic difference of skull, skeleton or teeth : all the
characters yielded by their structures contribute to prove that the following species
are closely allied to each other in the following sequence, viz., R . av/ropu/nctatus,
R . persicus, R . smithi, R . maccarthioe, R . pallidus, R . ferrugineus, R . jerdoni
R . fuscus, R . javanicus, R . brachyurus, R. vitticollis, R . urva, and IT. semitor-
quatus. The last mentioned appears to be most closely allied to the African forms
R . badius and R. melcmurus. I have not examined the skull of R . Javanicus, but
the skulls of all the others have passed under my observation, and I am enabled
to speak with some confidence, as I have examined not only the slm lla of the
types of the different Asiatic genera, to which these species have been referred,
but also the specimens which yielded the external characters, besides thé skeletons
of the three forms which have been referred to Calogale, Onychogale, and Calictis,
and all of which are preserved in the British Museum.
With regard to the external characters of these species, they all carry their
lithe and vermiform bodies low, and are very quick in their movements. The fur,
with one exception, is annulated by different shades of yellow and brown, the
alternate rings varying from four to twelve in number. The skin is more or less
thickly clad on the body and neck, with a fine, silky almost woolly under-pile,
generally of two colours, and among which are interspersed the numerous, long,
annulated hairs, which effectually conceal it. The tail is either pencilled or unpencilled,
and in the former case, the base, which is always thick and muscular, is clad
with long hairs which slightly shorten as the terminal pencil of hairs is reached, the
latter being as long, or longer, than the basal hairs, whereas in the unpencilled tails the
hair also is long at the base, longer in some (R. pallidus) than others (R. auropunc-
tatus), and becomes gradually shorter towards the tip, which in all is well clad. The
tail also is much longer in some species than others, equalling little more than hqlf
the length of the body and head in one (R. brachyurus), while in another (R . pallidus)
with the hair, it nearly equals the length of the trunk and head. All
the species hare short, rounded ears; the head.rather long, and' the nose nude
and prominent, and marked by a TOrtical groove that runs to the upper lip. The
egs are rather short, and in all the species they are provided with five claws on each
foot The claws are of. variable strength, and they never present any marked modification
on the common type, which is that of a fossorial claw. Any departure
rom the normal type that has been hitherto observed seems to have been entirely
due to disuse, the result of the animal having; been kept in confinement; ’ The
tarsus in its mesial hue may either be wholly nude to the heel, or partially clad;
but this character taken alone, is an unreliable guide to specific affinity, because
two such widely different spedes as S . auropwnotatus and S . mtticom agree in
M W“ e H 31116(1 8Peoies- oy tnis character of their tarsus. M and S . fmcm, are separated
■ In all the spedes already named, there are 40 teeth; any apparent exception to
the rule being satisfactorily explained as aresult of age. The dental formula of the
milk.teeth *=32, and of the permanent teeth' { u n i s z= « z= 4o
and the. description -of the teeth of one spedes will suffice a g eneil idel
of' the dental characters of the genus.
• “ ° nUddle Pair °f UppCT “ oisors 818 considerably smaller than the external
pair. The upper half of the crown of these teeth, posteriorly, is concave from above
downwards, the tip of the crown being laterally rounded. The margin 1 . « . ^ this
concavity from the basal portion of the crown shows a distinct tendency to form two
rounded cusps. The posterior, concave surface of the crown of the second incisor is
placed obliquely ; and at the inner margin of the base, or upper end of the concavity
there is a somewhat promment, mammillary cusp. The canines are well developed
and do not present any special characters. The first premolar is the smallest and
shortest tooth of its kind, and is somewhat laterally compressed, the bape of the crown
iorming ai slight protuberance posteriorly, which is more developed in some species
than m others. The second and third premolars are about the same size, and both
have the triangular, pointed crown- laterally compressed, with a sharp anterior and
posterior border; the cingulum of the second premolar forms a -slight ridge at the
base of the antenor border and a more prominent cusp-like eminence at the base of
the posterior margin, these portions of the cingulum being more developed in the
third premolar which is distinguished from the second by the cingulum a promment
projection, on the inner aspect -of the base of the crown, over the most external
fang The fourth premolar is the largest of all the teeth, and is oidy an intensified
development of the characters presented by its immédiate predecessor. In this tooth
the inner prominence of the cingulum has become converted into a triangular cusp
placed nearly on a line with the anterior margin of the tooth, and the cusp at ’the
posterior aspeot of the base of the crown constitutes an oblique, elongated, somewhat
bitubercular ridge, whilst the-cingulum at the anterior border of the tooth forms
a prominent ridge, the triangular central crown-of the tooth being broad-antero-
postenorly and situated between the inner and posterior cusps. There is. a large
vacant space internally, between- the last premolar and the first molar, -for the