NOTES AND QUERIES.
MAMMALIA.
CARNIVORA.
Habitat of the Thick-tailed Mungoose (Cynictis penicillata).—According to the 'Royal Natural History' the Thick-tailed Mungoose inhabits the Cape Colony. Nothing is said about other parts of South Africa. As far as my own personal experience goes, C. penicillata also inhabits both the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. I have often seen and shot the animals on the Free State flats some miles north of Bloemfontein. Some time back I shot two examples of the same species about twenty miles north of Johannesburg, in the Transvaal. They are somewhat difficult to shoot, but, being spurred into a great desire of obtaining one for identification by the statement in the 'Royal Natural History,' I finally managed to shoot the two individuals above mentioned. I have their skins before me now. The one is of a brilliant orange drab on the back, fading into light yellowish grey on the flanks and under parts. The fur is finely speckled owing to the hairs being ringed with alternate black and amber-brown. The tips of the hairs are amber, and the roots white. The other example is of a greyish yellow colour, much lighter than the former. The fore feet of both have five toes, and the hinder ones only four. The tail is bushy, and has a white tip. There can be no doubt as to their identity. The question is, How far north do they extend? That I cannot say as yet.—Alwin C. Haagner (Dynamite Factory, P.O. Modderfontein, Transvaal, South Africa).
[I procured a specimen of the Meer-Kat (Cynictis penicillata) near Pretoria in 1890, and recorded the same in my 'Naturalist in the Transvaal,' p. 159 (1892). This specimen I placed in the British Museum, which, Mr. W.E. de Winton informs me, is "still the only specimen we have with locality north of the Colony."—Ed.]
White Stoat.—In the last issue of 'The Zoologist' (ante, p. 131), I observe the record of a white Stoat (Mustela erminea) from the North of England. About the 21st of November last I received a similar specimen from West Somersetshire (near Watchet), and, considering the mildness of the weather at that time, I was surprised at its appearance. It was pure white, except some regular light brown markings over each eye, looking
