ze, and there
is a slight difference in the dentition.

_GENUS HELICTIS_.

"Head tapering; nose acute, conical; muzzle bald, obliquely
truncated; other side hairy, with a central groove; nostrils
inferior; ears ovate; body slender; legs short; toes 5.5; front claws
elongate, curved; hinder short and acute; sole of foot hairy behind,
bald in front, and rhombic for half the length of the foot, with three
large oblong pads on the front, and three small ones on the hinder
edge; toes elongate; thumb short; fur black, like _Herpestes_; tail
moderate, sub-cylindrical; teeth, 38; premolars, 4--4/4--4;
grinders, 5/6."--Gray.

There are four species of this genus, and of these two come within
the geographical limits of these papers, viz., _Helictis Nipalensis_
and _H. moschata_; the third, _H. orientalis_, belongs to Java; and
the fourth, _H. subaurantiaca_, to Formosa.

NO. 175. HELICTIS NIPALENSIS.
_The Nepal Wolverene_ (_Jerdon's No. 95_).

NATIVE NAME.--_Oker_, Nepalese; _Kyoung-pyan_, Arakanese.

HABITAT.--Nepal, Arakan, and Pegu.

DESCRIPTION.--Hodgson, who first described this animal in the
'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Beng.' (vol. v. pp. 237-38), says:
"Above earthy brown; below, with the edge of the upper lip, the
insides of the limbs, and terminal half of the tail, yellow; a white
mesial stroke from the nape to the hips, and a white band across the
forehead, spreading on the cheeks, and confluent with the pale colour
of the animal's lower surface; head and body vermi-formed; digits
and nails of the anterior extremities stronger; half way from the
os calcis to the fingers hairy; fur of two sorts and abundant, but
not lengthened, nor harsh, nor annulated; tail cylindrico-tapered,
pointed, half the length of the animal." He goes on to add: "The
anterior limbs are decidedly fossorial, and the hinder suited for
walking in a sub-plantigrade manner; both wholly unfitted for
rapatory or scansorial purposes."

SIZE.--Head and body 16 inches; tail 7-1/2 inches, 9 inches,
including hair.

The habits of this animal are nocturnal. Swinhoe mentions this in
his account of the Formosan species, and Dr. Anderson relates that
he is aware that the Nepal one is similar in its ways, and that it
not unfrequently enters Bhotia huts at night; and on one occasion
he killed one in a Bhotia hut, thinking it was a large rat, greatly
to the chagrin of his host, who informed him that the animal was in
the habit of visiting hi