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Show 236 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON ANIMALS IN THE MENAGERIE. [Mar. 7, 20. ATHERURA FASCICULATA (Shaw); Waterhouse, Mamm. ii. p. 470. On the 18th of September, 1867, we obtained, by purchase, of the Jardin d'Acclimatation of Paris, a single specimen of this species, said to have been received from Saigon. On the 14th of March last Dr. Jerdon brought home with him an example of the same species from Cherra Punji on the Khasya hills, and presented it to the Society. This specimen is now living in the "Small-Mammal House," in company with two of its African allies (A. africana), and serves to prove how very closely these two species resemble each other externally. They are very nearly of the same size and form, and much alike in general appearance. But A. fasciculata has the long spines of the back terminated with white, and is generally brighter in colour. Likewise the spines on the flanks and lower belly round the anus are tipped with white. In A. africana they are black, but whitish at their bases. 21. PHACOCHOZRUS yELIANI. Phacochcerus sclateri oi Dr. Gray (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4. vol. vi. p. 190) was founded upon the female ./Elian's Wart-hog (Phacochcerus eeliani) now living in the Society's Gardens, apparently because the drawing of the head of this animal given in m y notice of its arrival (P. Z. S. 1869, p. 276) does not quite agree with Riippell's figure in his 'Zoological Atlas,' tab. 25. Dr. Gray became subsequently of opinion that this specimen might even be a Sus (op. cit. p. 263). I replied to these remarks in a subsequent number of the 'Annals' (vol. vi. p. 404), and only now refer to them in order to introduce a few additional remarks upon the distinctness of the two known species of Phacochcerus. The skeletons of the pair of P. cethiopicus that were purchased by the Society in 1850*, and lived so long in our gardensf, are now in the British Museum. On examining them I find no traces of upper incisors in either skull, but iu both of them the lower jaws present alveoli of the two deciduous lower incisors. I have likewise, with Mr. Bartlett's assistance, examined the mouths of the fine adult pair of P. cethiopicus now livino- in the Society's Gardens (presented by the Duke of Edinburgh in May 1866), and have found no perceptible traces of incisors either above or beiow. In the spring of this year one of our correspondents deposited in the Society's Gardens four young examples of the same species. I two species. The tail in H. longicauda is not longer; but the transverse processes are rather broader." l There can be no longer any doubt, therefore, that we have here a repetition of the frequent case of an animal found in Malacca, Sumatra, and Borneo but replaced in Java by a distinct form. * See P. Z. S. 1850, p. 78, pl. xvii. t The male died June 22, 1862, the female December 16, 1859. |