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Show 1 9 0 5 .] MAMMALS OF CRETE. 3 1 7 colour of tlie fur. In one specimen (No. 17) tliis is almost pure wliite except on the face, hands, and feet. The spines are shorter and more slender, whilst both the short and long hair of the under-parts is much scantier. The following measurements (in millims.) were taken in the llesh:- Head Tail. Hind Ear. Basal length and body. foot. of skull. No. 9 ( c?) (type) ........ 208 ‘ 29 40 29 51-5 No. 1 7 ( 9 ) ‘ .......................... 34 37 28-5 48 No. 8 ( 9 ) ................ 204 ... 38 26 5 50-5 The skull differs from that of E. e. italicus, and resembles that of E. e. roumanicus Barr.-Ham* in having the frontal processes of the premaxillae squared posteriorly, and further these only extend backward for less than half the length of the nasals. In Crete, Hedgehogs are common in the low country, but were not met with in the hills. In captivity they will eat oats freely as well as a more natural diet of eggs &c. 6. F elis o c r e a t a t a g r iu s J, subsp. n. This species is the chief exception to the general European appearance of the mammalian fauna of the island, being unmistakably African in type and belonging to the Felis ocreata group. The two specimens obtained were bought, at different times, in the bazaar at Khania, and therefore are unaccompanied by any measurements taken in the flesh, though they appear to have been large and robust. In one of these, No. 35, the type, which is in summer coat, the average length of fur on the back is about 32 mm., while in the other, No. 36, evidently a winter specimen, the fur is much thicker and longer, averaging 45 mm. in length on the back, and there is at the same time a corresponding' difference in the intensity of the markings of the dorsal region. The Cretan race may be distinguished from specimens from Abyssinia, the type locality, and Egypt, by their much more distinctly marked stripes, both longitudinal and transverse, and by the greater number of rings, or half-rings, on the tail, which is short. As Mr. de Winton has mentioned §, these markings of the dorsal region are more distinct in short-coated specimens; and on comparing them it is found that even the fo?igr-haired Cretan skin is more strongly marked than s/iorf-haired ones from Abyssinia and Egypt in the British Museum collection, The same holds good in the case of a short-haired specimen from Machakos (B.M. 92.12.3.2.), which otherwise somewhat closely resembles the skin in winter pelage from Crete. It may also be mentioned that some specimens from Abyssinia show a * Op. cit. p. 365. f For use of this specific name see Mr. H. Schwann, " On Felis ocreata and its Subspecies," Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 7, vol. xiii. June 1904, pp. 421-2. J From aypevs, a hunter. § Zoology of Egypt (Anderson), London, 1902, p. 173. |
