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Show 1896.] FROM BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA. 805 " Pouch-Rat. Native name ' Sugfu'w-J. ff. D. Collector's measurements, taken in the flesh, of type 95.8.27.10 in Brit. Mus.:-Head and body 135 m m . ; tail 3 5 ; ear 18; hind foot (taken from dried skin) 22. Skull: greatest length 35-5 ; breadth 17'3; basal length 31'5 ; henselion to back of palate 18 ; palate to foramen mag. 11; length of upper molar series 5; incisive foramina 7; diastema 11; mandible, height at coronoid 12; tips of incisors to condyle 24. Colour above dark iron-grey, formed by a mixture of grey-drab and black, the sides and thighs with much less black intermixed ; on the cheeks and along the lower margin of the dark colouring of the upper parts there is a strong tinge of drab, which includes the upper lips and the forearms, before passing into the cream-white of the underparts, but posteriorly the light colouring passes along the inner side of the thighs and only the feet are whitish. All the hairs of the underparts are slate-grey for the greater part of their length, finely tipped or ringed with grey-drab ; those on the head and back have long black tips, and there appear to be many very fine entirely black hairs intermixed, but owing to the extreme softness of the fur it is very difficult to give a precise description; the general effect is drab-grey, strongly washed with shining black. One specimen, a very old male, does not show quite so much black on the back, and is rather more washed with drab; but the third, an adult female, agrees most perfectly with tbe type in colouring. The animal under notice is a much larger species than S. campestris, Pet., but, besides the size, the dark grey colour at once distinguishes it from its congeners. The skull does not show any marked peculiarity that would not naturally be looked for in a larger animal; but m. 2 has a small though well-developed extra outer anterior cusp, the position being occupied by a mere ledge in S. campestris. Tail rather thinly covered with hair, intermixed are longer very fine hairs which stand out, recalling the tail of a Crocldura; in old animals the tail becomes nearly naked. 15. STEATOMYS PRATENSIS, Pet. a. Ad. sk. d. Mazoe, Mashunaland, 19 August, 1895. B. Ad. sk. d. „ 19 "Very fat, not common. Native name ' Shana.'"-J.ff- D. Collector's measurements, taken in the flesh, of a :-Head and body 96 m m . ; tail 45 ; hind foot 17; ear 16. General colour dull drab-brown, underparts white, feet dirty white. The measurement of the ear would seem large enough for Dr. Peters's S. krebsl, but the colour agrees with the species to which I have referred it, and indeed the second specimen has a considerably shorter ear. 16. GEORYCHUS DARLINGI, Thos. (Plate XL. fig. 1.) a. Ad. sk. <3. Mazoe, Mashunaland, 11 March, 1895. $. Imm. sk. d. „ ,-. 1 5> 33 |
