OCR Text |
Show 588 ON TWO NEW SPECIES OF ERYTHROPYGIA. [June 20, lower jaw 1*29; nasal bones 0*91; breadth between orbits *38; anterior palatine foramina *37; incisors to first upper molars *60 ; upper molar series *42. All the specimens were obtained by Pere David in October 1873, in Western Fokien, and were found among the rocks in high mountains. He states that this Rat does not burrow at all. The affinities of this species seem to be particularly interesting, as it is a member of a small group of Rats to which M. jerdoni, M. coxinga, Swinh., and M. niveiventer, Hodgs., belong, and which are distinguished by their sharply bicolor tails and their somewhat peculiarly shaped skulls. It is, however, more than twice the bulk of any of these others, none of them exceeding 6 inches in length, or having skulls more than about 1| inch long. But they all resemble M. edwardsi in being mountain-rats, and they all have the same large smooth foot-pads so eminently adapted for climbing over rocks and stones. I have much pleasure in connecting with this remarkable Rat the name of Professor Milne-Edwards, to whose kindness I owe the opportunity of describing it. 10. On two apparently new Species of Erythropygia. By R. BOWDLER SHARPE, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c, Department of Zoology, British Museum. [Received June 20, 1882.] (Plate XLV.) On carefully going over our specimens of Chat-Thrushes in the British Museum, I find that there are at least four species which have been hitherto confounded by myself and others under the heading of Erythropygia leucophrys (V.). First of all, there is the true E. leucophrys (V.), founded on the " Grivetin " of Levaillant, and with which E. pectoralis of Smith is synonymous. Its range is from the eastern districts of the Cape colony into the Transvaal. Secondly, we have E. munda (Cab. Orn. Centralbl. 1880, p. 143) from Angola, which has no stripes on the flanks and has a circle of dark streaks confined to the lower throat and fore neck. As Mr. Andersson's Damara birds in the Museum belong to this species, its range is from Angola to the centre of Damara Land. Erythropygia poena, Smith, the most widely distributed species of the genus, differs from the foregoing birds in having a rufous tail tipped with white and crossed by a broad subterminal band of black. Then I find two other red-tailed species of the E. leucophrys group. One from the Zambesi, discovered by Dr. Kirk during the Livingstone Expedition, I propose to call E. zambesiana, sp. n. (Plate |