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Show 1 9 0 5 .] MAMMALS FROM ZULULAND. 271 Dimensions of tlie type (measured in the flesh):-Head and body 467 mm.; tail 94; hind foot 109 ; ear 106. Hab. Umvolosi Station, Zululand. Type. Male. B.M. no. 4.12.3.91. Original number 799. Collected 30 June, 1904. This Eastern form of the common L. saxatilis is so much smaller, and has such a conspicuously smaller skull, than its Cape ally, that we have no alternative but to give it a special subspecific name. Further material from different localities v/ill be needed before any exact idea of its distribution can be obtained. While comparing the specimen with the Museum series of skins, we have also been much struck by the characters of the three specimens of this group collected by Mr. Grant at Klipfontein, noticed by us in our paper on the Namaqualand collection. This Western race is markedly larger than the Southern or Cape form, represented in the collection by two specimens from Deelfontein collected by Messrs. Grant and Seimund during the late war. In agreement with Waterhouse* and other authors, we synonymise the remainder of the names hitherto applied to members of this group with the true Lepus saxatilis Cuv., of which, in the absence of modern material from the neighbourhood of Cape Town, we provisionally take a Deelfontein example as representative. We propose to call the Namaqualand form L epus sa x a t il is m eg alotis, subsp. n. Size very large. General colour as in zuluensis; flanks and throat rather lighter ; muzzle, cheeks, and round the eyes silvery grey ; basal two-thirds of internal margin of ears lined with long pale buffy hairs, distal third lined with black, external margin bordered with white. Nape-patch between " clay-colour" and " isabella-colour " (Ridgway), rather darker than in zuluensis; hair on under surface of fore and hind limbs grey basally with white tips, producing a silvery appearance ; tail much longer than in the Zulu or Deelfontein forms. Skull approximately of the same size as that of the specimen from Deelfontein taken as typical of true saxatilis, in spite of the fact that its external measurements are much greater. Dimensions of Specimen the type from from Deelfontein, Klipfontein. B.M. no. 3.3.6.11. mm. mm. Head and body........... 542 528 Tail ........................... 132 115 Hind fo o t ................... 137 128 Ear ........................... 147 130 Hab. Klipfontein, Namaqualand. Type. B.M. no. 4.2.3.103. Original number 520. Collected 23 June, 1903. * Nat. Hist. Mamm. vol. ii. p. 93 (1848). P ro c . Z ool. Soc.-1905, Y o l . I. No. XVIII. 18 |
