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Show 1901.] MAMMALS OF THE BALEARIC ISLANDS. 41 with the question as to which is the original home of the Weasel of the Island of St. Thomas, Gulf of Guinea, where, on zoo-geographical grounds, it is difficult to believe a Weasel is really indigenous. The British Museum has recently received a fine example of the St. Thomas Weasel, and this is remarkably like the large forms from Malta and Egypt. It is therefore possible that there is a substratum of truth both in m y own suggestion that P. africanus Desm. might be the large Maltese Weasel \ and Prof. Bocage's2 that the type specimen of that name might have come to Lisbon from St. Thomas. 17. ELIOMYS QUERCFNUS L. a-e. San Cristobal, Minorca. The " Eata Sarda" is a well-known animal both in Majorca and Minorca, but is said by Barcelo not to occur in Iviza. W e were unable to obtain any specimens in Majorca, although we saw one in D o n Miguel Eiutort's collection, but succeeded in trapping several at San Cristobal, Minorca. There, among the Ilex-trees near the town, Schuyler traps baited with cheese took several specimens of this beautiful animal. The Minorcau examples appear to be precisely similar to the true E. quercinus of France and Germany, and show no approximation towards the fine South-Spanish species E. amori Graells 3. The geographical relationship of this animal is therefore markedly different from that of the Hedgehog, where the Balearic species is the South-Spanish and Algerian, not the European one. Younger examples are paler in colour than the old ones, and indeed the resemblance between our younger specimens and the E. pallidus of Sicily raises a suspicion as to whether old specimens of that form will not be as dark as normal E. quercinus. 1 P. Z. S. 1895, p. 128. 2 J. Sci. Lisb. (2) xiii. pp. 24 & 48 (1895). 3 Mioxus NITELA var. AMORI Graells, Mem. Ac. Madrid, xvii. p. 481 (1897). This form appears to me worthy of recognition as a species distinct from E. quercinus. The following are the characters shown by six specimens of it from Seville, which were obtained for, and presented to the Museum by, the late Lord Lilford :- Size considerably larger than in E. quercinus, as shown by the skull-dimensions. General colour of the same character as in that animal, but very deep and strong, markedly different from that of the pale Sicilian E. pallidus. Facial and other markings as usual, but the black of the tail usually runs right round that organ, interrupting tbe white below for about the middle third. Skull similar in general characters to that of the typical species, but very much larger throughout. Dimensions, measured in skin: - Head and body (c.) 139 mm.; tail 120 ; hind foot (wet) 31; ear (wet) 21. Skull-greatest length 41; basilar length 322 ; greatest breadth 23-2 ; nasals 15"8 X 4; interorbital breadth 4 7 ; palatal length from henselion 14 ; diastema 9; palatal foramina 5-4x3-9 ; length of upper tooth-row 6*1. I owe to the kindness of Don Angel Cabrera, of Madrid, several additional particulars about Dr. Graells's type, beyond those that appear in the original description. |
