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Show 1885.] MR. O. THOMAS ON HETEROCEPHALUS GLABER. 61 I their keep, and arranged everything for their despatch &c. These kittens within a very few days became quite tame." Mr. Oldfield Thomas exhibited a specimen of a burrowing Rodent apparently allied to the rare Heterocephalus glaber, Riippell, which had been recently presented to the Natural History Museum, and read the following letter from the donor :- Junior Carlton Club, Pall Mall, S.W., June 15, 1885. DEAR SIR,- In looking at m y journal I find the following notes under the date January 29, 1885:- Gerlogobie, Ogardain, Central Somali-land.-" To-day the natives brought into camp a curious little creature, a sort of Mole, length 4\ inches, skin bare, with a few stiff hairs. Tail like that of a Hippo. Its toes armed with bristles, and its teeth like those of a Walrus. On being placed on the ground it commenced to dig furiously, using its teeth to loosen the earth with ; its eyes were tiny, and its ears simply holes in the sides of its head." This little creature, called " Farumfer" by the Somali, throws up in places groups of miniature craters, which exactly represent volcanoes in active eruption; when the little beasts were at work I used frequently to watch them, and found that the loose earth from their excavations was brought to the bottom of the crater, and seut with great force into the air in a succession of rapid jerks, but they themselves never ventured forth from the shelter of their burrows. I caught several by suddenly plunging a sharp-pointed instrument into the volcano, but never succeeded in making good skins of them. Yours very truly, E. L O R T PHILLIPS, F.Z.S. Mr. Thomas remarked that no specimen of H. glaber had apparently been recorded since Riippell's original example described just 40 years ago"• ; and that it was therefore a matter of great interest to determine whether that author's description of its characters and habits held good on the examination of further specimens, since it had been sometimes supposed that the original type was either immature or diseased, and on that account more or less hairless. This second specimen now proved that Riippell was quite correct in his description, and that the normal state of the animal was as figured by him. It appeared, however, that the nearest affinities of Heterocephalus are not with Spalax and Rhizomys, as had been supposed by Mr. Alston2, who had only Riippell's figures to go upon, but with Bathyergus and Georychus, to the latter of which it was very closely allied, differing chiefly in its want of hair, much longer tail, and in its not possessing any premolar teeth. 1 Mus. Senck. iii. p. 99, pi. vii. (animal), x. (skull), 1845. 2 P. Z. S. 1876, p. 86. |
