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Show 1882.] ON A NEW LAND-RAIL FROM EAST AFRICA. 93 to that colony; but I have seen so few specimens with exact that I am unable to determine its precise range. It may always be readily distinguished from all other Mungooses by its elongated nose and claws and its peculiar coloration, especially its black ears, no other species having ears differing in colour from the rest of the head. Smuts says of its habits :-" This animal lives in various parts of the Colony, mostly in mountain caves; it is easily tamed and kept in a state of domestication." Molars of Suricata. 5. tetradactyla, a „ 6 . . . 33 * . . • 3) * - . . P.M4. 7*0 6*3 6*5 7*0 M2. 5*0 5*0 4*8 5*2 Percentage 71 79 74 74 4. Description of a N e w Species of Land-Rail from East Africa. By H. B. TRISTRAM, F.R.S., C.M.Z.S. [Eeceived December 28, 1881.] I have lately received from Mr. R. C. Ramshaw, a medical missionary who has been stationed for four years in East Africa, a small collection of birds, chiefly of Ploceidse and Cinnyridae, formed by him at Ribe, a little to the north of Rabai, and at Jomon, a district extending S. lat. 3°-5° and E. long. 39°-40°. Among the specimens occurs a Land-Rail which both Mr. Sharpe and Capt. Shelley consider to be undescribed. I therefore venture to describe it as CREX SUAHELENSIS, spec. nov. C. capite et regione parotica castaneis; collo superiore dorso inferiore nigricante ; supracaudalibus castaneo cauda nigricante, castaneo marginata; mento et albis ; pectore rufescente; abdomine albescente; crisso late castaneis ; scapularibus brunneis, quaque pluma marginata; remigibus nigrescentibus, pogonio externo primi albo-subalaribus brunneis; rostro, tarsis et pedibus Long, tota 9, alee 3*92, cauda? 2*3, rostri a rictu *85, tarsi digiti med. 1*9. Hab. Ribe, East Africa. The white edgings to the scapulars and some of the feathers of the back seem to indicate immaturity. In other respects the bird has all the appearance of being adult: and the measurements certainly do not correspond to those of any known species. |