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Show 1888.] EQUATORIAL AFRICA. 15 excuse. The present specimens agree in every respect with Dr. Leche's figure and description of " G. damarensis," and also, except in being a little darker coloured, with the type of G. ochraceo-cinereus. 37. ATHERURA AFRICANA, Gray. a-d. 2 3,2 and young. Monbuttu. " Very common. Monbuttu name ' Kolia.' Is eaten by the natives."-E. The peculiar fimbriation of the lower sides of the spines in this species, previously noticed by Waterhouse1, is unusually well-marked in these specimens, the spines being as it were finely feathered on their edges and inferior2 surfaces3. This animal is one of the most distinctly West-African forms in the whole collection, the genus Atherura being, so far as Africa is concerned, entirely confined to that district, and only reappearing again in the Malay part of the Oriental Region. 38. DENDROHYRAX EMINI, sp. n.4 (Plate II.) A. Yg. sk. Tingasi, 6/7/83. Type. " Iride fusca."-E. Fur long, extraordinarily soft and fluffy. General colour pale yellowish white, wholly different from that of any other species of the group, and indeed scarcely to be matched as a general body colour in any other mammal; its tint all over the body something like that of the centre of the belly of D. arboreus. Hairs of upper side dull brown for three fourths of their length, their tips pale yellow, whiter on the head, deeper yellow on the rump. Hairs of underside and limbs similar, but the brown gradually decreasing in extent downwards, those of the chin, chest, and belly wholly pale yellow; cheeks, a ring round each eye, hands and feet, and hairs on ears white ; hairs of the dorsal spot also white. This most remarkable species is unfortunately only represented by a single young individual, in which the milk-dentition is still in position. The only adult dimension that I am able to give is, therefore, that of the first true molar (7*2 millim. long externally, and 5-6 broad anteriorly above, and 6*6 long below) ; but comparing the specimen with equally young individuals of D. arboreus, it is evident that its size when adult would be just about the same as in that species. Its actual dimensions are:-Head and body 295 millim.; hind foot 48 ; ear (above crown) 13. Skull-basal length 55; interparietal length 11, breadth 16-2; diastema between incisors 4*7, behind incisors 5'3; lengths of upper milk premolars : m.pm.2 5, m.pm.3 6*2, m.pm.* 7. 1 N. H. M a m m . ii. p. 477, 1848. 2 /. e. posterior, when they are set vertically in the skin. 3 Prof. Stewart has been kind enough to examine the fringes on these spines microscopically for me, and he tells me that "they are only extensions or the cuticular layer of the spines. On the under surface of the spines they are thin and scale-like, becoming simple and hair-like at the margins." 4 Preliminary diagnosis given, Ann. Mag, N. H. [5] xx. p. 440, Dec. 1, 1887. |
