OCR Text |
Show 184 MR. O. THOMAS O N SMALL [Mar. 3, beyond that already recorded in the two papers on Emin's l. 7. SCIURUS ANNULATUS, Desm. a, b. Two specimens. 8. SCIURUS CEPAPI, Smith. a, b. <S. Kikuyu. c. § . Kikuyu. d. $. 9. XERUS ERYTHROPUS, Geoffr. a. One specimen. 10. OTOMYS IRRORATUS, Bts. a-e. Mianzini. 8/89. These five skins exemplify very well the considerable variation in colour to which this species is subject, two of them being dark umber-brown, two dark sandy fawn, and the fifth grey, with a wash of brown on the head and centre of back. These differences, however, may be due merely to age, as, judging by the skulls, the last described specimen is the youngest, and the first two the next in age of the set, the fawn-coloured specimens being therefore the oldest of all. All the five have 7 laminae in ^oj and 4 in m7, and therefore confirm on the whole the conclusions come to by Prof. Barboza du Bocage2 as to the identity of his O. anchietce, which has 7-5 laminae in the two teeth, with 0. irroratus of S. Africa, which ordinarily has only 6-4, There may be perhaps a tendency to an increase northwards in the number of laminae in the last upper molar, as S.-African specimens seem very rarely to attain the number found in all of the Mianzini ones, which are the most northern recorded. 11. OTOMYS JACKSONI, sp. n. (Plate XV.) a. Crater of M t . Elgon, at 13,200 ft. 17/2/90. Type3. h, c (without skulls). Ditto. Allied to O. irroratus, but readily distinguishable by the lower incisors having two deep grooves on their anterior faces instead of only one. Size rather smaller than in 0. irroratus; general form, as usual, very vole-like. Fur excessively long and soft, the general mass of the hairs on the back attaining a length of 18-20 millim. 1 P. Z. S. 1888, p. 8, and 1890, p. 447. In the second of these two papers a misprint occurs (p. 446), which I may take this opportunity of correcting. The typo specimen of Anomalurus orientalis, Peters, is there said to be in the British Museum, but it should, of course, have been Berlin Museum. 2 J. Sci. Lisb. (2) iii. p. 206 (1889). 3 The single skull, on which of course the species is really founded, was not definitely allocated to any one of the three skins; but in its size it appears to fit a the best, and as -it certainly belongs to one or other of the three, the point is not of very great consequence. |