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Show 1892.] SPECIES OF T H E HYRACOIDEA. 65 Hyrax irroratus, var. luteogaster1, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) iii. p. 242 (1869) (excl. description of dorsal spot)2; Cat. p. 288 (1869). Hyrax brucei, Blanf. P. Z. S. 1869, p. 642 ; Zool. Abyss, p. 252 (1870) ; Bocage, J. Sci. Lisb. (2) iii. p. 193 (1889) (nee Gray). Size medium, smaller in var. minor. Mammae 1-2 = 6. Fur ordinarily fairly long, at least in the highland specimens, but always rather coarse and harsh, never long, soft, and fine, as in P. shoana ; quite short and crisp in the subspecies from the Assab region. Colour a coarsely-mottled grey-brown, varying towards either olive or ferruginous ; some specimens marked by rufous over the greater part of the back. The hairs dark brown at their bases, and black at their tips, with a broad subterminal band of dirty yellow. Dorsal spot very small, oval, more inconspicuous than in any other species, often only to be found after the most minute search, below and between the ordinary hairs, aud sometimes not at all. It consists simply of a broadening and brightening of the ordinary subterminal yellow band of the hairs, and when well developed is of a bright orange-yellow colour. In the great majority of specimens the black tips to its hairs so hide the yellow that the spot is not visible at all unless specially searched for. Skull3 stout and strongly built. Muzzle short. Coronal and parieto-interparietal sutures persistent 4. Temporal fossae extending backwards to within 3 or 4 m m . of the hinder edge of the skull. Diastema rather constant in its length, generally about 9 mm., but considerably less in \ar. minor. Teeth ordinarily very large and heavy in proportion to the size of the animal, the breadth of m1 commonly being about 7'4 to 7*9, but in some specimens, which I cannot otherwise distinguish, they are much smaller and lighter, all the intermediate links being, however, present. The least breadth of n^ among those before me is 6*7 in the type of " H. irroratus, var. luteogaster," but here the two teeth are considerably worn down, and probably the true breadth would have been somewhat greater. Height of crown of m^ 6'9 or 7 mm. P1 very small, styliform, single-rooted, early deciduous; the horizontal length of its crown only about 2 or 2*2 m m . Ribs ordinarily 21 (but 20 in one specimen and 22 in another). Type in the Berlin Museum. Hab. Abyssinia from Bogos and Massowa in the north, through the highlands, as far south as Adigrat. Represented in the lowlands more to the east by the variety minor. 1 Misprinted " leucogaster," Hand-1. Edent. &c. p. 42 (1873). 2 See footnote, p. 70. 3 Good figures : Gray, Hand-1. Edent. &c. pi. x. fig. 2 (" brucei " ) , pi. xi. fig. 1 (" ferrugineus " ) , pi. xii. fig. 3 (" irrorata "), 1873. 4 In one specimen (B.M. 69.10. 24. 37), an old male, the parieto-interparietal sutures are closed, but the suture down the centre of the interparietal bone itself still persists. The latter condition also obtains in 6 out of 18 very young skulls (stages I. and II.) of different species, but in no other specimen of adult age. Among tbe 12 very young skulls with the central suture closed is at least one taken from a foetus. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1892. No. V. 5 |