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Show 66 MR. O. THOMAS ON THE [Jan. 5, Subspecific diagnoses :- A. P. abyssinica typica. Size larger. Fur longer. Colour as above described. B. P. abyssinica minor, subsp. n. Size smaller (see skull measurements in table). Fur short and crisp. Colour much as in the typical subspecies, but, owing to the shortness of the fur, there is an appearance of a greater general uniformity on the back. Dorsal spot not more prominent than in var. typica, its hairs being equally tipped with black. Skull small, with a comparatively very short diastema, almost rivalling that of P. pallida, 6-2 and 6'5 m m . in the two co-types. In neither specimen is j? present, so that the tooth is evidently dropped very early in the present form. Hab. Alali, between Beilul and Assab, on the west shore of the Red Sea, about 13° N. Two specimens of this peculiar little form were obtained from the above-mentioned locality by Dr. V. Ragazzi for the Genoa Museum. Both are somewhat immature, being at stage VI. P. abyssinica minor is interesting, as leading on from the true P. a. typica towards P. pallida, found still further east in Somali. Both in size and in its shortened diastema it approaches that species, although in colour it shows no tendency to the greater paleness of the back and conspicuousness of the dorsal spot characteristic of P. pallida. P. abyssinica, with its variations in colour and size, has always been and still is the most difficult form to work out of all the family, and I cannot at all hope to have satisfactorily settled the many problems which arise in the contemplation of any considerable series of specimens apparently belonging to it. In the first place, the original description was founded mainly on a specimen with a black dorsal spot, a character found in the Shoan species, but not ordinarily in the Abyssinian one, but with this specimen there was a second showing the typical black and yellow spot of the ordinary Abyssinian form. Now, as Mr. Blanford l states so directly that "the species identified by Gray with Ehrenberg's 27. abyssinicus2 is a very distinct form," and geographical considerations point so strongly in the same direction, I am induced to look upon Ehrenberg's black-backed specimen from Massowa as one of those troublesome individuals of the present species in which the yellow dorsal spot is practically absent, and the black tips to the hairs are so developed as to form a small dorsal black spots. In any case I feel I cannot allocate this Massowa specimen 4 to the Shoan black-backed form 1 Zool. Abyss, p. 251. 2 /. c. the Shoan Coney. 3 See, lor instance, Mr. Blanford's specimen No. 886 (B.M. 69.10. 24. 28). 4 Dr. Matschic, of the Berlin Museum, however, is inclined to hold the op- {>osite opinion, believing at the same time that the Massowa form is a small ocal race of the black-backed Shoan one. Should this view be correct, and I am |