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Show 1892.] THE HON. W. ROTHSCHILD ON TWO NEW MAMMALS. 545 One specimen at least of each of the bones now first described has been kindly presented by Mr. Sauzier, on behalf of the Commission of which he is President, to the Museum of the University of Cambridge, as well as a series of other bones in proportion to the extent of the collection. The remainder, including a magnificent skeleton, which has been mounted in that Museum and is doubtless the most complete in the world, of Didus ineptus, will be ultimately deposited in the Museum of Mauritius at Port Louis. This memoir will be published entire in the ' Transactions.' The following papers were read:- 1. Descriptions of two new Mammals from New Guinea. By the Hon. W A L T E R ROTHSCHILD, F.Z.S. [Received November 1, 1892.] In the face of the very exhaustive and explicit paper by Mr. Oldfield Thomas in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1885, I should not venture to lay before the Society a description of a new Monotreme of the subfamily Echidnida?., if I were not backed up by such an eminent zoologist as Dr. Giinther. The latter agrees with me that, as we have so little real knowledge of the habits and distribution of the Monotremata, it is advisable to treat each form as a distinct geographical race until such time as we have a complete knowledge of all the forms and their exact geographical distribution. 1. PROECHIDNA NIGRO-ACULEATA, sp. nov. From having had the specimen here described alive I was able to make a much more careful examination of it than if it had been a dried skin. It differs from Pr. bruijni in its much larger size, extremely robust limbs, and much shorter claws. Another great point of difference lies in the hair, for while Pr. bruijni is covered with dense woolly brown hair, in which are imbedded the few and scattered spines, in the form before us the hair is long, bristly, and very sparingly sprinkled over the body, the legs being almost bare. In the new form the spines are almost as numerous as in Echidna aculeata, but are of great length and thickness and of a horny black colour ; while in Pr. bruijni they are very few in number, short, thin, and of a pure white colour. In Pr. bruijni the claws are solid and much longer than in Pr. nigro-aculeata, the middle claw of the fore foot being 11 inch long, while that of Pr. nigro-aculeata measures only f of an inch. In addition to this, all the claws of Pr. nigro-aculeata are much broader and considerably hollowed out on the under surface. Lastly, Pr. nigro-aculeata has a much longer and stouter tail than Pr. bruijni. |