OCR Text |
Show 1894.] MAMMALS OP NYASALAND. 143 c. Yg. sk. Milanji Plain, 4000 ft. 27/10/91. (P. capensis of P.Z. S. 1892, p. 553.) " Found among the rocks at base of cliffs."-A. W . Allied to P. capensis, and therefore belonging to Procavia in the narrowest sense; no relationship to " Heterohyrax'" or "Dendro-hyrax. 1" Size large. Fur comparatively harsh, at least in the type, killed in early summer. General colour of body brown grizzled with white, the grizzling far coarser than in P. capensis. Underfur smoky brown. Crown of head deep reddish brown, without white grizzling, much as in some of the red-headed examples of P. abys-sinica. Cheeks grizzled grey, blacker just beneath the eye. Ears of medium length, thinly clothed internally with whitish, externally with black hairs. A prominent blotch behind and below the ears deep black, this colour running in the type vertically down the sides of the neck. Chin black ; throat and chest grizzled grey ; belly deep dirty yellow. In the younger specimens the throat and chest are, like the belly, yellow. Arms and legs like back, but the upper surfaces of the hands and feet are deep black. Dorsal spot small, roughly oval, uniform black. Skull equalling or even exceeding in size that of P. shoana, of which only three skulls, all in Stage VIII., of those measured in 1892, have a greater basal length than the present typical specimen, which is only in Stage VII. Diastema rather short, but longer than in P. capensis both above and below. Interparietal sutures persistent. Interparietal bone, as seen in specimen c, Stage II., before its form has been altered by the growth of the masseter, pentagonal, its longest side the posterior one, which is directly transverse, and nearly double the postero-lateral ones. Teeth. Molars and premolars very large and heavy, exceeding those of any other species ; no doubt, however, as in P. capensis, they will prove to be variable in this respect. P^ sub-quadrangular, similar in shape to P2, far larger and stouter than in P. capensis. M1 of type no less than 8-5 m m . in breadth, thus exceeding by 0-4 m m . the largest molar (of P. shoana) measured in 1892; its height too much reduced by wear to be worth measuring. Lower P^_ better developed and apparently more persistent than in P. capensis, its horizontal length in the type 3-3 m m. Measurements of the type, in skin, 2 '•- Head and body 560 mm.; [hind foot of specimen 6, 53 ]. Skull (Stage VII.): basal length 90*5, greatest breadth 53 ; nasals, length (median) 23, breadth posteriorly 22-5 ; interorbital breadth 23, intertemporal breadth 26 [interparietal of specimen c, length 8-5, breadth 9*5] ; palate, length 50 ; diastema, above 11, below 4; length of upper molar series 44, of lower molar series 45 ; height of lower jaw 50. This fine new Dassy2, which, as being the most striking new 1 See " O n the Species of the Hyracoidea," P. Z. S. 1892, pp. 50-76. 2 This word, which is the common name given by the English Cape Colonists to Procavia capensis, may be conveniently used for any member of the genus. |