OCR Text |
Show 1894.] MR. O. THOMAS ON MAMMALS FROM OMAN. 451 hairs broadly tipped with cream-buff, and with a subterminal band of black; their basal three-fourths dull whitish. Head like back ; supraorbital edges scarcely paler. Ears very long, laid forward in a spirit-specimen they surpass the tip of the muzzle by more than an inch; their visible bauds brown, edged with long fringes of buff hairs ; their extreme tips externally black. Nape dull brown, with a faint tinge of rufous. Sides paler and greyer than back. Chin and belly dull yellowish white; chest browner. Outer sides of arms and legs brown, inner sides paler. Hands and feet dull buff above, the long hairs of the palms and soles deep yellowish, almost " ochraceous." The number and thickness of these palm- and sole-bristles, combined with the extreme tenuity of the forearms and lower legs, gives a most unusual appearance to the whole animal, whose proportions are, however, merely an exaggerated development of those common to many of the N.E. African group of Hares. Tail rather long, black above, white below. Dimensions of the type, an adult female, measured in spirit, before skinning :- Head and body 360 mm.; tail without hairs 60 ; hind foot without claws 89 ; ear, length from head 118, from notch 99, breadth 53. Skull: basal length 60 mm.; greatest length 74; greatest breadth 34-6; nasals, greatest length obliquely 28, greatest combined breadth 16*1; intertemporal breadth 10*6 ; breadth of brain-case 25-5; length of palatine foramen 18#2, combined breadth of do. 8*4; least breadth of palatal bridge 4-4 ; length of upper molar series (crowns) 10-8; transverse diameter of m* 3>7. This interesting little Hare is at once distinguished from all other allied members of the genus by its slender proportions and its extremely small size. Its hind foot is nearly an inch less than in any of the species described by Hemprich aud Ehrenberg, while the small size of its skull is paralleled only by some of the little American species, if the abnormal L. netscheri he put aside. 12. GAZELLA MUSCATENSIS, Brooke. Gazella muscatensis, Brooke, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 142. a-c. 3 ad. sks. Khode. 7 & 8/11/92. d. Ad. sk. Barkeh-al-Moze. 24/10/92. e. Do. Sharkeeyeh, or eastern part of Oman. 20/1/93. [/. Ad. sk. d • Muscat, Major C. B. E. Smith, 1873. Type of species.] These specimens, which are very valuable as havjng been wild-killed, all agree very closely with Sir Victor Brooke's excellent description and figure. 13. ORYX BEATRIX, Gray. a. 1mm. sk. $ . Adam, O m a n Proper. 7/5/93. This wild-killed specimen of the beautiful Beatrix Gemsbuck is |