OCR Text |
Show 330 PROF. R. COLLETT ON MAMMALS [Mar. 16, Rhlnarium very narrow, the height being nearly double its breadth. Pupil vertical. Claws short, rather blunt, almost hidden by tbe hairs. COLOUR. General colouring resembling that of P. peregrlnus. The back is grizzled grey with more or less reddish hue, all the longer hairs having white tips. The rump more rufous. Head grey. A whitish spot (sometimes indistinct) above and below the eye. A median dark line, more or less conspicuous, extends from between the eyes to the occiput ; in some specimens this line is continued (very indistinctly) along the middle of the back. Ears wdth a small patch of white on the lower part of their posterior border. Vibrissas black. Tail rufous like the rump, the white-tipped hairs here being scarcer. The thin hairs on the tip are sometimes blackish. Lower parts from chiu to tail whitish; a rusty spot on the middle of the chest. Lower part of the tail reddish, like the upper, only a little clearer. Legs coloured above like the back, below whitish ; hairy covering of the claws in some specimens blackish. A half-grown specimen is coloured like the adult; the white tips of the hairs less conspicuous, aud the rusty spot on the chest hardly visible. SKELETON. Limbs short and strong. Femur broadly expanded in its upper part; its length not exceeding that of the pelvis, or even shorter. Fibula also broadly expanded above, its greatest breadth at its upper extremity being more than that of tibia. Tibia and fibula greatly bowed and diverging. Humerus also comparatively broad at its upper and lower extremities ; ulna and radius rather diverging in the middle. Os sacnim formed by three vertebras, the transverse processes of which are all coalescent. Caudal vertehrce. The number is in one specimen 23, in another 24, besides a rudimentary one in the tip, together 24-25. SKULL. Small in proportion to the body. Its length in the largest specimen 72 mm., the breadth 43 m m. Muzzle very slender and pointed (even narrower than in Dactylo-pslla trlvlrgata), not swollen. Nasals narrow, rather flattened above, reaching to about the level of l1, and but little expanded behind; the naso-frontal angle very deep, bifid, the points reaching the vertical from the middle of TO3. Length of the suture from maxillae to sutura frontalis |