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Show 1897.] SPECIES O F POTAMOCHCERUS. 367 any collector or traveller in this part of British Central Africa, farther north, too, in Ugogo, Burton met with only red wild boars. N o w it is well known that A. Smith *, speaking of the Bosch Vark, says that " scarcely any two specimens of this species exhibit the same colours-some are a brownish black variegated with white, and others are almost entirely of a light reddish-brown or rufous tint without the white markings : indeed such are the varieties that it is scarcely possible to say what are tbe most prevailing colours." As Smith includes the Malagasy Wild Hog under the same name (Sus larvatus), it cannot be made out how far his remarks apply to the South-African form alone. I propose to distinguish these Nyasa Bush-Pigs, with one exception, to be mentioned later on, as Potamochcerus chceropotamus nyasce (see Pl. X X V . fig. 4 and Pl. X X V I . fig. 4). From Kilima-njaro, the Natural History Museum has a skin, with incomplete skull (lower jaw wanting) (see Pl. X X V . fig. 1 and Pl. X X V I . fig. 3), of a small form of Potamochcerus (female), obtained by the Rev. W . Morris. The skin is covered with long and very dark brownish-black bristles. The skull somewhat approaches female skulls of P. porcus, and the last upper molar is short as in the latter species ; but the posterior nasal region is flattened, as in P. chceropotamus, with which last feature agrees as well the more complicated pattern of the molars. Before pronouncing definitely on this interesting form, I should welcome the opportunity of examining an adult male; in the meantime I propose to call it Potamochcerus chceropotamus clcemonls2. 3. POTAMOCHCERUS JOHNSTONI, sp. n. (Plate XXV. fig. 3 and Plate X X V I . fig. 1.) This is a new form from the Ngarawi River, Nkanga, " in the North Nyasa District (N.W. Nyasaland)," based on the skull of a female presented to the Nat. Hist. Museum by Sir Harry Johnston. The skulls of the females of the various species of Potamochcerus, as a rule, closely resemble each other ; this particular one having characters of its own, it may be anticipated that the skull of the male and the rest of the animal will present still greater differences. The skull is remarkable for its large size (the animal was scarcely adult), the straight upper contour, and its slenderness. The whole of the nasal region is not at all flattened and with angular borders as in the other species, but rounded off. Molars and premolars large. Premolars f-. Sir Harry Johnston, to w h o m Mr. D e Winton wTote in m y name for further information, kindly informs us that he brought this skull home because, when he first saw the head in his boy's pos- 1 A. SMITH. African Zoology (Tbe South-African Quarterly Journal, vol. ii. p. 178, 1834). 3 " Kilima" = mountain; " njaro," a demon, supposed to produca cold (H. H. Johnston). |