Proceedings of the General Meetings for Scientific Business of the Zoological Society of London 1897

Page 422

368 DR. C. I. FORSYTH MAJOR ON THE [Mar. 16, session, he thought there was something odd about it. He thinks we shall find the new pig elsewhere in B. C. A., " for, for some time, there has been a rumour among the settlers that there are two species of bush-pig, and that one is permanently though faintly white spotted and striped (along the back)." 4. POTAMOCHCERUS HASSAMA (Heuglin). Skull of Potamochcerus hassama, Q* , from Abyssinia (side view). This is an Abyssinian Bush-Pig. The " Hassama" was first mentioned by Riippell' and later on fully described by Heuglin2 under the name of Nyctochcerus hassama. R. Hartmann was of opinion that Heuglin's Nyctochcerus was nothing else but tbe " Pota­mochcerus penicillatus."3 Sclater has identified it with " Potamo­chcerus africanus " = P. chceropotamus4; and in this he is supported by Nehring5, who, without entering into particulars, states in tbe most positive manner (" mit voller Slcherhelt") that Heuglin's Hassama is "Potamochcerus larvatus" = P. chceropotamus. If that so, then there are two species of Potamochcerus in Abyssinia; for the photographs of the skull of a male from Abyssinia, from Heuglin's collections (see fig. 3, p. 368, and fig. 4, p. 369)-kindly sent to me by Prof. Eberhard Fraas, Curator of the Stuttgart Nat. Hist. 1 ED. KtJFPELL. Eeise in Abyssinien, vol. ii. p. 217 (Frankfurt-a-M., 1840). 2 M. T H . v. HEUGLIN. " Beitrage zur Zoologie Afrika's. Leber einige Saugethiere des Baschlo-Gebietes": N. Act. Leopold, xxx. pt. ii. Nachtrag, 1863, p. 7.- HEUGLIN & FITZINGER. " System. Uebers. d. Saugethiere Nordost-Afrika's, &c.": Sitzungsber. Akad. d. Wiss., Math.-naturw. CI. 54, Bd. i. (Wien, 1866), p. 586.-M. T H . v. HEUGLIN. Beise in Nordost-Africa, ii. (Braunschweig, 1877), pp. 97, 276. 3 R. HARTMANN. " Geogr. Verbr. der im nordostl. Afrika wild lebenden Saugethiere " : Zeitschr. Berl. Ges. f. Erdkunde, 1868, iii. pp. 352, 353. 4 P. Z. S. 1894, p. 92. 6 A. NEHRING. " Ueber d. javan. Wildschwein-Arten, sowie iiber Nycto­chcerus hassama, Heuglin " : Zool. Garten, xxxvi. 1895, p. 50.