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Show 934 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS ON MAMMALS [Dec. 14, 28. GRAPHIURUS MURINUS, F. Cuv. ff, b. 2 6. Nyika Plateau, 6000-7000 ft., June and July 1896. On distributional grounds these specimens should represent Noack's Eliomys microtis \ whose description applies better to them, so far as colour is concerned, than to the pigmy Dormice of the group to which the next species belongs. The nasals of E. microtis are. however, rather short for the murinus group, if the measurements published by Beuvens 2 are to be depended upon. 29. GRAPHIURUS JOHNSTONI, sp. n. «. $ . Zomba, Mar. 12, 1897. Type (No. 97. 10. 1. 86). Size very small, as in 67. parvus, nanus, and smithii. Fur rather short and close. General colour greyish buff, the hairs slaty grey with short buff-coloured tips. Under surface greyish white, the tips of the hairs being dull whitish; but this colour is not snowy white, as in the allied species, nor does it extend so high up on the sides of the neck and body. Eyes surrounded by a brownish ring, not strongly defined, and not continued on towards the ears. Ears short, practically naked. Hands and feet dull white above, the proximal part of the metatarsals slightly brownish. Tail broad, apparently much as in 67. smithii, much broader than in 67. nanus, the longest hairs about 15 or 16 mm. in length ; pale brown above and below, a few of the proximal hairs only tipped with white. Skull small and delicate; nasals extending backwards to the level of the premaxillary processes ; brain-case less broad than in the allied species. Molars rather large for the size of the animal, much larger than in 67. nanus. Incisors unusually narrow, not flattened or grooved in front. Dimensions of the type, an adult female, in skin :- Head and body 81 mm.; tail, without hairs (c.) 58, with hairs 74 ; hind foot (moistened) 16. Skull: tip of nasals to front of interparietal 21*6 ; greatest breadth (c.) 12*5 ; nasals 8*5 x 2*7; interorbital breadth 4 ; anteorbital foramen, height 2*4 ; distance between outer corners of the two foramina 7*1; palate, length from henselion 8 ; diastema 5*1; palatal foramina 2*6 x 1*7 ; length of upper molar series 3*5. This pretty little Dormouse is clearly most closely allied to 67. nanus and 67. smithii, but, among other characters, it may be distinguished from both by its shorter fur, less snowy belly, and larger molars and narrower incisors. From 67. microtis, Noack, said to be synonymous with 67. murinus, 67. johnstoni differs by having no darker mark connecting the eye and ear, nor any lighter mark behind the latter, and there are several discrepancies in the detailed measurements of the skull. 67. microtis came from Marungu, where the fauna seems to be very like that of the Nyika Blateau, and equally unlike that of Southern Nyasaland. 1 Zool. Jahrb. ii. p. 248 (1887). s Myoxidze, p. 43 (1890). |
