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Show 956 MR. W. E. DE WINTON O N [Dec. 14, bridge is broader in this species, owing to the postnarial aperture being somewhat boned over; they agree, however, in the form of the pterygoids and in the width and formation between tbe auditory bullae. The dentition (fig. 2) shows considerable differences ; the Fig. 2. Skull of Erinaceus algirus (side view). 1£ nat. size. most marked are as follows:-the very small L^* grows diagonally from behind, or on the inner side of L~, so that when viewed from the side the base does not appear, and in aged animals when the teeth are somewhat worn looks simply like a horizontally projecting cusp of iiJf (the smallness of this tooth led the describers to suppose that in the type specimen it was abnormally backward in development) ; while in E. europceus this tooth ^m- -*) is in the row and about | of the size of bA; the tall premolar in the lower jaw has only a very slight notch between the two outer cusps, and the inner cusp is almost entirely wanting. Tbe most remarkable feature in the dentition of E. algirus, and which will distinguish it at once from E. europceus, is the number and form of the roots in the usually single-rooted teeth; in one specimen of the present collection !*_? has three distinct roots ; the canines have two roots widely separated forming a distinct V, while in E. europceus it is the exception for this tooth to be double-rooted, and then the roots lie close together; the premolars are also two- or three-rooted, wdth the fangs widely divergent. The British Museum contains a specimen of E. algirus, presented by Lord Lilford, said to have come from Andalusia; if this locality is correct (and there is every reason to suppose it is), the fact is of particular interest, adding another to the list of North-African species found in the Spanish Beninsula; and the interest is further enhanced because E. europceus certainly occurs in the neighbourhood of Seville. Thus these two forms would be living side by side. |
