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Show 500 MR. O. THOMAS ON MAMMALS FROM NTASALAND. [May 16, often obtained in Pisa from the mouth and gullet of the Snake referred to. The colour of this small Distome is quite characteristic, being white in the anterior and black in the posterior half. But the most interesting point in connection with this Distome is that I often found in Zamenis viridiflavus an imperfectly developed Distome encysted in the submucosa of the mouth, in the pericardium, and in the mesenterium : and as I obtained the cysts sometimes empty, sometimes full, and as the full cysts wdien placed in water rupture quickly and allow the young Distome to escape, and there is some resemblance between this young Distome aud B. baraldii, I suspect that the encysted aud the mature Distomes belong to the same species, and that, contrary to the usual course in the evolution of the Distomes, the same animal plays the part both of intermediary and final host to this parasite. 5. On a Second Collection of Mammals sent by Mr. H. H. Johnston, C.B., from Nyasaland. By O L D F I E L D T H O M A S. [Received May 16, 1893.] In the ' Proceedings ' of this Society for last year' I had the honour of giving an account of a fine collection of Mammals presented to the National Museum by Mr. H . H . Johnston, Consul- General for Mozambique, and H.M. Commissioner for Nyasaland. That distinguished explorer has now sent home a second series, collected, like the first, by M r. Alexander Whyte, at Zomba and Milanji. Of these, by the kindness of our Secretary, I am now permitted to give a list, supplementary to the former one, and carrying on a little further our knowledge of the Nyasaland fauna, to the study of which Mr. Johnston and Mr. Whyte have rendered such material aid. The present collection contains between 70 and 80 specimens, belonging to 30 species, of which a large number are additional to those previously sent. As with the previous set, the great interest of the collection lies in its having been made so near to the localities where Dr. Peters obtained the material on which his classical work on the Mammals of Mozambique was founded. Such a collection as this, therefore, although containing no novelties, is, and will always continue to be, of the greatest service to English naturalists, as giving them the means of accurately comparing specimens from other parts of Africa with examples certainly corresponding with those described by Peters. With regard to the interesting questions as to the seasonal changes of fur, which so sorely need investigation, it unfortunately happens that the present collection was almost entirely formed in the months of October and November, the very same months when the previous series were obtained. It would therefore be very desirable for Mr. Whyte to try and collect specimens of all the 1 P.Z.S. 1892, p. 546. |