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Show 310 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS ON [Nov. 4, postorbital, and mastoid breadths all greater than m the allied skull, but the height of the skull scarcely greater, so that its flattened shape is unusually marked even for this group. JNasa opening broader than high, the converse being the case in the other forms. Pterygoid processes larger than in the West-African form bullae lower and flatter, mastoid and paroccipital processes larger, the last-named more distant from the condyles (10 instead of 6 mm.). These comparisons are all made with a skull distinctly older than the typical skull of the new form. Dentition apparently quite as in true L. capensis. Dimensions of the type (measured in skin): Head and body 900 mm.; tail 670; hind foot - ; ear 2o. Skull-basal length 131; zygomatic breadth 106; mastoid breadth 102; interorbital breadth 35; tip to tip of interorbital processes 51 ; intertemporal breadth 28'5 ; palate length exclusi\ e of median spine 66'5 ; breadth of posterior palate 16‘5. Greatest diameter of m) 19*5. Type. B.M. No. 2.9.9.13. _ This magnificent Otter, which I have named in honour of His Majesty the Emperor Menelek, represents in Abyssinia the claw-less species, X. capensis, of Southern and ^Western Afiica, just as Herr Oscar Neumann's L. concolor, from Addis Ababa, represents the clawed one, X. maculicollis. Whether it is confined to Lake Tsana, or ranges into the rivers surrounding the slopes of the high grounds, remains to be proved. As a subspecies it is recognizable by its broad low skull, broad nasal opening, dark colour, and silvery underfur. It is possibly to this large Otter that Heuglin's references1 to a Tsana Manatee are traceable, for the Otters which he mentions as such 2 are quite small ones- " Kaum die Grosse der Genet- Katze," and native accounts of this large form might have led him to believe that the " Aila" or " Auli" was " wohl ein Manatus ? " 11. SciURUS MULTICOLOR Rupp. ^ J1 $ . Zegi, Lake Tsana, 4500 feet. 14-22 May. The female has 1-2 = 6 mammae. 12. X erus r u t ilu s Cretzschm. 2 . Gildessa, Somali. As Mr. de Winton has shown3, the names X . dabagaUa Heugl. and X . flavus M.-Edw. are synonymous with X . rutilus, while the darker, more northern form should stand as X . brachyotus Hempr. & Ehr. (syn. X.fuscus Huet). 13. T a t e r a , sp. (probably murina Sund.). <3 . Lake Zuai. 10 March. 1 Tteise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 137 (1877). * P. Z. S. 1898, p. 765. 1 T. c. p. 39. |