OCR Text |
Show 1902.] MAMMALS FROM ABYSSINIA. 311 14. Otomys degeni, sp. n. c? (skin). Gombitchu, Shoa, 8000 feet. 16 April. Type. 2 5 (in spirit). Moncorar, Mietcha, Godjam, 9000 feet. One deep and one shallow groove in each upper, and two deep grooves in each lower inci•s or. Lami• na formula of molars 3-2-8 Fur comparatively thin and poor, very different from the deep rich fur of O. jacksoni', shorter hairs of back about 13 mm. in length. General colour strongly lined pale brown, between raw umber and isabella of Ridgway, without marked metallic sheen. Sides rather more buffy. Under surface but little lighter, the hairs broadly slaty basally, dull buffy terminally. Head like body, inconspicuous yellowish patches above and below eye and round ear. Backs of ears brown, edges and inner surfaces yellowish. Hands and feet dull greyish. Tail brown above, dull greyish on sides and below. Skull large and heavily built, conspicuously stouter than in O. jacksoni. Nasals very broad, as much expanded in front as in 0. irroratus. Posterior palate ending about level with the sixth lamina of m3. Incisors very broad, the upper ones with one deep sharp groove dividing off the outer third of the tooth, and the front of the inner part faintly and indistinctly concave. On the extreme inner angle of the tooth there is also a third minute shallow and almost imperceptible groove. Lower incisors with two deep and equal grooves, dividing each tooth into three equal portions. Molars broad; the posterior one above with eight laminae, the anterior lower with four. Dimensions of a female specimen in spirit, not the type Head and body 161 mm. ; tail 90 ; hind foot (s. u.) 28'5 ; ear 22 x 21. Skull of type-upper length from back of interparietal 36‘2 ; greatest breadth 19*7 ; nasals 16'5x 7‘5 ; interorbital breadth 4*4; interparietal 4-7 x 9; diastema 9 ; palate length 17*8; palatal foramina 7-3 ; length of upper molar series (crowns) 8-2. This Otomys might have been supposed to be Heuglin's " Oreomys typus," 1 described from the mountains of Simien, but that animal is distinctly said to have three sharp and deep grooves on both the upper and lower incisors, so that 0. degeni, with two deep ones below and one deep and two indistinct ones above, can hardly be the same, whatever allowance for error ought to be made. 0. jacksoni Thos., from Mt. Elgon, is otherwise the nearest species, and that is smaller, with a more delicately built skull, with only 7 laminae in m3, and, though the number of the incisor grooves is practically the same, their spacing is different. Externally 0. jacksoni is a much darker-coloured and thicker-furred animal. 1 Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 76 (1877). Since the above was -written, Dr. K. Lampert' of Stuttgart has kindly sent me some further particulars about J;he typical skull of O. typus, which conclusively prove that O. degeni is distinct from it. |