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Show 1902.] MAMMALS FROM NORTHERN NYASALAND. 119 Type. Old female. B.M. No. 97.7.3.1. Collected by J. B. Yule, and presented by Alfred Sharpe, Esq., O B . It has always been a matter of surprise that the Colobus of the high Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau should be the same as that occurring in the hot lowlands opposite Zanzibar, but the markings are so nearly identical that no one has hitherto been able to separate the two forms. Now, however, that the British Museum has received from Mr. A. B. Percival three fine adult females of the true C. palliatus from Takaungu, British East Africa, with their skulls, I am able to show that the two are separable, the skull-differences being really considerable. I have much pleasure in naming this fine species after my friend, Mr. Alfred Sharpe, C.B., Commissioner of British Central Africa, to whose interest and patriotism the National Collection of Nyasan Mammals is so largely indebted. Colobus sharpei is the C. angolensis of Sclater (1892), and more recently the C. palliatus of Pousargues, Neumann, and myself. HELOGALE VARIA, sp. n. Size rather large. Fur close and fine. General colour above finely speckled yellowish or buffy grey, passing gradually below into deep buffy without speckling. Posterior back of all four specimens, in bleached pelage, dull yellowish or " clay-colour." Head conspicuously different to back, clear deep grey without yellowish suffusion ; a small patch on each side of the muzzle running back to surround the eye brown or brownish rufous. Ears grey above, deep yellowish below. Upper surface of hands and feet dark yellowish clay-colour, scarcely grizzled at all. Tail coloured like back. Skull with the nasals broad and parallel-sided for their anterior half, then abruptly narrowing to a point posteriorly. Dimensions (approximate) of the type, measured in skin:- Head and body 270 m m . ; tail 162; hind foot (wet) s. u. 46; ear (wet) 18. Skull (of the type, nasal sutures still showing) - greatest length in middle line 53 ; zygomatic breadth 28-5 ; nasals 9 x 5; interorbital breadth 9'1 ; breadth of brain-case above meatus 91-7; palate length from gnathion 24'5 ; greatest diameter of p* 5-2. Type. Sub-adult. B.M. No. 2.1.6.5. Four specimens examined. This Helogale, of which four perfectly similar specimens are in the collection, differs from all others by the head being much darker-coloured than the back, these parts being quite concolor in the other forms. Whether the much greater yellowness of the rump will also prove a constant character I cannot say, as in all the skins the fur of this part is worn and faded. The recognizable forms of Helogale seem to be as follows :- (1) HELOGALE ATKINSONI Thos. Helogale atkinsoni Thos. Ann. Mag. N. H . (6) xx. p. 377 (1897). |