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Show 298 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS ON [Apr. 21, Dimensions of the type :- Head and body 90 mm.; tail 70; hind foot (s. u.) 23 ; ear 14. Skull-greatest length 28 ; basilar length 22 ; zygomatic breadth 13; nasals 10 x 3'4 ; interorbital breadth 4*4; breadth of brain - case 12 ; palate, length 12-2 ; diastema 6*7 ; palatal foramina 5*6 ; length of upper molar series 4*9. Type. Old male. B.M. No. 3.2.8.15. One specimen only. A Fashoda striped rat presented by Mr. R. M. Hawker in 1901 being identified as Arvicanthis zebra, the present species may be readily distinguished from it by its much smaller size and more buffy coloration. Capt. Dunn tells me that this rat was very common in the cultivated fields of the natives, burrowing in their crops of dukhan. It is a very handsome and distinct species, and I have much pleasure in connecting his name with it. 12. A comys w it h e r b y i de Wint. 73. <5 . Katul Hills. 30 October. 13. L eg gada t e n e l l a , sp. n. 7. Old 2 • Roseres, Blue Nile. 14 September, 1902. (B. M. No. 3.2.8.13.) Type. " Found in burrows in cornfield ; had 7 young in the womb."- H. N. D. A very small species of the L. minutoides group. General colour of cheeks and sides a clear sandy or ochraceous buff, with a distinct darker median dorsal area, commencing as a narrow well-defined line on the nose, broadening on the crown, and extending, though less sharply defined, all down the back, and dying away on the rump. Under surface pure sharply defined white. No lighter markings round eyes. Ears small, evenly rounded, grey, their edges faintly whiter; a large and prominent white patch behind and below their posterior bases. Fore limbs wholly white; hind limbs with a narrow line of the body-colour continued down on the hinder side to the heel, otherwise white. Tail about as long as the body without the head, brown above, inconspicuously lighter below. Skull smaller and narrower than in the Cape L. minutoides, with square and well-defined supraorbital edges. Palatal foramina ending level with the anterior fourth of m.1. Posterior palate elongated, its hinder edge about equidistant from the last molars and the front of the bullae. Dimensions of the type :- Head and body 50 mm.; tail 35 ; hind foot 11*5 ; ear 9. Skull: greatest length 17*2; basilar length 14; zygomatic breadth 9 ; nasals, length 6'3 ; interorbital breadth 3 ; brain-case, breadth 7*5 ; palate, length 9*3; palatal foramina 4‘0 ; diastema 5‘0 ; length of upper molar series 3'0. Hab. and type as given above. |