If) SJOSTEDTS KILIMANDJARO-MERU EXPEDITION. 2. 



About Jackals in general Professor SJOSTEDT says: They were rather common 

 everywhere on the steppes, especially at Ngare na nyuki, Ngare nairobi, Kiraragua and 

 Leitokitok; they extended through the cultivated zone of the mountain as well, so that. 

 for instance one, was shot quite close at our camp (1300 M.). 



Lycaoii {rictus reiiiitus THOMAS. 

 (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist, Ser. 7 Vol. IX p. 439.) 



Prof. SJOSTEDT observed on the Meru steppe (conf. below) dark Jackal-looking 

 animals with white tails, but did not succeed in coming near enough to kill one of them. 

 These were, no doubt, specimens of Lijcaon and probably the subspecies of the same which 

 has been described by THOMAS from British East Africa under the name quoted above. 

 This subspecies is said to be very dark with at least twice as much black as yellow 

 and its tail is yellow, black and white. As there is no material collected of this kind 

 it cannot be fully stated to which species these black Jackal-looking animals with white 

 tails , but the supposition expressed above appears to be most probable. 



Professor SJOSTEDT has written as follows in his diary about the incident hinted 

 at above: The 28 , 3 I saw at Ngare na nyuki some black jackals with white tails. They 

 kept themselves, 8 in number, out on the open steppe. They did not run away when a 

 gazelle was shot (I did not see them before), but scampered away afterwards like dogs 

 sometimes in a file, sometimes scattered over the steppe. Now and then they halted 

 and looked back, then they continued their pace, spying backwards behind small hills. 

 Although several shot were fired after them, so that even one of them seemed to be hit, 

 they did not increase their speed to a full run, but their celerity was nevertheless consi- 

 derable. 



Croeotta kihonotensis n. sp. 

 (PI. 5, fig. 1; PI. 7, fig. 1.) 



Kilimandjaro: 1 ? ad. from the Kibonoto steppe, 8 'o 1905. 



When my friend Professor MATSCHIE in the year 1900 published a paper about 

 geographische Formen der Hyaenen ,' he gave the specific name germinans to a Spotted 

 Hyaena from East Africa and expressed by this name a hint that future researches pro- 

 bably would prove the existence of several geographic forms of Spotted Hyaena in East 

 Africa. This supposition is now to become a fact. Professor SJOSTEDT'S collection 

 contains material of two Spotted Hyaenas which are as well very distinct from each other 

 - a glance on the plate (PI. 7) will convince everybody about this - - as different from 

 hitherto described forms. One of these two Hyaenas is a short-tailed, red animal, the 

 other is comparatively more long-tailed and dark grey. The type of MATSCHIE' s Crocotta 

 germinans is from the neighbourhood of Lake Rukva (Lake Leopold) and is short-tailed. 

 A comparison is thus only needed between this one and the short-tailed Hyaena from 

 the Kibonoto steppe. With regard to the colour this is easily done. 



1 Sit/. Her. nuturf. Frciiinlr. licrlin 1 !><>() p. IS. 



