14 SJOSTEDTS KILIMANDJARO-MERU EXPEDITION. 2. 



In his book Die Saugethiere Ost Afrikas MATSCHIE has mixed up this form with 

 C. variegatus and uses that name for the blackbacked Jackal of German East Africa, 

 which may deserve a third name of its own if the characters alluded to are constant. 



Canis adustus STJNDEVALL. 



Canis adustus SUNDEVALL, MATSCHIE, Saugethiere Ost-Afrikas p. 65. 



Kilimandjaro: 2 specimens from Ngare nairobi, 2 / 1906. - 1 specimen (?) from 

 Kibonoto 9 /a 1905 and 1 specimen badly damaged by insects. 



The skulls of these specimens agree in every essential point with the skull of one 

 of SUNDEVALL'S types, a female as well, which is kept in this museum. Both have the 

 very characteristic appearance figured and described by DE WINTON ' under the head 

 of Canis lateralis SCLATER . The author mentioned is somewhat uncertain whether 

 Canis adustus SUNDEVALL and C. lateralis SCLATER are identical or not. A comparison 

 of DE WINTON'S description of the characteristics of the latter with SUNDEVALL'S types 

 proves that both these Jackals certainly have so much in common that they form a 

 natural unit. It becomes then rather a matter of taste whether one wants to regard 

 them as forming a single species which must be known under the oldest name adiiHlnx 

 and may be subdivided into several geographic subspecies, or it may be deemed desirable 

 to create a separate subgenus for them as HILZHEIMER has done and proposed the name 

 Schceffia for the same. 2 As DE WINTON has pointed out and HILZHEIMER confirmed 

 these Jackals have several characters which bridge over the separating line one would 

 like to draw between the Jackals and the Foxes. (DE WINTON 1899 Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 p. 543. ) Among the exterior characters the long white-tipped tail has been especially 

 mentioned. The long, flat and narrow skull is also rather fox-like the more so as (at 

 least in females) in one of SUNDEVALL'S types and some of the present specimens the 

 postorbital processes are slightly concave. 



SCLATER'S plate of the type of Canis lateralis 3 resembles very much especially the 

 female of SUNDEVALL'S types which has the same black colouration of the tail and the 

 lateral band just as plainly visible. The distinguishing features are less easy to recognize. 



It is also difficult to ascertain whether there is any subspecific difference between 

 the Kilimandjaro-Jackal of the adustus-type and the true South-African adustus. The 

 members of the Canidce are more subjected to variation than some modern writers appear 

 to realise. There is also in some instances an important difference between the sexes 

 which is even well visible on the skulls. The difference in basicranial length amounts 

 to 6 mm. between two specimens of the present collections. DE WINTON has fully appre- 

 ciated the differences in colour and markings which these Jackals may display. The 

 same thing is proved by one of these specimens as well, in which the otherwise very con- 

 spicuous white tip of the tail is substituted by a few white hairs only, which are very 

 little visible and not at all at some distance. 



1 Proc. /ool. Soc. LS'.HI p. 542. 



2 Zool. Beobachter (Zool. Garten) XLV1I p. 364. 

 a Proc. /ool. Soc. 1870. 



