Descriptive List of the Rodents of South Africa. 183 



Xertis capensts, JENTINK, Notes Leyd. Mus., iv., p. 48 (1882) ; 

 NOAK, Zool. Jahrb., iv., p. 131, pi. iii., fig. 10 (skull), (1889) [Kalahari 

 and Damaraland] . 



Description. General colour above and on the sides pale rufous 

 brown, sparingly speckled with black, the hairs being short, coarse, 

 and close-lying ; a narrow white stripe runs from the shoulders to 

 the haunches, below dull white ; skin black ; head broad ; whiskers 

 black ; eyes large and prominent with a dull whitish line above and 

 below ; ear conch completely absent, the ear being a narrow diagonal 

 slit, half an inch in length ; limbs somewhat paler than the body, 

 with four claws on the fore and five on the hind feet, the thumb being 

 shorter and bearing a rudimentary flat nail ; the claws are large, 

 nearly straight, and black in colour ; tail a little shorter than the 

 head and body, near the root coloured like the body, beyond very 

 bushy and distichous, mixed black and white, the individual hairs 

 being chiefly white with two distinct black bands. 



Skull with the bony palate extending a quarter of an inch beyond 

 the level of the posterior molars, nasals broad and zygornatic arches 

 stout. 



Incisors white, premolars 1/1 only. 



Dimensions (from a skin). Head and body ll'O ; tail 9 - 0, with 

 terminal hairs lO'O ; hind foot 2 - 33 ; from ear-opening to nose 2'0 ; 

 skull length about 2*0, breadth about 1-40 ; upper cheek teeth '49. 



Distribution. -The central and drier parts of the Colony, extend- 

 ing northwards through the Kalahari and Bechuanaland to Matabele- 

 land and Damaraland ; not found far to the eastwards ; the South 

 African Museum possesses examples from Namaqualand, Colesberg, 

 and Griqualand West in the Colony. 



GEN. FUNISCIURUS. 



Funisciurus (sub-genus), TROUESSABT, LeNatur., i., p. 290 (1880). 

 Type F. lemniscatus. 



Paraxerus (sub-genus), FOESYTH MAJOK, Proc. Zool. Soc., p. 189 

 (1893). Type F. ccpapi. 



Fur soft, never spiny ; external ears well developed ; no cheek 

 pouches ; toes as in Xerus, but the claws short and curved; skull 

 much as in Xerus, with very small postorbital processes ; dentition 

 as in Xerus. 



Mr. Forsyth Major, in his paper on Squirrels, quoted above, placed 

 the three South African squirrels, together with certain other African 



