200 Annals of the South African Museum. 



i/ / 



especially the toes, of which only the three middle ones bear claws, 

 the fifth bears a flat nail, the first is represented only by a tubercle ; 

 the soles of the carpus and tarsus are without well-defined pads, but 

 covered with a series of closely set hemispherical swellings ; tail 

 longer than the head and body, covered with rings from which spring 

 short bristles, dark above, light below ; eight mammae, one pair 

 axillary, one pair pectoral, and two pairs inguinal. 



Dimensions (from a stuffed specimen). Head and body 2'80 ; tail 

 3-0 ; hind foot -60 ; from ear-opening to tip of nose '65 ; skull, 

 length -80, breadth -40 ; upper cheek teeth -15. 



Distribution. Sir A. Smith's type came from Durban ; the South 

 African Museum possesses examples from the suburbs of Cape Town ; 

 no other locality seems to be recorded, unless certain examples men- 

 tioned by M. Bocage from Angola are referable to this species. 



GEN. STEATOMYS. 



Steatomys, PETERS, Bericht Akad. Berlin, p. 258 (1846). Type 

 <S'. pratensis. 



Small, short-tailed, mouse-like animals, always very plump owing 

 to the storage of fat all over the body, with no cheek pouches, 

 moderate ears, and short limbs. 



Skull with the infraorbital opening not narrowed below. 



Upper incisors grooved ; molars tuberculated, the tubercles 

 arranged in two rows, except in the case of the anterior upper 

 molar, whose median row consists of three, so that this tooth has 

 seven tubercles instead of eight, as in Mus. 



This genus is also purely Ethiopian. Three other species have 

 been recently described from ^Yest and East Africa. 



STEATOMYS PRATENSIS, THE FAT MOUSE. 



Steatomys pratensis, PETERS, Bericht Akad. Berlin, p. 258 (1846) ; 

 THOMAS, Ann. Mag. N. H. (6), x., p. 265 (1892); DE WINTON, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc., p. 805 (1896) [Mashonaland] . 



Steatomys cdulis, PETERS, Pveise Mozamb. Saugeth, p. 163, pi. 

 xxxiv., fig. 2, pi. xxxv., fig. 11 (1852). 



Steatomys krebsii, PETERS, ibid., p. 165, pi. xxxvi., fig. 3 (1852) 

 [Kaffraria] . 



Description. Form stout and plump ; general colour dark rufous 

 above, lighter on the sides, white below ; fur very short and soft ; 

 snout short and pointed ; ears moderate, fairly well clothed with 



