196 FIELD MUSEUM or NATURAL HISTORY ZOOLOGY, VOL. X. 



Cavia (Qalea), wellsi* sp. nov. 



Type from Sao Marcello, junction of Rio Preto and Rio Sapao, 

 Bahia, Brazil. No. 20783 Field Museum of Natural History. Adult 

 female. Collected March 19, 1914, by Robert H. Becker. Original 

 number 533. 



Characters: Similar to Cavia spixi from the catinga of eastern 

 Brazil, but very slightly darker in color and markedly different in 

 cranial characters, the skull being shorter and broader and the audital 

 bullae larger. 



Color: Fresh, unworn pelage : Upper parts wood brown and dusky 

 finely punctulated, the hairs of the anterior part of the body deep mouse 

 gray basally and with two or sometimes three annulations of wood 

 brown and dusky distally; hairs of posterior part of the body paler 

 basally, between mouse gray and light mouse gray of Ridgway; a light 

 eye ring (tilleul buff) with a very slight interruption at the anterior 

 canthus of the eye and a broadening at the posterior canthus which 

 continues with slight admixture of dusky to the base of the ear and 

 thence above the ear to a definite postauricular spot which is whitish 

 on its lower side; inside of ears well clothed with buffy hairs; hairs of 

 maxillary region with broad avellaneous tips, those of the lower throat 

 similar but with narrower tips and with the dark basal color somewhat 

 exposed; chin and fore-throat, chest, belly, and inside of legs creamy 

 white, a few of the hairs along the median line without dark bases; upper 

 side of fore and hind feet pale wood brown or buffy. 



Skull: Similar to that of C. spixi, but broader, and more heavily 

 ridged; audital bullae decidedly larger; ascending branches of pre- 

 maxillas broader and more spatulate; supraorbital border from lacrymal 

 to squamosal more elevated, especially anteriorly; lacrymal and maxil- 

 lary arm of zygoma broader and heavier; posterior border of lacrymal 

 with a nearly semicircular orbital process; interparietal small and 

 triangular; palatine foramina short and relatively expanded; palatine 

 very slightly pitted and joining maxillary evenly instead of at an angle; 

 mesopterygoid fossa rounded in front; basioccipital narrow; foramen 

 magnum high and narrow; cheekteeth relatively heavy; front of incisors 

 creamy buff, paler than in C. spixi. 



Measurements: Type: Total length 234; hind foot 51. Skull of 

 type: Greatest length 57.5 (59.2) ;f basilar length 45.5 (46.1) ; zygomatic 



* Named for James W. Wells, author of Three Thousand Miles Through Brazil, 

 and explorer of the Rio Preto in 1874. 



t Measurements in parentheses are those of a specimen of Cavia spixi (No. 

 20289), from Jua, near Iguatu, Ceara, Brazil. 



