EXTERNAL CHARACTERS. 255 



bristly hair, and black somewhat flattened spines. No cranial characters are 

 given as the specimens were unaccompanied by separate skulls. 



In 1907, Thomas obtained a specimen of this genus from Mt. Victoria, 

 British New Guinea, at an altitude of 8,000 feet, the first known from this portion 

 of Papua. It was an old female, but the cranial measurements, though large, 

 do not exceed those of Gervais's larger specimen. This specimen is made the 

 type of Acanthoglossus hruijnii bartoni and is briefly characterized as having 

 fur long and thick, entirely hiding the spines over the whole of the dorsal area 

 except on the nape, sides of the neck, flanks, back of rump, and caudal region. 

 The general color is black throughout except the hands and feet which are brown 

 grizzled with whitish. The spines are white, thin, not exceeding 30 mm., and 

 are absent from the belly. It is not clear how this is to be distinguished from the 

 race villosissima, except that it is black instead of brown. This difference, 

 however, is probably individual. In the same year Thomas (1907a) described 

 Acanthoglossus goodfellowi as a new species from the island of Salawatti. This 

 specimen was obtained from the natives who may quite readily have brought 

 it to this island from the adjacent shores of New Guinea. Salawatti is a rather 

 low island separated from Papua by a narrow stretch of mud-flats, and its fauna 

 so far as known is not different from that of the Papuan mainland. The species 

 is said to be easily recognizable by the predominance of the spines and the almost 

 entire suppression of the woolly coat. The longest spines are some 30 mm. 

 in length, and are white shading basally to gray. The fur is short and scanty, 

 of a uniform black throughout. The skull presents no marked peculiarities. 

 All these characters are shown in one of our Papuan examples, so that there 

 seem to be no grounds for recognizing a Salawatti race, even in case it should 

 be true that the animal naturally occurs there and was not carried thither 

 by the natives. Thus though there are currently recognized five varieties of 

 the Proechidna. the validity of more than the one species is open to serious 

 question. 



EXTERNAL CHARACTERS. 



In the eight specimens in the collection of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology all the characters claimed for these described races are to be found in 

 various combinations, yet there seems no good reason for recognizing more 

 than one form among them. The color of Z. hruijnii hruijnii, as stated by 

 Rothschild, is brownish black or black. The head may be paler than the body, 

 or in albinistic individuals may be more or less white. No. 6,722 M. C. Z. is 



