96 Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol, X. 



black; toes white; postocular spots buffy white sharply contrasted with 

 surrounding black ; under parts wholly ochraceous buff, the hairs mostly 

 self-colored except on the sides of the neck and sides of belly where they 

 have pale drab bases; dark and light areas of scaly part of tail about 

 evenly divided. 



Skull large and very elongate; nasals pointed behind and extending 

 far beyond the posterior border of the lacrymal (in type, nearly to 

 plane of postorbital processes) ; jugal not greatly expanded. 



Measurements. Type and adiilt female paratype, respectively: 

 Total length 572, 553; head and body 284, 275; tail 288, 278; hind foot 

 40, 35. Skull of type: Greatest length 78.8; zygomatic breadth 37.9; 

 interorbital constriction 9.3; width across postorbital processes 13.5; 

 nasals 39.6 x 10; breadth of braincase 21.3; palate length from gnathion 

 45.3; front of canine to back of M * 31-2; M ^ to M ' 11. 6. 



Remarks. This handsome species is evidently widely different in 

 color from any previously described. Doubtless its nearest relative is 

 M. opossum of Guiana and Brazil from which it is easily distinguishable 

 by its broad and sharply defined black dorsal stripe and its richly buffy 

 tmder parts. 



Metachirus canus sp. nov. 



Type from Moyobamba, Peru. No. 19347 Field Museum of Natural 

 History. Male, young adult. Collected Aug. 4, 191 2, by W. H. 

 Osgood and M. P. Anderson. 



Characters. A pale gray species allied to M. grisescens of west 

 central Colombia, but differing in having a bicolor tail, more blackish 

 upper parts and paler under parts. Upper parts uniform peppery 

 gray, the hairs tipped with silvery and dusky brownish ; head dark brown 

 more or less sprinkled with silvery ; under parts pale cream buff, stronger 

 anteriorly, becoming more whitish posteriorly ; gray of sides encroaching 

 largely on belly; feet pale drab proximally, white distally; toes white; 

 slightly less than distal half of tail white, remainder blackish. 



Skull of medium size; nasals decidedly shorter than in M. grisescens 

 and abruptly terminated after their moderate posterior expansion; 

 premaxillae short, scarcely exceeding posterior plane of canine; palate 

 highly fenestrate posteriorly; maxillary end of jugal broad and deep, 

 its lower border practically parallel with the alveolar boundary of the 

 maxillary; occipital condyle decidedly projected beyond inion; last 

 upper molar trilobate in form, not so regularly triangular as in related 

 species. 



Measurements. Type: Total length 568; head and body 275; tail 



