28 



ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 14. N:0 4. 



which IS the type-Iocality of P. /. mansuetus Thomas appears 

 to be only about 30 km as the crow flies, to judge from the 

 map. This distance is so short that one almost feels tempted 

 to use the word topotypes for the present specimens In 

 any case it does not appear possible that two different sub- 

 species of Potos could be found living so close to each other 

 on the same slope of the Andes and with no physical ob- 

 stacle between them. There is thus no doubt that the pre- 

 sent specimens belong to the same subspecies as P. / man- 

 suetus, although only one of them is similar in colour and 

 the others more resemble P. /. modestus. The latter is col- 

 lected something like 100 km further south, but also on the 

 same side where hardly a different race could have diffe- 

 rentiated itself. Considering the habitat and the rather great 

 variability set forth above as well with regard to colour as 

 to cranial characteristics I am inclined to consider all these 

 Kinkajous as members of the same subspecies, for which I 

 use the oldest of Thomas' two names. 



Trouessart has considered the Kinkajou inhabiting the 

 western slopes of the Andes in northern Ecuador identical 

 with Cercoleptes hrachyotus Martin and thus called it Potos 

 flavus hrachyotus. As the origin of Martin's type specimen is 

 . unknown, Thomas has declared it to be indeterminable and 

 I have accepted this. 



To return once more to the great variation with regard 

 to the size of the teeth in these Kinkajous, this is such an 

 unusual and striking feature, that an explanation is much 

 needed. Among Mammals known to me I have not seen 

 anything like this except among certain Primates, but in that 

 order a similar variation is no very unusual occurrence. It 

 might then be questioned; is there anything similar in the 

 hfe history of these otherwise so different mammals, which 

 may cause, or at least explain, the analogous variation of 

 the teeth in both. To this then may be said that both are 

 arboreal and both have a frugivorous, or partly omnivorous 

 diet. 



The general shape of the skull of Potos with its rounded 

 brain case ^nd short snout offers a certain resemblance with 

 that of some Primates, and it may probably be brought in 

 connection with the arboreal habits of both. A shortening 

 of the jaws is also to be seen in other arboreal mammals, 



