24 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 7. N:0 0. 



Potamoclicpriis cli(Propotamiis iiyasae Major. 



The »Nyasa Bush Pigs» »of a rufous colour» were named 

 as above by Major in the year 1897 (1. c. p. 367). He had, 

 however, at that time only skins without skulls and a skull 

 without skin from Lake Mweru. The latter (B. M. 94. 3. 8. 

 19) belongs to an adult male, and it was figured as the type- 

 specimen. I have had the opportunity of examining and 

 measuring this skull (conf. II table of measurements) and 

 find it very strikingly different from the main form of P. 

 choeropotamus. At the first look the extreme narrowness of 

 the parietal flat area appears very remarkable. It measures 

 only 12,5 mm. in the type specimen, and as the skull has a 

 considerable length, its upper mesial length being 371 mm., 

 the parietal measurement constitutes only 3,-3 "^'/o of the latter 

 dimension. The parietal area is thus only about half as broad 

 as in the narrow-headed P. choeropotamus, and P. ch. nyasce 

 forms thus with regard to this dimension quite the con trast 

 to P. ch. johnstoni. 



The question was, however, if this slruU with the narrow 

 parietal area really belonged together with the »rufous» Nyasa 

 Bush Pigs and if the quoted characteristic was constant. 

 Xeither of these things was proved when Major proposed the 

 name quoted. 



Since then the present author has had the opportunity 

 of procuring from Mr. Rowland Ward a complete specimen 

 from N. E. Rhodesia the skull of which closely agrees with 

 Major's type of P. ch. nyasce. The parietal flat area of 

 this somewhat older specimen is 15 mm. which constitutes 

 4,0 % of the upper mesial length (374 mm.) of the skull. 

 It is thus no doubt, especially as other dimensions as well are 

 similar in the two specimens, that the recently aquired spe- 

 cimen belongs to P. ch. nyasce and as it is the first complete 

 specimen examined it may be stated for the first time with 

 certainty how this subspecies is coloured. The general colour 

 is very dark. The snout is black all round in front of the 

 warts. The forehead is dirty grey mixed with black and 

 with a black stripe above the eyes. The dirty whitish or 

 buffish whiskers are bordered by a black band above and 



