26 BULLETIN 99, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ERINACEUS ALBIVENTKIS HINDEI Thomas. 



Plate 6, figs. 1, 2. 



1892, Erinaceus albiventrn True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mua., vol. 15, p. 469, (Not of 



Wagner.) 

 1910. Erinaceus hindei Thomas, Ann, and Mag, Nat. Hist., ser, 8, vol. 5, p. 193. 



February, (Kitiii, British East Africa; type in British Museum.) 

 1910, Erinacev^ albiventris Boosevelt, African Game Trails, Amer. ed., pp. 474 



and 479; I^ondon ed., pp. 485 and 491. (Not of Wagner.) 

 1910. Erinaceus sotikie Heller, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 56, No. 15, p. 1. 



December 23, (Soutbern Guaso N>dro Biver. British East Africa; type 



in IT. S. Nat. Mus.) 



Specimens. — Fourteen, from tlie following localities: 



British East Africa: Kapiti Plains, 1 (Loring); Loita Plains, 2 

 (Heller) ; Mount Lololokwi, 1 (Heller) ; Southern Guaso Nyiro River, 

 7 (Loring, Mearns) ; Taveta, 1 (Abbott) ; IJlukenia Hills, Athi Plains, 

 2 (Loring), 



The great amount of individual variation in the skull shown in 

 the above series makes it plain that the origmal diagnoses of the two 

 described forms of the hedgehog from British East Africa have been 

 based mainly on mireliable characters. Among specimens from a 

 single locahty are some in which the maxillae are in contact with the 

 nasal bones for 3,8 millimeters; and others in which the premaxillge 

 extend backward and touch or lap the tips of the processes of the 

 frontals, entirely cutting off the maxillae from the nasals. In two 

 skulls these differences obtain on opposite sides of the same specimen. 

 Length and breadth of nasal bones are also so variable as to appear 

 valueless as characters of subspecific distinction. 



Additional specimens from the Sotik, collected since the original 

 publication of Erinaceus sotikse, show such wide variation from the 

 type as to make it impossible to recognize a second race. Several 

 specimens from the two general regions are virtually indistinguishable 

 and there appear to be no average characters outside the range of 

 individual variation represented. The color of the feet seems to be 

 a question of age. The younger specimens all have the feet quite 

 blackish, while adults exhibit a tendency toward pale brown or even 

 whitish feet, according to the age of the individual as indicated by 

 wear of the teeth. Much additional material from numerous locali- 

 ties and a careful revision will be necessary before the true relation- 

 ships of the named forms of this group of hedgehogs will be known. 

 Names which require consideration in such a revision are Enriaceus 

 pruneri Wagner ^ (Nile Valley) and Erinaceus olhiventHs atratus 

 Rhoads ^ (Ngare Nocbor, Lake Rudolf). 



A female hedgehog collected by Heller on the Loita Plains May 

 28 contained four embryos, Mearns records the color of the irides 



« Schreber, Suppl., vol. 2, p. 23, 1841. s Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci, Philadelphia, 1896, p. 544, 



