EAST AFRICAN MAMMALS IN NATIONAL. MUSEUM. 29 



sutures alone appears to be fairly constant, and it seems of trifling 

 importance. Some specimens of African species have a dark stripe 

 along the under side of tlie tail, one of the chief characters used by 

 Wroughton to distinguish the Asiatic species (see below, under 

 Tatera vicina vicina) . 

 For measurements of specimens of Tatera see table, pages 33-35. 



TATERA VICINA VICINA (Peters). 



1878. Gerbillus vicinus Peters, Mon.-ber. Kon. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1878, p. 200. 



(Kitui, Ukamba, British East Africa; t^'pe in Berlin Museum.) 

 1906. Tatera momhasx Wroughton, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 17, p. 



493. May. (Takangu, British East Africa; type in British Museum.) 

 1910. Tatera mombasae Roosevelt, African Game Trails, Amer. ed., p. 472; 



London ed., p. 484. 



Specimens. — Sixty-one, from localities as follows : 



British East Africa: Changamwe, 8, including 3 in alcohol 

 (Mearns); Maji-ya-chumvi, 10 (Heller); Mariakani, 1 (Heller); Ma- 

 zeras, 28 (Heller); Mount Sagalla, 1 (Heller); Mtoto Andei, 13, 

 including 3 in alcohol (Heller). 



I am unable to distinguish by any characters whatever specimens 

 from the coast region near Mombasa from specimens collected at 

 Mtoto Andei, which are presumably typical of vicina. Mtoto Andei 

 is in the same kind of country as is Kitui, the type locality of vicina. 

 iVn intensity of color would naturally be looked for in the coast 

 specimens, but these are not darker on the average than skins from 

 farther inland. There is a remarkable variation in the color of the 

 tails in the entire lot. Some are entirely blackish on the terminal 

 third, have a broad stripe of dark brown above, and a narrow stripe 

 below, so that the light brownish colored area below is much restricted. 

 Others have only a narrow stripe of brown along the upper side and 

 have the entire under side light buffy. Between these extremes are 

 all degrees of variation. 



Mearns records the color of the iris as dark brown. Heller gives 

 records of embryos as follows: Maji-ya-chumvi, December 10, five; 

 December 12, five. Heller's manuscript notes on the type-specimen 

 of Gerhillus vicinus Peters in the Berlin Museum are as follows : 



Type, 5273, Kitui (Coll. Hildebrandt). Marked in Peter's writing with name, and 

 no doubt the type. Skull with only rostrum and molars intact; braincase broken 

 badly. One other specimen mounted, but skull of this only represented by tip of 

 rostrum with incisors. 



TATERA VICINA POTH^ HeUer. 



Plate 12, 



1910. Tatera poi^a3 Heller, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 56, No. 9, p. 2. July 22. 



(Potha, Kapiti Plains, British East Africa; type in U. S. Nat. Mus.) 

 1910. Tatera pothse Roosevelt, African Game Trails, Amer. ed., pp. 472, 476; 



London ed., pp. 484, 488. 



