42 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vol. 45 



ATHERURA ZYGOMATICA sp. nov. 



• '(Plate II, figure 4) 



Type. — Adult female (skin and skull), No. 112,429, United States 

 National Museum. Collected on Pulo Aor, off coast of Johore, 

 June 6, 1 90 1, by Dr. W. L. Abbott. Original number, 1009. 



Characters. — Like Atheritra macroiira, from Trong, Lower Siam, 

 but color darker and more bluish, and zygoma shorter and deeper. 



Color. — Type : The elements of the color are essentially as in the 

 mainland animal, that is, the quills are deep bluish horn-color, varied 

 with whitish. But the horn-color is more blue and less brown than 

 in the related form ; and the whitish areas are less developed, so that 

 the dark predominates everywhere, instead of only on back, head 

 and legs. Underparts, except dull whitish area on chin and another 

 in each axilla, dark drab horn-color, darker and clearer on inner side 

 of hind legs, lighter and speckled with whitish along sides of body. 

 Feet, and bristles on naked portion of tail, horny blackish. Ears 

 and whiskers blackish. Tuft of bristles at end of tail dull whitish 

 horn-color. 



Skull and teeth. — In general appearance the skull (pi. 11, 

 fig. 4) resembles that of Atherura macroiira (pi. 11, fig. 5). 

 Its size, however, is slightly less, and in the form of the lachry- 

 mal bone and of the zygoma it appears to differ constantly 

 from the skull of the mainland animal. In Atherura macroura 

 the lachrymal is fully 8 mm. in length below rim of orbit, while 

 above it extends forward as a triangle of bone at least 5 mm. 

 long, and is a noticeable feature of the dorsal aspect of the skull. 

 In A. zygomatica its length below rim of orbit is usually about 5 

 mm. (in only one skull out of seven does it exceed 6 mm.), while the 

 forward extension is often obsolete, and never large enough to be 

 more than barely visible when the skull is viewed from above. Zy- 

 goma shorter than in Atherura macroura, the jugal deeper in propor- 

 tion to its length, more abruptly concave above, and its lower con- 

 tour invariably — even in a specimen so young that the posterior 

 molar is not yet in place — broken by a strongly developed concavity 

 beneath posterior jugal suture, this concavity terminating anteriorly 

 on the posterior upper surface of a well-marked tooth-like projec- 

 tion. This character is present in all of the seven skulls of Atherura 

 zygomatica, and is barely indicated in the three skulls of A. macroura 

 that I have examined. Paroccipital processes broad and stout, not 

 slender and elongate as in the related species. Posterior section of 

 mandible shorter and deeper than in A. macroura. 



