MAMMALS COLLECTED BY JOHN JAY WHITE IN 

 BRITISH EAST AFRICA 



By N. HOLLISTER 

 Assistant Curator, Division of INIammals, U. S. National Museum 



(With Two Plates) 



Mr. John Jay White, of Washington, D. C, has presented to the 

 United States National Museum a number of large mammals col- 

 lected by himself in British East Africa during the summer of 1908. 

 Several of the specimens are of special interest, and the collection 

 as a whole is of considerable importance. 



On May 8, 1908, in company with Dr. W. S. Rainsford, Mr. 

 White left Nairobi for Nakuru, at which point the party left the 

 railroad on the following day and traveled northward, by way of 

 Ravine Station, to Sirgoit Rock, where they arrived May 21. From 

 this date until the first of July the time was spent in hunting over 

 the Guas Ngishu Plateau. July 8 they arrived at Ravine on the 

 return, and traveled east and north for the Laikipia Plateau. About 

 six weeks were spent in hunting over the region to the north of 

 Laikipia Boma and Mount Kenia, and, on the return to the railroad, 

 three days— September 6 to 8 — were devoted to the game on the 

 Elmenteita Plains. September 18 the party again left Nairobi, and 

 another month was spent on the Guas Ngishu Plateau. 



Mr. White has furnished some interesting information about many 

 of the species. The substance of this is included, throughout the 

 list, after the technical notes on the specimens. 



GIRAFFA CAMELOPARDALIS ROTHSCHILDI Lydekker 



Body skin and mounted head of an adult male (No. 155438) 

 from the Guas Ngishu Plateau, June 22. This specimen is a topo- 

 type and therefore of special value to the ]\Iuseum. The mizzen 

 horns are only slightly developed . 



This animal was almost a record specimen for the form. Meas- 

 ured rather hurriedly in the rain, without the front legs fully 

 stretched, it exceeded seventeen and a half feet in height. The dry 

 skin measured twenty-one and one-half feet from tip of nose to end 

 of tail, and exactly the same distance between the edges of the fore 

 hoofs across the shoulders. Giraffes were found to be fairly plen- 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol. 56, No. 2 



