2 SMITHSONIAN MISCElvLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 56 



ble, (S5 ; upper tooth row, inchiding canine, 36.5 ; length of upper 

 carnassial, 11.5; lower molar-premolar series, 32.7; length of lower 

 molar, 13.8. 



Measurements of dry skin. — Total length from nose to end of 

 tail, exclusive of hairs, 960 ; length of tail, 145 ; length of longest 

 claw, measured with dividers, 44.5. 



Remarks. — This ratel is very different from the specimens of 

 McUivora ratel and M. indica in the National Museum. From a 

 specimen of M. ratel from Cape Colony it most conspicuously differs 

 in its smaller size and the indistinctness of the marginal lines along 

 the mantle. From the descriptions of the type of Mellivora concisa^ 

 from Lake Chad it differs in the completeness of the dark iron-gray 

 mantle, which is unbroken and uniform in color from a point well 

 between the eyes to out on root of tail. It is apparently a slightly 

 larger animal. 



MELLIVORA SAGULATA, sp. nov. 



Type from Mount Kilimanjaro, East Africa, at 5,000 feet altitude. 

 Cat. No. 171875, U. S. Nat. Mus. Adult male, skin and skull. Col- 

 lected September, 1889, by Dr. W. L. Abbott. 



General characters. — A ratel of largest size with mantle complete 

 from between eyes to tail. Differs conspicuously from M. ratel and 

 M. ahyssinica in the decided ochraceous color of the mantle. 



Color. — Black, with a mantle of ochraceous tawny from between 

 eyes to well out on base of tail, enclosing a much darker dorsal area. 

 The mantle is pale ochraceous on forehead, darker tawny on nape 

 and along margins ; a darker grizzled blackish-brown center begins 

 at neck, and, widening posteriorly, it completely obliterates the mar- 

 ginal line on hips and rump. Width of mantle between shoulders, 

 135 mm. ; at widest point, 245. 



Skull. — The measurements of the type skull slightly exceed all 

 available measurements of Mellivora skulls.^ Condylobasal length, 

 152; basal length, 140; palatal length, 71.5 ; post-palatal length, 70.5; 

 zygomatic breadth, 87 ; least interorbital breadth, 32.4 ; upper tooth 

 row, including canine, 44 ; length of upper carnassial, cingulum, 

 14.5; length of mandible, 98; lower molar-premolar series, 37.8; 

 length of lower molar, 15. 



* Thomas and Wroughton, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1907, p. 376; Pocock, 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1909, p. 398. 



" The basal length of the very largest skull recorded by Welch ( P. Z. S., 

 1909, p. 888), a male from Grahamstown, South Africa, is 135 mm. 



