﻿12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



underparts whitish, suffused by cream-buff; hairs on throat and 

 midline of belly white to the roots ; tail sharply bicolor, sepia above, 

 buff below. 



Measurements. — Head and body, 120 mm.; tail, 139; hind foot, 

 26; ear, 17. Skull: greatest length, 30.5; condylo-incisive length, 

 28.4 ; basilar length, 24.3 ; zygomatic breadth, 14.3 ; interorbital con- 

 striction, 5; nasals, 11.2 x 3.3; palatilar length, 13.5; palatal fora- 

 mina, 6; diastema, 7.8; maxillary toothrow, 5.4; condylo-incisive 

 length of mandible, 19.6; coronoid-angular depth of mandible, 11.4. 



A large series secured in the forest near the summit of Mt. 

 Uaragess, to which elevated region this rat is confined. 



The group of Arviccmthis, to which the name Lemniscomys has 

 been applied, can be separated from the uniformly colored species 

 of the abyssinicus type by their striped or spotted coloration, and 

 the shape of the antorbital plate, which is deeply concave in front 

 with a prominent hook at the angle, as in Dasymys. This bone in 

 the abyssinicus group is rounded at the angle without any con- 

 cavity to its border. 



PELOMYS FALLAX IRIDESCENS, new subspecies 



Taita Creek Rat 



Type from Mt. Mbololo, Taita Mountains, altitude 5000 feet; 

 adult male; number 181801, U. S. Nat. Mus. ; collected by Edmund 

 Heller, November 5, 191 1; original number, 4620. 



Characters. — Allied most closely to fallax, but differs in the 

 heavier dorsal stripe ; strong suffusion of buffy on the chest ; nar- 

 rower nasals and broader interorbital region. 



Coloration. — General dorsal color golden-olive, lined with black, 

 the whole suffused by an olive-green iridescence, the median dorsal 

 region with a well defined black streak from nape to base of tail; 

 sides of head and body lighter golden, the color carried low down 

 on sides, where it merges gradually into the golden-ochraceous of 

 the chest ; ears on outer side blackish, brownish within ; hind feet, 

 buffy ; fore feet golden-olive ; tail bicolor, black above, tawny 

 below ; underparts with chest suffused with golden-ochraceous ; 

 chin and throat whitish ; the belly buff ; the hair everywhere plum- 

 beous basally. 



Measurements. — Head and body, 140 mm. ; tail, 140 ; hind foot, 

 31.5; ear, 18. Skull: greatest length, 36; condylo-basal length, 

 33.5; basilar length, 29; zygomatic breadth, 18.3; interorbital con- 

 striction, 6; nasals, 14.3 x 4; post palatal length, 12. 1 ; palatal 



