NO. 12 NEW INSECTIVORES FROM AFRICA HELLER II 



Coloration. — Median dorsal color from snout to base of tail 

 wood-brown, sides of head and body lighter, olive-buff, the color 

 sharply defined below against the silky white underparts; fore and 

 hind feet white ; tail bicolor hair-brown above, white below, the two 

 colors sharply defined on sides, tail covered by short hairs which 

 hide the annulations ; eye bordered below by a wide white band, and 

 another above, which latter is continuous as a wide postocular stripe 

 to base of ear ; this stripe bordered below by a large patch of cinna- 

 mon which reaches the orbit; rest of cheeks olive-buff like sides, 

 ears naked and blackish with a tuft of white hairs at base in front 

 and a fulvus patch at posterior border ; underparts pure silky white, 

 the hair everywhere slate at base, except on chin where it is white 

 to the roots ; chest gland bordered by a patch of vinaceous-cinnamon 

 hair. 



Measurements. — Head and body, 130 mm.; tail, 108; hind foot, 

 30; ear, 22. 



Skull : Occipito-nasal length, 35.5; zygomatic breadth, 19.5; inter- 

 orbital breadth, 6.3; nasals, 13.5x2.8; upper molar series, 6.3; 

 width of palate at m 2 , 6.8 ; length of mandible, 25.5 ; height at coro- 

 noid, 10.5. 



Five specimens are in the collection from the type locality. One 

 of these is a mature male which is slightly darker than the type. 

 There is also an immature male and two nursing young. These 

 young examples are quite like the adult in color but much longer 

 haired and woollier in appearance. This race is a coast form and 

 its darker coloration is no doubt due to the moister climate to which 

 it is subject. Pulcher which is an inland and highland race is also 

 a dark form and differs from this race only in degree of color. Be- 

 tween the two areas of these races is found the russet colored desert 

 form rufescens. The moist conditions of the immediate coast strip 

 and the highlands of the interior produce a similar dark coloration 

 in this species while the climate of the intervening desert region 

 produces a decidedly reddish type of coloration. 



All of the species of the rufescens group have a large chest gland 

 covered thickly by short white hair in both sexes. This chest gland 

 only occurs in specimens from northern German East Africa north- 

 ward to Somaliland and Abyssinia. In the north, however, we find 

 revoili and its allies without the chest gland and a similar condition 

 is found in all the rupestris allies of the Zambesia and South African 

 region. The forms called pulcher, somalicus, boranus, dundasi, and 

 peasei are all races of rufescens and of only subspecific value. These 



