— 244 — 

 4- — Potamochœrus porcus ubangensis (Lonnu.). 



In the vear 19 lo I based this name on a spécimen in the British 

 Muséum, Nat. Hist. , which was fiom the Ubangi vallev, northern 

 Belt^ian Congo. As especiallv characteristic for the subspecies 

 the colonr pattern of the head was desciibed. This Bushpig had a 

 bhick patch on the forehead extending to between the eves, but 

 the whole snout in front of this was whitish, in contrast to the 

 tvpical /''. porcus, which has a dark snout. This same cohnir 

 pattern is to be seen on several skins in the Congo Muséum, whicli 

 hâve been obtained from varions phices in the Uelle région as 

 well as in the big acjuatorial forest ail wav to its eastern trontier 

 at Béni. It is thus clear that this subspecies is rather widelv 

 distributed on the northern and north eastern side of Congo river 

 (and then further East follows the area of distribution for Potn- 

 inoc/iœriis iiiteri/iediiis) . 



When I examined the skuUs which belong to the skins men- 

 tioned above, I found, however, that thej exhibited much greater 

 variation than I had expected, and that the type spécimen in 

 British Muséum, although it was an adult maie, must be smaller 

 than the average. Especiallv the pariétal région ot the type is 

 narrower than that of most spécimens in the Congo Muséum. 



It increases in breadth as usual with âge and mav in some old 

 spécimens become almost as broad as in the tvpical P. porcus. 

 In the oldest as well as the largest (this is not always the same 

 among thèse animais!) boars I hâve found the breadth ot the Hat 

 pariétal area amounting to a maximum of 41,8 mm., but usuallv 

 less than 35 mm. Strange to sav the variation of the sows ofthis 

 race is still greater in this respect, and I hâve measured a breadth 

 of the pariétal area amounting to about 50 mm. in an old sow from 

 Popoie, but as a rule this dimension is much smaller even in the 

 females. 



It is possible that the animais from the more eastern localities 

 are more broad-headed than those from the more western, but to 

 prove this more material ought to be examined. 



The colour pattern is, however, in this case evidentlv more 

 reliabler for distinguishing P. p. iibangeiisis from the tvpical 

 P. porcus than the skuU measnrements, which appears to be a fact 



