Mammals from Mount Kilimanjaro. 315 



So far as this series is concerned, the interesting point 

 comes out that the eight females (excluding one wholly 

 plumbeous) are all prominently and deeply black-headed, 

 while the six males are without, or almost without, black on 

 their heads. The variation in the colour of the head has 

 been noticed before in Tachyoryctes, but its correlation with 

 sex has not previously been observed. The females also 

 average rather blacker on the back, and the one plumbeous 

 individual is of the same sex. 



33. Heliophobius spalax, sp. n. 



<J. 1069, 1071, 1074, 1079 ; ? . 1019, 1031, 1038, 1053, 

 10(35, 1073, 1075, 1080, 1081, 1106, 1108. Taveta. 



Allied to II. emini, but with a different structure of the 

 palate. 



Size, colour, and other external characters as in II. emini. 

 No white frontal spot in any specimen. 



Skull most readily distinguishable by the fact that the 

 opening of the posterior nares is narrowed to a mere cleft, 

 which penetrates to close behind the level of the molars, the 

 whole mesopterygoid fossa being consequently much longer 

 than in the allied species. The bone itself at and around the 

 palation is thin, delicate, and perforated by foramina, very 

 different to the strongly and firmly cemented closing in of the 

 fossa in emini and the closely allied kapiti. In adult speci- 

 mens representing emini and kapiti the mesopterygoid fossa 

 measures 6*5 and 6*3 mm. respectively to the tip of the 

 hamulars — in the present form about 8 mm. 



Of other cranial characters, it may be noted that the nasals 

 are more strongly broadened posteriorly, the broadest point 

 being marked by a fairly sharply defined angle about 4 mm. 

 from their posterior end. The postorbital processes are rather 

 less salient. Sagittal crest more strongly developed. 



Dimensions of the type (measured in flesh) : — 



Head and body 186 mm.; tail 14'5 • hind foot 33. 



Skull: conctylo-basal length 45; greatest breadth 344 ; 

 nasals 14*6 x5'8; interorbital breadth 9*7; breadth across 

 postorbital processes 12'1 ; mastoid breadth 22'2 ; palatilar 

 length 24*2 ; diastema 15. 



Type. Adult female. B.M. no. 10. 7. 2. 156. Original 

 number 1081. Collected 20th May, 1910, by R. Kemp. 

 Presented by C. D. Rudd, Esq. 



The fact that this mole-rat is different from the H. emini of 

 German E. Africa and H. kapiti of Central British East 

 Africa comes as rather a surprise, for these two forms are so 



21* 



