AN ANNOTATED CATALOGUE OF THE MAMMALS COLLECTED BY 
DR. W. L. ABBOTT IN THE KILIMA-NJARO REGION, EAST AFRICA. 
BY 
FREDERICK W. TRUE, 
Curator of the Department of Mammats. 
(With Plates LXXV-LXxx. ) 
Among the many African collections which Dr. Abbott has, with a 
generosity and an enlightened patriotism worthy of the emulation of 
other American travelers, presented to the National Museum, none are 
of more interest than the collection of mammals. This is the first col- 
lection of African mammals of any magnitude with which the Museum 
has been enriched, and it is greatly valued on that account; but it 
has in addition a high scientific value. The specimens have been 
prepared with much care, the skins being almost invariably accom- 
panied by the skulls and furnished with labels giving the locality and 
date of capture, sex, and other data. 
In determining the species I have found it necessary to depend 
almost exclusively on the literature, on account of the lack of speci- 
mens for comparison, but the identifications have been made with 
much care and may, I think, on the whole, be relied upon. 
Several species apparently new are represented in the collection: 
Dendrohyrax validus, Mus aquilus, Dendromys nigrifrons, Sciurus undu- 
latus, Cephalophus spadia. 
On one who has studied the North American mammalian fauna in 
detail, the thought impresses itself that the condition of species, as re- 
gards variation, is different in the Ethiopian and Nearctic regions. In 
North America individual variation seems far less extensive than in 
Africa, while geographical variation appears to be more extensive and 
constant. In Dr. Abbott’s collection great individual variation is espe- 
cially apparent in the genera Galago, Genetta, and Canis. It is true that 
the species of the last-named genus everywhere present much individual 
variation, but in North America its chief variations appear to be 
geographical in character. 
The known range of several species is considerably extended by Dr. 
Abbott’s labors. Among the species whose range extends farther 
north than has apparently hitherto been suspected, may be mentioned 
the following: Mellivora capensis, Canis mesomelas, Otocyon megalotis, 
Eliomys murinus, Otomys irrorata, Aulacodus swinderianus, Megaderma 
Proceedings National Museum, Vol. XV—No. 915. 
445 
