( 300 ) 



ON A SMALL COLLECTION OF JLIMMALS FROM THE RIO 

 DE ORO, WESTERN SAHARA. 



By OLDFIELD THOMAS. 



BY the kindness of the authorities of the Tring Mnsenm, I havu been entrusted 

 with the examination of a small collection of mammals obtained by Herr 

 Uiggenbacli at Rio de Oro, a most interesting locality situated just on the 

 Tropic of Cancer, on the western coast of the Sahara. 



With the exce])tion of the four species recorded * by Martinez in 1880 from the 

 same district, no mammals have ever been described from within many hundred 

 miles of this place, and it is therefore not suqirising that I have had to give new 

 names to all three of the determinable small species in the collection. 



1. Canis anthus F. Cuv. 



t?J, July loth and 24th, 1902. 



These specimens are valuable as being more nearly tyi)ical of the Senegal 

 jackal described by F. Cuvier than the North African examples which have usually 

 had to do duty as such. 



2. Mellivora spec. 



S, August ;^rd, 1002. 



Young. May be M. Icnconota, Sclater. 



3. Eliomys lerotinus occideutalis sidisp. nov. 



¥, July 29th, 1902. T>/pc. 



A pallid form, with a Mack, white-tipped tail. 



Size about as in lerotiims. General body-colour above pale grey, with but 

 slight suffusion of fulvous, which disappears altogether on the sides. Clieeks 

 and undersurface creamy white, well defined laterally. Face-markings normal, 

 strong, and well defined, but somewhat restricted in area. Forehead whitish grey, 

 as pale as in E. melanunoi. Hands and feet pure white. Tail slender, little bushy ; 

 greyish for its basal half-inch only, then ijuite black above and below until the end, 

 where there is a short, ]iure white tip. 



Skull as usual ; jialatal foramina smaller, bullae shorter but rather more 

 inflated than in true Irrotinus. 



Dimensions of the type, measnred in skin : — 



Head and body, 112 mm. ; tail, 91 ; hindfoot, s.u., 23; ear (dry), 20. 



Skull, greatest length, 33 mm. ; basilar length, 25 ; zygomatic breadth, 18-5 ; 

 palatal foramina, 4 x 2-r) ; length of bulla, lO; length of upper molar series, 5-1. 



* Ann. &H\ Ksji. ys.\. \k 522. ISKIl, 



