NOTES ON A SMALL COLLECTION OF MAMMALS FROM THE TANA 

 RIVER, EAST AFRICA, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



BY 

 Frederick W. True, 



Curator of fhc Department of Mammals. 



Mr. William Astor Clianler and Lieut, von Hohnel have recently 

 sent to the Museum, among- other East African collections, a small 

 number of mammals. These were collected on the Tana Eiver, be- 

 tween the coast and Hameye, a point about .300 miles from its mouth. 

 Included among them is a new species of dormouse, Eliomys, which 

 I propose to name Eliomys parvus. Its characters are as follows : 



Eliomys parvus si), nov. 



Size small. Ears short, rounded, sparsely clothed with short, brown- 

 ish hairs ; the skin of the margin dusky. 



Color above buff, tinged with brown. The hairs of the back are 

 blackish in the basal half, then ringed with buft" and tipped with 

 brown. Muzzle lighter than the head, the short hairs being mostly 

 without dark tips. A dusky line extends from the nostrils to the eyes, 

 and a ring of dark color surrounds the latter. Cheeks (to the base of 

 the ears), lips, chin, and throat clothed with hairs which are white to 

 the base. The remainder of the under surfaces yellowish white, the 

 hairs gray in the lower half. Feet white. Tail pale reddish choco- 

 late-brown, washed with white, especially on the under side. Hairs of 

 the tail short at its base, growing gradually longer distally, and attain- 

 ing a length of 19""" at the tip. The hairs are equally long on the 

 median line and the sides of the tail, and hence there is no trace of a 

 distichous arrangement. 



Dimension H of hod>i in millimeters.^ 



Cat. No. 

 UMI ? 



Length of head and body 80. 



Length of tail vertebrae 69. 



Length of terminal hairs of tail 19. 



Length of hind foot, with claw 13. 5 



Height of ear from base of outer margin 9. 



J>imcnsion.-< of sJcnll in miUimeters. 



Cat. No. 



Basi-cranial length (anterior margin of foramen uiagnuiii to 



posterior base of incisor.s) 18. 



End of palate to posterior base of incisors 7. 3 



Length of nasals 8.0 



Greatest zygomatic breadth 13. 



Upper premolar to posterior base of incisors 5. 



Length of upper molar series 2. 8 



Proceediugs Natioual Miismiiu, Vol. XVl — No. 954. 



fiOl 



