124 Mr. G. Dollman on the African Shrews 



pi. cxxxv., 1776), was subsequently described as G. elegans 

 by Geoffroy St. Hilaire. Although this view had been con- 

 sidered and rejected by Geoffroy, it was revived interroga- 

 tively by Gray and accepted as a certainty by Thomas and 

 Wroughton. I think Geoffroy was right in dismissing the 

 Vansire of Buffon as an indeterminable species. Mivart 

 (P. Z. S. 1882, p. 189) was probably nearer the truth than 

 Gray, Thomas, and Wroughton when he suggested that it 

 might be a species of Salanoia (Hemigalidia) , adding that 

 " had it been Oalidia the black-ringed tail would surely 

 have been indicated." 



The absence of the caudal annuli in Buffon's figure, as 

 well as the description of the general coloration of the 

 Vansire, make it impossible to regard this ambiguous animal 

 as even probably, much less certainly, identical with 

 Geoffroy's Galidia elegans. The familiar specific name of 

 this animal must, therefore, in my opinion, be allowed to 

 stand, and the Vansire of Buffon, with galera attached to it, 

 be relegated to the limbo of mammalian species unidentifiable 

 at the present time. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE VII. 



Fig. 1. Galidictis eximius, sp. n. 

 Fig. 2. Galidictis ornatus, sp. n. 

 Fig. 3. Mungotictis vittatus, Gray. 

 Fig. 4. Mungotictis substriatus, sp. n. 



XIX. — On the African Shrews belonging to the Genus 

 Crocidura. — IV. By Guy Dollman. 



[Continued from p. 80.] 



Group 8 (jischeri). 



Size medium. Colour above very pale grey, light cinnamon, or cinna- 

 mon-brown, below white or greyish white. Tail incrassated at 

 base. Second and third upper unicuspids about equal in size. 



(38) Crocidura deserti, Schwann. 

 Crocidura deserti, Schwann, P. Z. S. p. 103 (1906). 



Size as in hindei, very pale in colour, paler than butleri. 

 Colour of dorsal surface pale snuff-grey, general effect 

 about as in " light drab," the ground-colour being " light 



