276 Mr. W. H. Osgood on 



XXXVIIT. — Eight new African Rodents. 

 By Wilfiied H. Osgood. 



In tlie study of a collection of African Mammals for the 

 Field Museum of Natural History, several undescribed forms 

 have been encountered in the British Museum collection, 

 access to which has been most courteously afforded me. At 

 the invitation of Mr. Oldfield Thomas, the following de- 

 scriptions of these new forms have been drawn up. To 

 Mr. Thomas I am pleased to make unlimited acknowledg- 

 ments for advice and criticism as well as for the use of the 

 collection which has grown under his charge to its present 

 unrivalled proportions. 



Tacliyoryctes splendtns somaUcus, subsp. n. 



Type from Ujawaj, about 100 miles south-west of Berbera, 

 Somaliland. No. 98. 6. 9. 11, British Museum. Adult 

 female. Collected December 14th, 1897, by R. M. Hawker. 



Characters. — Similar to Tachyoryctes splendens^ but smaller 

 and paler ; decidedly smallest of the splendens group. 

 General colour of upperparts pale cinnamon ; top and 

 anterior part of head dark brown ; hairs of underparts slate- 

 grey at bases, light wood-brown at tips. Skull small ; nasals 

 short and narrow ; audital bullse and molars small ; incisors 

 very narrow. 



Measurements. — Type : total length 246 mm. ; head and 

 body 190 ; tail-vertebrse 56 ; hind foot 24. Skull of type: 

 length from lambdon to tip of nasals 34'7 ; basilar length 

 355; mastoid breadth 20'9; interorbital constriction 6*8; 

 length of nasals 14'5 ; postpalatal length 14 - 1 ; diastema 15'7 ; 

 maxillary tooth-row (crowns) 7*5 ; width of incisor 2'2. 



Remarks. — A cotype of the Abyssinian Tachyoryctes 

 splendens shows that this species is typically dark-coloured 

 and that its skull is decidedly larger with much heavier teeth 

 than the form here described from Somaliland. Other 

 specimens from Abyssinia are somewhat paler than the type 

 of splendens, but show essentially the same cranial characters. 



Pelomys fallax insignatus, subsp. n. 



Type from Fort Hill, Northern Nyasa. No. 97. 10. 1. 220, 

 British Museum. Adult male. Collected July 1896 by 

 A. Wbyte. Original No. 185. 



Characters. — Similar to Pelomys fallax, but lacking a 

 well-defined blackish median dorsal stripe, the upperparts 



