On new Canii'voru from Nortli-easl Africa. 4()1 



<jriz/Jttl, nml lii^ht j)atclip>< on iifclc ami throat aliseiit <.r 

 iaiiitly iiuiicat(Hl, the whitish area on chin sharply contrastcl 

 with region inmiediately behiml it. JSummer pelage not 

 known. 



Measurements. — Type. Head and body 1220 mm. ; hind 

 foot IJOo ; hind foot includinnr hoof 3')5 ; ear 120; upper 

 length of skull 1(j1 ; condylo-hasal length l<Sf) + ; zygomatic 

 breadth 92; mandible IGl: ; maxillary tootli-row 55" 8 ; 

 mandibular tooth-row 66. 



Specimens examined. — Eight (three in U.S. National 

 Museum), all from the Province of Burgos, Spain. 



LI. — On Two new Curnwora from North-east Africa. 

 Hy A. Cabrera; C.M.Z.S. 



Until so recently as 1909, Otocifon mef/alotis, described by 

 Desmarest in 1822 from specimens obtained by Delalande 

 in the Cape Colony, was the only form of its geims 

 known to naturalists. All subsequent nnmes (lahindii, cafer^ 

 anritus), as based also on the South-African animal, are mere 

 synonyms. Now, last year, my friend Mr. (}. S. Miller 

 described as Otoci/on virgatus the long-eared fox from 

 British East Africa (type locality, Naivasha), distinguishing 

 it by the peculiar colour of the tail and the ventral surface oE 

 the body, and by the sku.l "differing from that of 0. mega- 

 lotis in the Hatter, less inflated audital buUse, and absence of 

 notch between angular and subangular processes of man- 

 dible" *. The last detail is not correct, Mr. j^liller having 

 been misled by Huxley's bad figure in * Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society,' 1880, p. 258, in which the lower jaw 

 presents above the subangular process a deep notch, a purely 

 imaginary characteristic that is never normally present in 

 skulls of Otocyon. This may be seen in the woodcut j)ub- 

 lished by Mivart in his * Monograph of the Canidte,' p. 205, 

 that fijiure being the most correct and most trustworthy I 

 liave seen. 



Otoci/on virgalus is, notwithstanding, readily distinguish- 

 able from meijalotis not only by its colour but also by the 

 less inflated bulhe and the smaller teerii, the width of m^ 

 hardly representing a flt'th of tiie total width of the palate at 



* Smithsoniau Misc. Coll. vol. Hi. part 4, no. 1883. 



