314 Messrs. J. C. Melvill and J. H. Ponsonby on 



large, tlieir internal basal projection small ; a rounded lobe at 

 the base of their outer edge. Fur close, soft, and velvety. 

 General colour above a dark smoky or bistre-brown, a dull 

 buffy tinge present on the fore back and sides. Under sur- 

 face dirty whitish, the slaty, bases of the hairs showing 

 through ; line of demarcation on sides fairly well defined. 

 Colour of face, limbs, and tail as in M. incana. 



Skull similar in its general proportions to that of M. in- 

 cana^ but decidedly smaller. Supraorbital edges not beaded. 

 Anterior palatine foramina extending backwards only to the 

 canines. Canines very short. Middle upper premolars 

 longer horizontally than vertically, very narrow transversely. 



Dimensions of the type (an adult female in skin, appa- 

 rently somewhat contracted) : — 



Head and body 118 millim. ; tail lo8 ; ear 19. 



Skull : lambda (back end of parietal suture) to nasal tip 29 ; 

 greatest breadth (c.) 17 ; nasals 14 x 4 ; interorbital breadth 6 ; 

 intertemporal breadth 6*1 ; palate length 18 ; palate breadth 

 between outer corners of ^ 9'6. Combined length of ™- ^'^ 5'5. 



IJah. Eio Abbaregas, Merida, Venezuela, alt. 1630 metres. 



Coll. S. Briceno, April 6, 1896. 



The Merida collection contains three species of the Mar- 

 mosa group, of which the largest is a typical M. murina and 

 the smallest is so like M. pustlla that, in spite of the con- 

 siderable extension of the known range involved, I do not see 

 any reason for distinguishing it. The middle one, however, 

 although it may be said to represent M. incana, cannot be 

 actually assigned to that species, from which it differs by its li 

 decidedly sn)aller size and much darker colouring, notably 

 that of the lower surface. No other described species is at 

 all like it. 



XLVII. — Descriptions of new Terrestrial Mollusca from South 

 Africa. By James Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S., and 

 John Heney Ponsonby, F.Z.S. 



[Plate XVI.] 



Since the publication of our last paper (Ann. & Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. ser. 6, vol. xvi. p. 478), describing five new Ermece from 

 the South- African region, two more, both of them conspicuous 



marmota, Oken, Lelirb. Nat. iii., Zool. ii. p. 1140 (1816), so that the 

 Paraguay and Corrientes species must bear the name of Marmosa 

 marmota. (See Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) xiv. p. 184, 1894, and (6) 

 xvi. p. 58, 1895.) 



