308 Mr. 0. Thomas on Two new 



XXXII. — On two new Rodcntfi from Van, Kurdistan. 

 By Oldfield Thomas. 



The British Museum owes to Major W. H. Williams, 

 recently H.M. Consul at Van, Kurdistan, Eastern Asia 

 Minor, a collection of small mammals made in the neigh- 

 bourhood of that place. Besides manj other specimens of 

 interest to mammalogists, there are examples of the two 

 following new species : — 



EUohius lutescenSj sp. n. 



Size medium. Fur long and loose, not so close or sleek 

 as in the other species. General colour dull slaty buff, quite 

 different from the bright yellowish of the Eastern species, 

 with which it agrees in tooth-structure, and more similar to 

 dark examples of E. talpinus from the Volga. Head but 

 little darker than body. Belly scarcely lighter than back, 

 the line of demarcation quite gradual. Everywhere, above 

 and below, the hairs are dark slaty grey with buffy tips. 



Skull with a long slender muzzle. Nasals long and very 

 narrow, much compressed for their posterior two thirds. 

 Zygomata boldly expanded, starting out anteriorly at a right 

 angle to the general line of the skull. Lambdoid crest 

 curving forwards mesially, not forming an angle in the 

 middle line. Posterior palate much as in E. fuscocapi'llus, 

 but inner part of bullae rising much higher above the level 

 of the basioccipital and basisphenoid than in that species. 



Teeth apparently as in E. fuscocapillus, the complicated 

 shape of the last upper molar quite as in that species*, and 

 perfectly similar in all the six specimens obtained by 

 Major Williams. 



Dimensions of the type, an adult female, measured in flesh 

 by collector : — 



Head and body 125 millim. ; tail 14 ; hind foot 22. 



Skull : basal length 31 ; basilar length 28 ; greatest 

 breadth 24 ; nasals 10 X 3'4 ; palate, length from henselion 

 18*7 ; diastema 12 ; length of upper molar series 7'2. 



Hah. Van, alt. 5000 feet. 



Tijpe. B.M. no. 97.6.4.17. Collected April 12, 1897. 



This EUohius is very distinct from any previously de- 

 scribed. From the group containing E. talpinus, Tancrei^ 

 and rufescens (stated by Biichner to be all identical), it 

 differs by the structure of its last upper molars, which are 

 as in E. fuscocapillus. From the latter again, as from the 



* Figured by Blauford, J. A. S. B. 1. pt. 2, pi. ii. (1881). 



