124 Mr. G. Dollman on the African Shrews 



pi. cxxxv., 1776), was subsequently described as G. eler/ans 

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

 sidered and rejected by Geoffroy, it was revived interroga- 

 tively b}' Graj' and accepted as a certainty by Thomas and 

 Wroughton. I thiidv Geoffroy was right in dismissing the 

 Yansire of Buffon as an indeterminable species. Mivart 

 (P. Z. S. 18o2, p. 189) was probably nearer the truth than 

 Gray, Thomas, and Wroughton when lie suggested that it 

 niiglit be a species of Salanoia [HemigaJidia), adding that 

 "had it been Gah'dia the black-ringed tail would surely 

 have been indicated.*' 



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

 ■well as the descrij)tion ol: tlie general coloration of the 

 A'ansire, make it impossible to regard this ambiguous animal 

 as even probably, much less certainly, identical with 

 Geoffroy's Galidia eleyans. The familiar specific name of 

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

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

 be relegated to the limbo of mammalian species unidentifiable 

 at tiie present time. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIL 



Fin. 1. GalixJictis eximuis, sp. ii. 



Fig. 2. Galidictis ornatus, sp. u. 



Fig. 3. Mitngotictis vittatus, Graj'. 



Fig. 4. Mungutictis suhstriatus, sp. n. 



XIX. — On the African Shrews belonging to the Genus 

 Crocidura. — lY. By Guv Dollman. 



[Continued from p. 80.] 



Group 8 { Ji seller i). 



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

 mon-brown, below wliite 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 (1900). 



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 



