394 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XX, 



Other cases of small size and instability in color occur among 

 the Rodents and Marsupials. 



As Gray cites under his var. opistholeuca (Hand-List Eden- 

 tates, etc., p. 27) Sclater's figure of a Santa Marta specimen, 

 it may be claimed that Gray's name should be adopted for 

 the Santa Marta form. He indicated no type and gave no 

 description beyond the phrase ' ' Rump to the middle of the 

 back white," which is wholly meaningless in view of the 

 variability of Anteaters in general in respect to this feature 

 of the coloration. He enumerates under the name opis- 

 tholeuca 10 specimens, 2 of which are from New Grenada, 

 3 from Guatemala, i from Costa Rica, i from Brazil, and 2 

 from "tropical America." It is safe to say that none of these 

 specimens are likely to prove closely related to the Santa 

 Marta form. The chance citation, therefore, of Sclater's then 

 recently published colored plate seems insufficient to fix 

 Gray's name opistholeuca on the Santa Marta animal. 



It is of interest to note that Sclater on receiving, later, other 

 living specimens of the Tamandua, "probably from Brazil" 

 (/. c., p. 624, 625), noted "well-marked points of difference" 

 between them and the Santa Marta specimen. 



Tamandua tetradactyla tenuirostris, subsp. nov. 



Fig. 3, P- 39- 



Type, No. 17272, ? ad., Passa Nueva, State of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 

 April ii, 1901; coll. A. E. Colburn. 



Size large; tail long, equalling the length of head and body. Color- 

 ation and pattern of markings apparently showing little variation. 

 Type: Light areas white faintly tinged with yellowish, the yellow 

 tint a little stronger on the nuchal-interscapular space than elsewhere ; 

 median light dorsal line extending to hips; dark area purplish black, 

 sharply defined against the white, and reaching the base of the tail, 

 both above and below. 



Four other adults and one young specimen agree almost exactly 

 with the type in coloration and pattern of the markings, except in 

 the posterior extension of the black on the dorsal surface, which in 

 some extends on to the base of the tail and in others terminates on the 

 rump. In a fifth specimen the black extends only to the hips, and is 

 divided the whole length by the light median line ; the shoulder bands 

 are greatly narrowed posteriorly and become obsolete at their junction 

 with the black area behind the shoulders. The black area in two 

 specimens is purplish black and in the others clear black. 



