(hi a new Subspecies o/Za^lossus. 129 



XI. — (hi (t 7iew Subspecies of Z!iji;lossiis, toith lii-nnir/cs on 

 oilier Sjndes of tlia (Jchus. By OldfIKLD ThoMAS and 

 Lonl KoTllSCillLD. 



In company \\\{\\ the nuininial.s ohtaincil in Nortli-castfiii 

 New (riiiiu'a, in tlie le^^^ioM ol" the Saruwai^ed and liawlinson 

 Monnfains, hy tiie Dutch nussionaiy Mr. C Kcy.iMcr, ut 

 wliich an account is <;iven by Tiioinas in the 'Annals' fur 

 June 1'Jl'2, thrreare t'uur specimens of the rare and interesting,' 

 iininials let'erahle to the genus ZiUjlossus. 



In a paper * on the meml>ers ut' this j^eniis, published in 

 l'JI2, Mr, (ih>ver Allen has expressed the opinion that all are 

 referable to a single species, the variation in their characters 

 being so great that no sj)ecitic or subspecific forms can bo 

 considered as tenable. Many of the points in this paper were 

 dealt with by llothsciiild in 1913 f- 



In exactly the op|)osite direction, Dr, C Kerbert, of 

 Amsterdam, has not oidy recognized |, as we should do, that 

 there aro several tenable f(irnis ot the (usually) three-clawed 

 Zuylossi of western New Guinea, but he has founded a new 

 genus — Prozaglossus — tor the live-clawed Z. bartoni of the 

 eastern part ot the island. 



While Dr. Kerbert has undoubtedly got the jtister view of 

 the case — for the lumping of the wlu)le of the genus into one 

 species is oiiviously unjustifiable, — we are not prepared to 

 recognize the genus l'roZ(ujlossus as valid ; for though it is 

 true that every known specimen of bartoni is iive-clawed§, 

 yet there is too much variation in the presiuice or absence of 

 claws external and additional to the three central ones 

 of britijiiii for their number to be considered as a generic 

 chaiaoter by itsidf". 



jiuth Prof. \Vel)er and Mr. Allen have recorded a number 

 of variations in tiie claws, and to njake this the basis of a 

 generic division, in the entire absence of any cranial cha- 

 racters, would not, in our opinion, be at all advisable. No 

 doubt Z. bartoni is (piite a good species, and of this we now 

 think we should make a .special subspecies for the form 

 which inhabits the Itawlinson Mountain region : — 



Zaglossus bartoni cliinius, subsp. n. 

 Siniilar to true bitrtiini in the presence of five cla vs on all 



♦ Mem. Mat. Mjirviinl, x\. no. "», p. L'o.i (I'JIJ). 



t Nov. Zool. XX. p. IS.-j (i:tl.}). 



t Zool. Aiizfi-er, .xlii. p. UVl (llil.'M. 



§ I'lile.ss tlu) " twijft'liuiitig soort " de.scribeil in 1888 by I'rof. Weber 

 is H Ijdrtoni with one liiiiil claw misising, aa in not iinpossibla (" Over een 

 n'lviisvo svori\ nil I'roev/iutna," MededeclnigenovcrZoogdicruii,.\msttirdiiui, 

 l5bc*). 



Ann. it; Ma</. X. IJist. Scr. 'J. Vol. x. 9 



