308 A\new Hedgehog from Aden. 



black. Face blackish, with irregular whitish markings over 

 the tyes and at the base of the ears. Ears of niocHuni size, 

 their hairs blackish outside and whitish in. Hands, feet, 

 and ihe t^hort tail ■wholly black. 



k^kull small, about as in P. microhms or niger aeniculus, 

 bioad and stoutly built behind, quite unlike the long narrow- 

 skull of the P. niger group, more as in P. microjms. Ptery- 

 goid region constructed essentially as in P.micropus, but with 

 a tendency towards the greater posterior spreading and infla- 

 tion found in the extreme largt-bulla section of the genus 

 {dii'sa/is and allies) ; thus, Avhile the least breadth across the 

 chtanai outside is less than in mieropus (5'4nim.), the breadth 

 across the posterior external notches of the pterygoids is 

 double this breadth (11 mm.), while in vncrojnis the two 

 breadths are subequal. Mesopterygoid fossa narrow, ))arallei- 

 sided, longer than in viicropus ; the shelf in front of it 

 narrow. Bullw in size about as in mieropus, conspicuously 

 smaller than in dorsalis and the large-buUa species of the 

 genus. 



Teeth about as in mieropus, with the same reduction and 

 crushing-in of t* and p^. 



Dimensions of the type (measured on skin) : — 



Head and body (c.) 155 mm.; tail 16; hind foot 27. 



Skull : condylo-basal length 4'! ; zygomatic breadth 27*5 ; 

 interorbital breadth 12*7 ; intertemporal breadth 10"8 ; palatal 

 length 24 ; breadth of mesopterygoid fossa 2'8 ; length of 

 bulla 8'3 ; combined length of p* and two anterior molars 10"7. 



IJab. (of type). Fayusli, 7 miles north of Sheikh Othnian, 

 near Aden. 



Type. Adult female. B.M. no. 22. 8. 9. 2. Collected 21st 

 March, 1922, and presented by Col. li. Meinertzhagen, 

 D.S.O. 



This highly interesting little hedgehog is, on the whole, 

 confirmatory of the view that the small-bulla and the large- 

 bidla grou})S of Paroechinus should not be subgenerically 

 separated, for while it has quite small bullae, as in the one 

 group, it has a marked tendency to the more spreading and 

 inflated pterygoids of the other. On the whole, its skull is 

 most like that of P. mieropus, but the difference in its ptery- 

 goids and its totally different external coloration give rise to 

 some doubt as to whether it is really most nearly allied to 

 that species, or whether it is rather a small-bulla relative of 

 the species with extra large bullae, such as P. dorsalis. But, 

 in any case, it is an exceedingly distinct species, whose 

 discovery near Aden is very unexpected. 



