44 On a new Hedgehog from Southern Arabia. 



Out of the leu specimens, only three may be said to 

 be black throuiihout, but even in thetn a little white may 

 be detected in places ; two are males, but the sex of the 

 other is unknown. In all the others a great deal of white is 

 present on tlie neck, chest, and upper abdomen. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that while the majority 

 of specimens of tliis hedgehog are little darker in the fur than 

 their near ally E. crthiopicus, some individuals in the almost 

 uniform blackness of the furred jjarts resemble the widely 

 distinct species from the neighbouring country, E. macro- 

 canthus. The dark dorsal area on the spines with light sides 

 will, however, always serve as a distinguishing mark of this 

 new species without consulting the skull. 



The skull of E. dorsaUs in its general form resembles 

 that of E. a-thiopicus^ having, like that species, the enor- 

 mously inflated bulLt; and pterygoids, but differs from it in 

 having a much broader snout, this part of the skull of 

 E. cethiopicus being finely pointed ; first upper premolar with 

 two roots, second very small, lying on the outside of the 

 tooth-row and often absent altogether. 



In a Tunisian hedgehog {E. deserti, Loche) the snout is 

 not quite so narrowly pointed as in Eastern Soudan indi- 

 viduals; but this observation rests on a single specimen 

 which in its other characters is inseparable from the hedge- 

 hogs of the Egyptian Soudan, which externally are the same 

 as the Tunisian animals referable to E. cethiopicus. 



In one skull (no. 201, (J) the frontal sends forward a 

 well-defined process which articulates with the premaxilhi, the 

 posterior extremity of which is pointed. In another skull 

 (125, c? ) a similar process from the frontal exists but of a 

 more slender character. On the right side it touches the 

 premaxilla, but not on the left. In another (199, ? ) the 

 posterior extremities of the premaxill^e are rather truncated 

 and separated from the frontal by a considerable interval. 



The postpalatine foramina of this species are remarkably 

 long and wide as comjiared with the considerably smaller 

 imjjerfections of ossification found in E. mthiopicus^ in which 

 each opening is sometimes, and apparently not infrequently, 

 resolved into two openings by the presence of a transverse 

 ridge of bone. 



Measurements taken from specimens in alcohol : — 



