neio Neotropical Mammals. 285 



may originally have been quite black. The bases of the 

 hairs, however, are paler dull brownish white. Upper 

 surface of hands and feet dark brown. Tail less than half 

 the length of the head and body, its basal half above like the 

 body, the remainder with stiff black bristles. 



Skull small, delicate ; zygomata slender; nasals surpassing 

 premaxillge by only about a fifth of their length ; no sharply 

 defined ridges on anterior palate. 



Dimensions (approximate, taken on dried skin) : — 



Head and body 290 millim. ; tail 130 ; hind foot (s. u.) 48. 



Skull : tip of nasals to bregma (middle of coronal suture) 36 ; 

 greatest breadth 40*5 ; nasals 188xl0'5; distance between 

 outer corners of infraorbital foramina 235 ; palate length 

 from henselion 26 ; diastema 14'8 ; length of upper molar 

 series (jnp.*, ms}~^) 15. 



Hab. Colombia. 



Type B.M. no. 54. 6. 26. 1. Purchased of Parzudaki in 

 1854. 



This curious little Coendou may be readily distinguished 

 from all other species by its small size, thick fur, uniformly 

 dark colour, and by the presence of the peculiar long slender 

 spines in addition to the normal short ones. 



The only known species as small as C. vestitus is Water- 

 house's C. pallidus, of which it might have been thought 

 that this was the non-albinistic form ; but a comparison of 

 the skulls shows so much difference as to preclude this 

 possibility, nor has C. pallidus more than the normal simple 

 spines. 



The type of C. vestitus is still rather young, as its pre- 

 molars have not changed ; but its last molars are fully up and 

 in use, and it has evidently reached its full size. 



Metachirus opossum melanurus, subsp. n. 



Similar in all respects to ordinary Central-American 

 examples of M. opossum^ but the tail black to the tip. 



Dimensions of the type (an adult male, measured in the 

 flesh) :— 



Head and body 266 millim. ; tail 257 ; hind foot 41 ; 

 ear 30. 



Skull : basal length 67 ; greatest breadth 38 ; combined 

 length of ms}'^ 11*1. 



Hah. Paramba, Rio Mira, N. Ecuador; alt. 1100 m. 



Type B.M. no. 97. 11. 7. 61. Collected April 11, 1897, 

 by Mr. W. F. H. Rosenberg. Five specimens examined. 



All the specimens of the Quica opossum either in the 

 Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 7. Vol. iv. 20 



