Two new Species of Mammals from Madagascar. 125 



XVIII. — Notice of two new Sjiecies of Mammals (Propithecus 

 and Hemicentetes) from Madagascar. By Dr. Albert 

 Gunther, F.R.S. &c. 



Mr. Crossley has recently sent another collection from Mada- 

 gascar* ; among the specimens selected for the British Museum 

 are two apparently undescribed species of Mammals. Two 

 adult specimens of Ericulus, one of which is of blackish, 

 the other of whitish colour, appear to correspond to the E. spi- 

 nosus and E. niqrescens of Grandiclier's List of Madagascar 

 Mammals, in ' Rev. et Mag. Zool.' 1867, p. 318. Our spe- 

 cimens are of different sexes — the dark ones being males, and 

 the light-coloured females. The spines of the latter are 

 rather more slender than those of the other specimens. It is 

 very probable that these differences in the colour and spines 

 are merely sexual. 



Propithecus holomelas. 



Allied to and nearly of the same size as P. Edwardsii. 

 Throat and all the lower parts covered with dense fine woolly 

 hair. Male with a small patch of ferruginous hairs radiating 

 from a centre in the middle of the chest, opposite to the manu- 

 brium sterni ; in the female this patch is replaced by two 

 smaller ones placed side by side, and the hairs are of a whitish 

 colour. All the upper parts deep black, except the back of 

 the root of the tail, which is brownish. Abdomen greyish 

 brown. A few whitish hairs at the extremity of the tail. 



Male. Female, 

 in. in. 



Length of body 23 23 



Length of tail 16 15 



I have examined two adult males and two females ; they 

 were obtained at Fienerentova. 



Hemicentetes nigriceps. 



The upper part of the head black, without or with only a 

 trace of the median white band by which H. madagascariensis 

 is characterized. Body covered with woolly hair, slender 

 spines being scattered almost uniformly over the back and 

 sides ; neck with a transverse band of closely set long spines 

 or bristles, as in the other species, but the bristles are more 



* See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 78. 



