206 Dr. J. E. Gray on a new Propithecus and the Fossane. 



punctured, and with the external edge very setose j terminal 

 segment of abdomen more transverse. 



Length 1 inch 6 lines. 



Hab. Locality unknown. B.M. 



Looks, at first sight, like a red specimen of T. sinensis ; but 

 the sculpture, pilosity, and dentation of the cheliceres are quite 

 different. 



XXIX. — Notes on a new Propithecus and the Fossane from 

 Madagascar. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.E.S. &c. 



The British Museum has lately received a number of mam- 

 malia from Madagascar collected by Mr. Crossley. The two 

 following are quite new to the Museum collection, and, I 

 believe, new to modern science. 



1. Propithecus hicolor. 



Black ; middle of back and loins white, with a central black 

 streak ; brownish on the margin. 



Madagascar. 



The white on the back is marked with a more or less di- 

 stinct, central, longitudinal black line, which is most distinct 

 and extends nearly to the rump in one of the specimens. 



In the other specimen, that has not this line so distinctly 

 marked, the middle of the back is brownish. In both speci- 

 mens the hinder part of the thigh is rather brown ; the tail is 

 slender, of an intense black, and about the length of the body. 



The two specimens are very much alike in size and colour, 

 and very different from the other three species in the Museum. 

 They are very like Indris brevicaudatus ; but they have a di- 

 stinct tail, like the other Pro^titheci. 



2. I have no doubt that this is the animal described by 

 Buffon (Hist. Nat. xiii. p. 163, t. 21), received from M. 

 Poivre, who sent it to the Academy of Sciences in 1761, but 

 which of late has been unknown to naturalists. I was so 

 satisfied from the description and figure that it was separate 

 from the other known Viveme, that in the ' Proc. Zool. Soc' 

 for 1864 I estaljlished for it a genus of the name of Fossa ; and 

 this is repeated in the ' Catalogue of Carnivorous, Pachyder- 

 matous, and Edentate Mammalia in the British Museum ; ' but 

 various zoologists have decided that this was a mistake. The 

 Museum has now received a male and a female and a skeleton 

 of an animal that I have no doubt is the Fossane ; and it 

 proves to be a very distinct genus, having the soles of the 



