4 MR. O. THOMAS ON MAMMALS FROM [Jan. 17, 



made such a collection as the present, nearly every specimen of which 

 has been carefully labelled in his own handwriting, with the date, sex, 

 and exact locality — particulars which add enormously to its scientific 

 value. 



The great mass of the collection was not obtained at Dr. Emin's 

 headquarters, on the Upper Nile, but in a district called Monbuttu 

 (lat. 2° 30' N., long. 27° 50' E.), just within the Congo basing and 

 separated by the Congo-Nile watershed from the Wadelai region. 

 There, practically, all the interesting forms were collected ; and, 

 considering their number, and especially their strongly marked 

 geographical character, the general affinities of the mammal-fauna 

 of this district may now be looked upon as settled ; their affinities 

 are discussed at the end of the present paper. 



Of the more recent papers on the Central-African mammal-fauna 

 the three following are the most important : — 



1. Pagenstecher, Dr., " Die von Dr. G. A. Fischer, auf der im 

 Auftrage der geographischen Gesellschaft in Hamburg unternom- 

 menen Reise in das Massai-Land gesammelten Saugethiere " ^. 



2. Noack, H., "Beitragezur Kenntniss der Saugethier-Fauna von 

 Ost- uud Central- Afrika " \ 



3. Leche, W., " Ueber einige von Emin Pascha gesammelte 

 afrikanische Saugethiere " *. 



The first of these contains notes on 31 species of mammals, but 

 the region explored by Dr. Fischer has so different a fauna from 

 Monbuttu, that only some three or four species, and those very widely 

 spread, are common to both collections^. 



Dr. Noack's paper also, based on the mammals collected by Dr. 

 Bohm in the Marungu country, on the soutb-west coast of Lake 

 Tanganyika, refers to a fauna very different to that of Monbuttu, 

 although several species, and those some of the most interesting 

 (e. g. Sciurus hoehmi and Mus kaiseri), are found in both districts. 



Finally, Dr. Leche's paper is founded, like the present one, upon 

 specimens collected by Emin Pasha. Fifteen species are enumerated, 

 but these come chiefly from the Upper Nile district, only three of 

 them occurring also in the Monbuttu collection. The localities 

 given are so widely scattered that the paper, although important for 

 the histories of the individual species, gives but little definite 

 faunistic information. 



There is also a list of 71 species observed in Niam-niam-land, given 

 at the end of Dr. Schweinfurth's *Im Herzen von Afrika,' but 



^ On the assumption that the Uelle is really an affluent of the Congo, and 

 does not run, as has been suggested, north-westwards to Lake Chad or into the 

 Niger basin. 



' JB. Mus. Hamburg, 1884, pp. 32-46 (1885). 



s Zool. Jahrb. ii. pp. 193-302, pis. viii.-x. (1887). 



■» Zool. Jahrb. iii. pp. 115-126, pis. iii. and iv. (1887). 



° Dr. Pagenstecher (pp. 40 and 41) places Gazclla thomsoni and Alcelaphus 

 cokei as synonyms of G. granti and A. licktensteini respectively, observing 

 that they are " figured but not described " in Thomson's ' Masai-Land,' 1885. 

 He se«ms, therefore, to be unaware that these sjjecies were originally described 

 by Dr. Giinther (Ann. & Mag. N. H. [5] xiv. p. 426, 1884). 



