DESCRIPTIONS OF A NEW GENUS AND EIGHT NEW 



SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF AFRICAN MAMMALS 



By N. HOLLISTER 



The new East African mammals herewith described were collected 

 by members of the Smithsonian African Expedition, 1909-1910, and 

 of the Rainey African Expedition, 1911-1912. 



SURDISOREX POLULUS, sp. nov. 



Type from west side of Mount Kenia, British East Africa, at 10,700 

 feet altitude. United States National Museum No. 163992, skin and 

 skull of adult male (teeth moderately worn). Collected September 

 30, 1909, by J. A. Loring. Orig. No. 7562. 



Description. — Like Surdisorex norce Thomas, but smaller, with 

 smaller skull and teeth ; hind foot larger. Color indistinguishable 

 from that oi S. nor a. Upper unicuspid teeth all smaller than in 5". 

 norcc, the first and third especially small and the first conspicuously 

 narrow. 



Measurements. — Type, compared with average measurements of 

 seven adults of 6^. norce from the Aberdare Range, the latter in 

 parentheses : Head and body, 92 (100) mm. ; tail vertebrae, 30 (33) ; 

 hind foot, 17 (15.6). Skull: Condylobasal length, 24.5 (25.2); 

 zygomatic breadth, 6.8 (7.3) ; breadth of braincase, 12.5 (13.4) ; 

 mandible, 14.4 (14.6) ; upper tooth row, entire (alveoli), 10.6 (ii.i) ; 

 lower tooth row, entire (alveoli), 9.6 (lo.i). 



Specimens examined. — Thirty-five from Mount Kenia. These 

 have been compared with a series of nine specimens of Surdisorex 

 norce from the Aberdare Range. There is in no case any doubt as 

 to which form any specimen in this series belongs. The two lots 

 are readily separated by the characters of the unicuspid teeth. 



CERCOCTENUS, gen. nov. 



(MACROSCELID.E.) 



Type species.- — Petrodronius sultan Thomas. 



Characters. — Like Petrodromiis but tail thinly haired and with 

 irregular rows of long, stiff, club-like bristles along under side ; 

 fingers longer. Skull without the large posterior palatine vacuities, 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 66, No. 1 



