NO. 22 LARGE MAMMALS FROM EQUATORIAL AFRICA — HELLER 5 



width of lambdoidal crest, 63; postorbital constriction of skull, 81; 

 palatal width across M 1 , 109 ; width of M\ 24.5 ; width of mesoptery- 

 goid fossa, 43. The skull is immature, all the milk molars being still 

 in use and only the first molar being in place. An adult male skull 

 collected with the type from the same herd has been used to determine 

 the tooth dimensions and the length of the diastema. This skull. 

 182156, measures in condylo-basal length, 457 : greatest breadth, 188 ; 

 upper tooth row, 146; diastema between cheek-teeth and incisors, 84. 

 Remarks. — The skin of the adult male having been lost it has been 

 necessary to take an immature specimen as the type. There is in ad- 

 dition to the type skin another skin of the same age taken at the 

 same time. This latter specimen is quite identical in color with the 

 type. There are in the National Museum for comparison a series of 30 

 skins of grant! from the Athi and Loita Plains. Specimens of granti 

 of the same age differ from the type by their whitish or cream ground 

 color and darker stripes which are seal-brown in color. The stripes 

 of the old adults of cuninghamei, however, as observed in the live 

 specimens in the field are darker than the type somewhat but are not 

 deep black as in granti. The lighter color of the dark stripes is no 

 doubt due to the arid conditions and intense heat and sunlight to 

 which the Northern Guaso Nyiro race is subject. Cuninghamei is 

 a desert race occupying the Northern Guaso Nyiro watershed f r« >m 

 its junction with the Guaso Narok eastward to its termination in the 

 Lorian swamp. Northward the race reaches at least as far as the 

 northern slopes of the Lorogi Mountains and southward as far as the 

 north bank of the Tana River. The race is named for R. J Cuning- 

 hame, the well-known Safari leader of British East Africa, to whose 

 efforts are due the preservation of many of the big game specimens 

 collected by the Smithsonian African expedition under the direction 

 of Colonel Roosevelt. 



CROCUTA CROCUTA FISI, new subspecies 

 Marsabit Spotted Hyaena 



Type from Merille Waterholes, midway between the Northern 

 Guaso Nyiro River and Mount Marsabit; adult male, Cat. No. 

 182078, U. S. Nat. Mus. ; collected by Edmund Heller, July 23, 191 1 ; 

 original number, 2385. 



Characters. — Crocuta crocuta fisi is characterized by its light, pale 

 buff, ground color, the small size of the dark spots on the back and 

 the short pelage. Germinans of the highlands of British East Africa 

 has a much darker ground color either ochraceous, cinnamon or drab. 



