TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



I. On the Characters and Affinities of Potamogale, a genus of Insectivorous Mammals. 

 By George J. Allman, F.R.S., Corr. Mem. Zool. Soc. Lond., Regius Professor of 

 Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, and Regius Eee])er of the Edinburgh 

 Museum of Natural History. 



Eead June 13th, 1863. 



[Plates I. & II.] 



A. SMALL mammal, with which I was entirely unacquainted, was lately placed in my 

 hands by Mr. Archibald Hewan, who had just returned to this country from the M'est 

 coast of Africa, where he had been for some time residing, at Old Calabar, in the 

 capacity of medical missionary. The notes which accompanied the specimen were 

 scanty. It is stated to have been observed by one of the natives on the banks of a 

 stream, when it was pursued, and killed, and taken to the missionary-station, where, 

 after having been partly eviscerated, it was put into spirits. In this condition it was 

 brought to England by Mr. Hewan, along with various other objects of interest from 

 the same quarter*. 



A little examination was sufficient to show that the Old Calabar mammal belonged 

 to the order Insectivora, but that, with a well-marked insectivorous organization, it 

 possessed characters of a very peculiar kind, and such as separated it widely from every 

 genus hitherto referred to this order. 



While engaged in preparing a description of the new insectivore, I showed the speci- 

 men to Mr. Sclater, the accomplished Secretary of the Zoological Society, who at once 

 recognized it as identical with a very badly preserved skin which had been brought 

 * The specimen is now preserved in the Echnburgh Huseuni of Natural History. 



VOL. VI. — PART I. B 



