1892.] SPECIES OF THE HYRACOIDEA. 61 



rooted, early deciduous, rarely or never present in adult specimens. 

 Ribs 22. 



Hab. Cape Colony, from the Cape ^ to Natal ^ 



2. Procavia shoana ^ 



Evliyrax ahyssinicus. Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) i. p. 47 (1868) 

 (nee Hyrax habessiaicus, Hempr. & Ehr.). 



Hyrax scioanus, Gigl. Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) vi. p. 21 (1888). 



Size very large, form stout and heavy. Mammfe 1 — 2 = 6. Fur 

 very long, soft, and fine. General colour grizzled olivaceous grey, 

 the straight lines of the back brown basally, with a broad dull 

 yellow subterminal ring and black tip. The greater breadth of the 

 yellow ring and the larger number of the straight hairs as compared 

 to the woolly underfur quite take away the appearance of fine 

 speckling characteristic of P. capensis, and produce a much coarser 

 mottled appearance. Uuderfur coloured as in P. capensis, but the 

 yellow band on both of the sides is broader, and its colour is duller 

 and more tinged with olivaceous. Belly dirty yellow or brownish. 



Dorsal spot very large and diffuse, wholly black, very prominent 

 in well-marked examples. 



Skull large and heavy, but very variable in its proportions, especi- 

 ally in the length of the muzzle, and consequently in the length of 

 the diastema. In the female co-type * the latter is fully 14 mm. 

 long, while in another specimen it is only about 5 mm., but in the 

 large Genoa Museum series nearly all the intermediate links are 

 represented. On the whole the skull cannot be definitely distin- 

 guished from that of P. capensis, although ordinary specimens run 

 rather larger of the northern than of the southern form. Teeth also 

 very variable in size: m]_ from 7'\ to 8-1 in breadth; crown of m^ 

 about 7-2 or 7*3 high ; pT small, single-rooted, about 2'6 or 2-8 in 

 horizontal length. 22 ribs (in one specimen). 



Hab. S. Abyssinia and Shoa. 



Co-types ( c? & ? ) from Ankober, collected by Major W. C. 

 Harris. Other specimens from the Dalanta and Wadela Plateaux, 

 S. Abyssinia {Blanford), Lit Marafia, Denz, Askalena, Monte 

 Mabrat, and other neighbouring localities in Shoa (Antinori, Ba- 

 ffazzi, and Beccari). 



This fine Hyrax, almost if not quite the largest of the genus, has 

 been the cause of great trouble and uncertainty among writers on 

 the group ever since Gray first described the specimens obtained by 

 Capt. Harris at Ankober, these specimens being therefore the co- 

 types of the species as renamed by Giglioli. Gray's reference of this 



^ I have myself seen these animals in numbers on the rocks near Fishhoek, 

 a small Tillage on the eastern side of False Bay. Further west than this I 

 know of no exact record of their occurrence. 



^ The Museum owes to the Eev. W. D. Newnham a beautiful pair of skulls 

 obtained by him in Natal. Lieut. H. Trevelyan has also presented several speci- 

 mens from Kingwilliamstown. 



^ This alteration in the spelling of the name is necessary to bring its 

 pronunciation into conformity with that of the country on which it is based. 



* 7056 of Grray's Hand-list Edent. &c. p. 42; not that figure! pi. x. fig. 1, 

 which is probably P. capensis. 



