1892.] THE HON. W. ROTHSCHILD ON TWO NEW MAMMALS. 545 



One specimen at least of each of the bones now first described 

 has been kindly presented bj Mr. Sauzier, on behalf of the Com- 

 mission of which he is President, to the Museum of the University 

 of Cambridge, as well as a series of other bones in proportion to 

 the extent of the collection. The remainder, including a magnificent 

 skeleton, which has been mounted in that Museum and is doubtless 

 the most complete in the world, of Didus ineptus, will be ultimately 

 deposited in the Museum of Mauritius at Port Louis. 



This memoir will be published entire in the ' Transactions.' 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Descriptions of two new Mammals from New Guinea. 

 By the Hon. Walter Rothschild, F.Z.S. 



[Received November 1, 1892.] 



In the face of the very exhaustive and explicit paper by Mr. 

 Oldfield Thomas in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 

 1885, I should not venture to lay before the Society a description 

 of a new Monotreme of the subfamily Echidnidse, if I were not 

 backed up by such an eminent zoologist as Dr. Giinther. The latter 

 agrees with me that, as we have so little real knowledge of the habits 

 and distribution of the Monotremata, it is advisable to treat each 

 form as a distinct geographical race until such time as we have 

 a complete knowledge of all the forms and their exact geographical 

 distribution. 



1. PrOECHIDNA NIGRO-ACULEATA, Sp. UOV. 



From having had the specimen here described alive I was able 

 to make a much more careful examination of it than if it had been 

 a dried skin. 



It diifers from Pr. bruijni in its much larger size, extremely 

 robust Hmbs, and much shorter claws. Another great point of 

 difference lies in the hair, for while Pr. bruijni is covered with dense 

 woolly brown hair, in which are imbedded the iew and scattered 

 spines, in the form before us the hair is long, bristly, and very 

 sparingly sprinkled over the body, the legs being almost bare. In 

 the new form the spines are almost as numerous as in Echidna 

 aculeata, but are of great length and thickness and of a horny black 

 colour ; while in Pr. bruijni they are very few in number, short, 

 thin, and of a pure white colour. 



In Pr. bruijni the claws are solid and much longer than in Pr. 

 nigro-aculeata, the middle claw of the fore foot being 1 j inch long, 

 while that of Pr. nigro-aculeata measures only | of an inch. 



In addition to this, all the claws of Pr. nigro-aculeata are much 

 broader and considerably hollowed out on the under surface. Lastly, 

 Pr. nigro-aculeata has a much longer and stouter tail than Pr. 

 bruijni. 



