1895,] LONG- LOST PTJTORIirS APEICANTJS. 129 



the then available material, especially as at that date, in regard to 

 mammalogy in general, we had far less knowledge of onr ignorance 

 than I trust we have since gained. It thei'et'ore often seemed 

 legitimate to draw conclusions of a character we should not dare 

 to draw now. But, viewed in the light of recent accessions, they 

 clearly need modification, and, so far as I can venture to state at 

 present, it seems evident : — 



1. That there are two distinct forms of Weasel in N. Africa, 

 bearing to each other the same relation in size, and, if they overlap 

 in distribution, no doubt in the struggle for existence, as the Euro- 

 pean Stoat and Weasel do. 



2. That the larger of the two is the true P. africamis, Desm., 

 practically lost to science since its description in 1818 ', and that 

 the smaller only is the species referred to by Lataste and Troues- 

 sart, and, probably, by other authors who have considered 

 " P. africamis " near to or identical with P. hoccamela. 



Of the smaller species the British Museum possesses as yet no 

 authentic Egyptian examples, nor has Dr. Anderson met with it ; 

 but from some measurements of the specimens marked " P. siib- 

 palmatus" in the Berlin Museum, kindly supplied me by Dr." 

 Matschie, it seems probable, as appears below, that the smaller 

 Weasel also occurs in Egypt, in company with the giant species so 

 excellently described by Desmarest three quarters of a century 

 ago and practically lost ever since. 



It is to this latter that I would refer Mr. Wright's Maltese 

 Weasel, and would congratulate him on his rediscovery of so 

 interesting an animal. 



So far as the respective ranges of the two species are con- 

 cerned, P. africamis has apparently not yet been met with in 

 the western half of N. Africa, in Tunis, Algeria, or Morocco, the 

 region studied by Lataste, although it may of course any day turn 

 up there. If it is really absent, so that its only African locality 

 is Egypt, its occurrence in Malta is of still further interest, as will 

 be readily perceived on looking at the relative positions of the 

 localities concerned. 



On the other hand, the eastern distribution of the smaller species 

 remains somewhat doubtful, for from Dr. Matschie's measurements 

 of the four original specimens contained in Hemprich and Ehren- 

 berg's collection it seems probable that the smaller, as well as the 

 larger. Weasel occurs in Egypt. 



These measurements, which are given (see p. 130), are those, as 

 Dr. Matschie tells me, of two adult females and two young speci- 

 mens, all hitherto looked upon as co-types of P. suhpalmatus. 



Now as the description of that animal consists simply of the 

 statement that it is " statura minor " as compared with P. vulgaris, it 

 is evident that the two larger specimens (A. 373 and 1004) cannot 

 have been included in this description, so that the two smaller ones 

 (Nos. 1003 and 1005) should alone be looked upon as the co-types of 



1 N. Diet. d'H. N. (2) xix. p. 376. 

 Phoc. Zool. Soc— 1895, No. IX. 9 



