552 COL. TERBUEY AJSTD ME. O. THOMAS ON [June 18, 



24. Meeiones eex, sp. n. 



a^g. Seven specimens, S 9- • Lahej. 6-10. III. 95. 



Most closely allied to M. sTicmi, Duv. & Ler., which ranges from 

 Algeria tliroiigh Tunis and Egypt as far as the Sinaitic Peninsula. 

 Size larger, form stouter and heavier. Fur short, poor and rather 

 harsh, very different to the beautiful fur of M. shawi. General 

 colour dirty fulvous brown above, and this colour, at least in the 

 old specimens, extends all over the underside as well ; in younger 

 specimens, however, the underside is whitish as usual. Ears much 

 as in M. sJiawi, but rather more thinlj- haired, and the whitish 

 spot behind their outer bases less sharply defined. Hands as in 

 M. shawi, the usual two large wrist-pads present. Feet very large 

 and heavy ; upper surface of metatarsals with a slight but distinct 

 blackish suffusion ; digits dull whitish ; soles almost or wholly 

 naked, the few minute hairs not hiding in any way the usual 

 Mei'iones-stTUctnre of the skin and pads. Tail long, thick, 

 cylindrical, uniform grizzled fawn above and below throughout, 

 except that the hairs on the top of the terminal two inches are 

 lengthened to form a crest, which varies m colom- from black to 

 JDrown. 



Skull-differences are in this genus very difficult of description, 

 owing to the great variation that takes place with age, so that it is 

 always difficult to find specimens which may be properly com- 

 pared with each other, without disturbance by the factor of age. 

 However, among 16 skulls in the Museum collection referred with 

 more or less certainty to Jil. shawi, there are none so large as that 

 of the type of 21. re.v, none have such long and narrow inter- 

 parietals, or have their auditory meatus so little swollen anteriorly. 

 The bullae are, if anything, slightly smaller in the new form than 

 in M, shaivi, and show therefore no approach to the huge bullae of 

 the erythru)-us group. 



Dimensions of the type, an old male in spirit : — 



Head and body 183 millim. ; tail 200 ; hind foot 41*5 ; ear 19'o. 



Skull: basal length 41*2; greatest length in middle line 48; 

 greatest breadth 27'5 ; nasals 19"6x5; interorbital breadth 8'5 ; 

 tip to tip of postorbital processes 16; interparietal 5-6 x 8*7; 

 palate, length from hensehon 21-7; diastema 12-6 ; anterior pala- 

 tine foramina 8-6 ; distance from hinder angle of zygoma to 

 nearest point of wall of meatus 2*1. 



Type. In spirit. B. M. Xo. 94.6.1.30. 



This fine species, nearly or quite the largest of the genus, 

 differs from every known Menones in its praqtically naked soles, 

 its dirty-coloured belly, and its darkened metatarsi. The only 

 species for which it could be mistaken is M. shawi, but, besides the 

 differences just mentioned, it is larger than that animal, and has a 

 decidedly longer tail. 



Of other Arabian species known, it may be mentioned 

 that M. crassv^, Sund., from Sinai, quite clearly belongs to the 

 erijthrurns gi'onp. with large bullae, while M. melanu)-us, Eiipp., as 



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