808 ON SOME nODENTS FBOM BKITISH SOUTH ArEIOA. [NoV. 17, 



underside including the upper lip and feet, pure white, line 

 sharply. defined; ears and tail brown, naked, the latter paler on. 

 the underside. 



Type, No. 33, J , Essex Farm, Matabeleland ; 8 Oct., 1895. 



General colour much like Mus sylvaticus, but with the smoky 

 bloom peculiar to the genus. 



Skull, old male : — Greatest length 25-5 ; br. zyg. 12'5; br. brain- 

 case 11-3; nasals 10-5x3; interpar. 3x8'5; basal length 21; 

 bk. of ins. to bk. of pal. 12-5 ; pal. to foram. mag. 7 ; ins. foram. 

 5-8; upper molar series 4; outside m. 1 1-6; inside m. 1 3'1 ; 

 diastema 6-5. Mandible : gr. length (bone) 13-1 ; to tip of 

 incisors 16. 



Near A. ivihoni, Thos., but larger. 



8. Geoiitchtjs nimeodi, sp. n. 



4 skins, 1 ad., 3 juv. ; 5 skulls, 2 ad., 3 juv. All taken in Nov. 



Size much as in Q. hottentottus. Less., and Q. darlinc/i, Thos. : 

 differing from the former in its drab colouring, and from the latter 

 in the absence of the triangular wliite patch on the nape. The 

 skull is at once distinguished from its allies by the ascending 

 processes of the premaxillaries not extending backward beyond the 

 nasals, so that the suture between these bones and the frontals 

 forms a simple slightly bowed line, very distinct from the com- 

 plicated dove-tail pattern found in most of the Geonjchi, The 

 sagittal crest is only faiutly developed, the interparietal bone being 

 rounded. The zygomata are not so much bowed out anteriorly as 

 in G. hottentottus, and in this it resembles 6. darlingi, as also in the 

 thickened outer walls to the anteorbital foramina. In the type 

 specimen these foramina are very small, on one side indeed being 

 little more than a pin-hole, but this is a somewhat variable cliaracter 

 in this species. Prom the lachrymal projection the skull recedes 

 abruptly to the narrowest part of the constriction, with no posterior 

 lateral inflation of the frontals in the interorbital region. The 

 postuarial aperture is rather wide, the back of the palate being 

 slightly cut away on either side, leaving a projecting point in 

 the middle line ; the posterior opening of the alisphenoid canal 

 is larger than in 0. hottentottus. 



I select as the type a specimen marked by the collector, " No. 40, 

 Mole, cJ, caught 18 Nov., 1895. Head and body 147 mm., hind 

 foot 24'5. KalFir garden, only appeared on surface since rainy 

 season began. Locality, Essex Parm, Matabeleland." — F. G. S. 



Measurements of skull of type : basilar length 31 ; greatest 

 breadth 27. 



This new species is unquestionably nearly related to G. darlingi, 

 but outwardly as well as craniologically the two forms are easily 

 distinguished. 



