992 MR. R. LYDEKKER ON NEW [DeC. 11, 



4. Descriptions of Two Mammals from the Ituri Forest. 

 [With a Supplementary Note on the Buffalo of the 

 Semliki district.] Bj R. Ltdekkee. 



[Received November 13, 1906.] 

 (Plate LXX.*) 



From among a collection of mammal skins and skeletons 

 obtained by Major Powell Cotton in the Ituri Forest and sub- 

 mitted to me, at his direction, by Rowland Ward Ltd., two 

 specimens, representing as many species, appeal- worthy of being 

 brought to the notice of the Society. Before proceeding to their 

 descrij)tion, I may take the opportvinity of mentioning that Major 

 Cotton has generously expressed his intention of presenting to the 

 British Museum the type specimens of any small mammals in his 

 collection which prove to be new, after they have been described. 



The fii'st animal for notice is a Cat which I propose to call 



Felis chrysotheix cottoni^ subsp. nov. (Plate LXX. fig. 1.) 



West Africa and its " hinterland "are, as Professor Paul Matschie 

 has remarked f, the home of a very imperfectly known group of 

 medium-sized and more or less uniformly -coloured Wild Cats, some 

 of which display a tendency to a rufous and others to a grey 

 phase. In this group are included Felis chrysothrix, F. celido- 

 gaster, and F. aurata of Temminck, F. neglecta of Gray, F. ruiila 

 of Waterhouse, and F. servalina of Ogilby, or Puchei'an. Despite 

 the imperfection of our knowledge of the group (which is poorly 

 represented in the collection of the British Museum), one thing- 

 is quite certain, to wit, that these six names do not represent 

 a corresponding number of species, whatever may be the case in 

 the matter of races. 



Dr. Matschie (whatever may be his present views on the 

 subject) expressed the opinion in the passage cited that there 

 might be two recognisable forms — one, F. celidogaster, inhabiting 

 the northern, and the other, F. chrysothrix, the southern districts 

 of Guinea. The same view is adopted by Dr. Trouessart in the 

 first edition of his " Catalogus," who regards F. neglecta (from 

 the Gambia) as a synonym of celidogaster, and gives the range of 

 the species as extending from the Gambia to Upper Guinea and 

 Sierra Leone. In the second edition, apparently by an in- 

 advertence, neglecta is, however, given as a synonym of chrysothrix. 

 The range of F. chrysothrix (which in the first edition is taken to 

 include aurata and rutila), on the other hand, is given as Lower 

 Guinea, the Congo, Togo, Uganda, and possibly Angola. Of this 

 species, servalina, from Sierra Leone, is regarded as a distinct 

 race. 



* For explanation of the Plate, see p. 996. 

 t S.B. Ges. Naturforsch. Berlin, 1895, p. 196. 



