1906.J MAMMALS FROM THE ITURI FOREST. 995 



above-mentioned as races, the name of Red Tiger-Cat or Grey 

 Tiger-Oat will be inappropriate to the species as a whole. I would 

 therefore suggest that it should be called the African Tiger-Cat, 

 and the four races here admitted respectively designated the red, 

 the brown, the grey, and the dusky African Tiger-Cat. 



The dark hue of the Ituri race is apparently an adaptation to its 

 habitat, and may possibly tend to confirm the view that the Ituri 

 black Ratel described by myself is a distinct species (or i-ace) 

 rather than an individual melanism. 



2. Rhynchocyon stuhlmanni nudicaudata, subsp. nov. 



The second animal in the collection woi-thy of special notice is a 

 Rhynchocyon, represented by a skin and skeleton, which comes 

 very close to Rh. stuhlmanni of Dr. Matschie* from the country 

 immediately west of the Semliki-lsango valley. The present 

 animal came from the Mawambi district. 



Rh. stuhlmanni (of which there is no example in the British 

 .Museum) is described as being dark brown mingled with 

 yellowish brown above, with two longitudinal rows of blackish 

 spots, connected by a black stripe on their inner sides, and 

 running from the shoulder to the root of the tail ; between the 

 dark markings are light brownish spots, and externally to this 

 black-and -light spotted area on each side are two rows of light 

 spots, of which the outermost is very indistinct. In old examples all 

 the markings become obsciu'e. The claws and a streak along the 

 middle line of the belly are whitish ; the flanks are like the back ; 

 the abdomen is neai-ly bare, carrying only a few sparse haii's of 

 an ocherey colour ; the legs are rusty brown ; the tail is yellowish 

 white ; and the ears are rusty red. 



It will be observed that nothing is stated as to whether the 

 ears and tail are hairy oi- naked. Since, however, the species is 

 contiasted with Rh. 2yetersi and Rh. cirnei, in both of which the 

 basal half of the tail and the roots of the ears are hairy, it would 

 seem highly probable that if such points of difference had 

 occurred in the type of Rh. stuhlmanni, they would have been 

 mentioned. Again, it is difiicult to understand how an animal 

 in which the ears are completely naked could be described as 

 having rust-coloured ears. 



The two points in which Major Cotton's Rhynchocyon agrees 

 with sttihlmanni, and thereby differs apparently from every other 

 member of the genus, are its generally dark colour and tlie 

 wholly white tail. On the other hand, it differs from the type 

 of that species by the eais being wholly black, by the presence 

 of a patch of bright I'ufous hair immediatelj^ behind each ear, by 

 the absence of any distinct spotting or stiiping on the body, 

 except for a few light flecks near the rump, and by the brown 

 claws. It is further probable that the naked ears and tail are 

 also distinctive. 



* S.B. Ges. Niitui-forsch. Berlin, 1893, p. 66, and 'Die Sangetliiprt Deutscli-Ost- 

 Afrikas,' Berlin, 1895, p. 31. 



