1907.] MAMMALS FROM BEIRA. 781 



Size only very slightly smaller than G. lugardi. 



Fur short (4-5 mm.) and soft. 



General colour above between " ecru drab" and " drab-grey" ; 

 the hairs " slate-gi-ey " at their bases with fawn-coloured tips. A 

 white mark on vertex about half an inch in diameter, varying in 

 shape individually, but generally an irregular pentagon ; not 

 produced backwards on to the neck. Colour below the same as 

 above, but the fawn tips of the hairs less conspicuous. 



Skull but slightly smaller than that of G. lugardi at the same 

 age, but slighter ; premaxillaries at the base of incisors distinctly 

 narrower ; nasals somewhat longer ; posterior premaxillary process 

 not meeting or even nearly meeting behind the nasals as in 

 G. lugardi. 



Dimensions of the type : — 



Head and body 155 mm. ; tail 14; hind-foot 25 ; ear 5. 



Skull — greatest length 40 ; basilar length 33 ; greatest breadth 

 28 ; breadth across postorbital processes 12 ; across base of 

 incisors 7*5; upper molar row 6*5 ; diastema 12'5. 



Hah. Beira, Portviguese East Africa. 



Type. Adult male. B.M. no. 7.6.2.98. Original number 1713. 

 Collected by C. H. B. Grant, 28th Nov., 1906. 



Mr. Grant obtained a fine series of this species (seven specimens). 

 It is at once distinguishable from G. darlingi, which it resembles 

 in colour pattern, by its much larger size ; from G. lugardi (with 

 which it agrees in size and general colour pattern) it may be 

 separated by its frontal white patch, which is sharply limited to 

 the crown, while in that species it tends to stretch backwards as 

 a median white line on to the neck and shoulders. Besides the 

 skull characters noted above, it may be added that the lambdoid 

 crest makes a reentering angle where it meets the sagittal, while 

 in G. lugardi it is a straight line at right angles to the long axis 

 of the skull. 



" Native name, ' Fungi.' 



" Common and forming regular runs and mounds. 



" In captivity they show cmnous i¥«,s-like propensities in their 

 method of feeding, sitting up on their haunches and holding the 

 food in the fore paws as do the rats and mice. 



" On the surface of the ground their movements are slow and 

 undecided. 



" Apparently strictly vegetarian." 



26. Thryoxomys swixderexianus Temm. 



S. 1739. 



" Native name, ' Tishengi.' 



" Common in all thick vegetation bordering the vleis and lakes 

 in the open lands, and edges of forest and lands. 



" Very difficult, however, to secure specimens, especially during 

 the wet season when the vegetation is rank and high. 



" A vegetarian and probably chiefly nocturnal." 



53* 



