1901.} MAMMALS OP THE BALEAEIC ISLANDS. 41 



with the question as to which is the original home of the Weasel 

 of the Island of St. Thomas, Gulf of Guinea, where, on zoo- 

 geographical grounds, it is difficult to believe a Weasel is really 

 indigenous. The British Museum has recently received a fine 

 example of the St. Thomas Weasel, and this is remarkably like the 

 large forms from Malta and Egypt. It is therefore possible that 

 there is a substratum of truth both in my own suggestion that 

 P. africanus Desm. might be the large Maltese Weasel ^ and Prof. 

 Bocage's ^ that the type specimen of that name might have come 

 to Lisbon from St. Thomas. 



17. Eliomys QUEEOiNirs L. 



a-e. San Cristobal, Minorca. 



The " Rata Sarda " is a weU-known animal both in Majorca 

 and Minorca, but is said by Barcelo not to occur in Iviza. 



We were unable to obtain any specimens in Majorca, although 

 we saw one in Don Miguel Eiutort's collection, but succeeded in 

 trapping several at San Cristobal, Minorca. There, among the 

 Ilex-trees near the town, Schuyler traps baited with cheese took 

 several specimens of this beautiful animal. 



The Minorcan examples appear to be precisely similar to the 

 true E. quercinus of France and Germany, and show no approxi- 

 mation towards the fine South-Spanish species E. amori Graells ^. 

 The geographical relationship of this animal is therefore markedly 

 different from that of the Hedgehog, where the Balearic species is 

 the South- Spanish and Algerian, not the European one. 



Younger examples are paler in colour than the old ones, and 

 indeed the resemblance between our younger specimens and the 

 E. pallidus of Sicily raises a suspicion as to whether old specimens 

 of that form will not be as dark as normal E. quercinus. 



1 P. Z. S. 1895, p. 128. 



2 J. Sci. Lisb. (2) siii. pp. 24 & 48 (1895). 



^ Mioxus NiTELA Tar. AMORI Graells, Mem. Ac. Madrid, xvii. p. 481 (1897). 



This form appears to me worthy of recognition as a species distinct from 

 E. quercinus. The following are the characters shown by six specimens of it 

 from Seville, which were obtained for, and presented to the Museum by, the 

 late Lord Lilford : — 



Size considerably larger than in E. quercinus, as shown by the skull- 

 dimensions. Greneral colour of the same character as in that animal, but very 

 deep and strong, markedly different from that of the pale Sicilian E. pallidus. 

 Facial and other markings as usual, but the black of the tail usually runs right 

 round that organ, interrupting the white below for about the middle third. 



Skull similar in general characters to that of the typical species, but very 

 much larger throughout. 



Dimensions, measured in skin : — 



Head and body (c.) 139 mm. ; tail 120 ; hind foot (wet) 31 ; ear (wet) 21. 



Skull — greatest length 41 ; basilar length 32'2 ; greatest breadth 23'2 ; nasals 

 15'8x4; interorbital breadth 4-7 ; palatal length from henselion 14 ; diastema 

 9 ; palatal foramina 5"4x3'9 ; length of upper tooth-row 6'1. 



I owe to the kindness of Don Angel Cabrera, of Madrid, several additional 

 particulars aboui Dr. Graells's type, beyond those that appear in the original 

 description. 



