336 ox SPECIMENS OF NAKED RODENTS FROM E. AFRICA. [Dec. 1, 



Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., exhibited and made remarks upon 

 a portion of the large intestine and the cfecum of a Boa (Boa 

 constrictor) which had recently died in the Society's Gardens. 

 The walls of the intestine in the neighbourhood of the caecum, 

 and of the csecum itself, were thickened and inflamed. The csecum 

 was filled with a hard mass consisting of small stones and a number 

 of the snake's own teeth, the presence of which it was thought had 

 given rise to the inflammation. 



Mr. Beddard also exhibited, on behalf of Mr. G. A. Doubleday, 

 a hairless specimen of the Common Rat (Mus decummius) which 

 had been caught in a trap at Leyton, Essex, and which agreed in 

 its characters with a so-called variety {Mus nudo-jylicattcs) of the 

 Common Mouse figured in the Society's ' Proceedings' (1856, p. 38, 

 Mamm, pi. xli.). 



Dr. Walter Kidd, F.Z.S., exhibited a drawing of a Beisa 

 Antelope {Oryx beisa) showing a reversed ai'ea of hair along the 

 median line of the back, a character which was found in 

 Ruminants only, but not in all of them. 



Mr. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., exhibited an example, the second 

 known, of the jDeculiar little naked rodent described by him in 

 1885 * as Heteroceqihalus phillipsi. This specimen had been 

 presented to the National Museum by Dr. A. G. W. Bowen, 

 R.N., to whom it was given, at Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland, 

 by Dr. Dulio, Governor of the Italian Protectorate. 



Dr. Dulio stated that these animals lived in colonies of from 

 50 to 100 in the sandy districts near the coast, that they burrowed 

 very rapidly in the loose soil and were for that reason clifl&cult to 

 obtain. 



Mr. Thomas said that the chief interest of this specimen lay in 

 the fact that, like the type, it had only two cheek-teeth in each 

 jaw above and below, while the larger and better-known Hetero- 

 cephalus glaher had thi-ee. As this impoi'tant character was thus 

 shown to be constant, which could not be assumed from the single 

 specimen hitherto available, Mr. Thomas thought that a special 

 genus would have to be formed for the two-toothed gi'oup, and 

 suggested for it the name of Fornarina f. The other differences 

 between Fornarina jyhillipsi and Heieroceplialus glaher had been 

 more fully detailed in the papers referred to in the footnote +. 



A form of true Heterocephalus occurred also in British East 

 Africa, which Mr. Thomas took this opportunity of describing: — ■ 



Heterocephalus ansorgei, sp. n. 



General characters as in H. glaher, but size smaller (see skull- 



* P. Z. S. 1885, p. 612. 



t A fruiioiis inide by Titian. 



X r. Z. y. 1885. p. 845; Aim. Mus. Gcnov. (3) xv. p. 3 (1895). 



