1892.] SPECIES OF THE HYRACOIDEA. 65 



Syrax irroratus, var. luteogaster^. Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) 

 iii. p. 242 (1869) (excl. description of dorsal spot) ^ ; Cat. p. 288 

 (1869). 



Hyrax brucei, Blanf. P. Z. S. 1869, p. 642 ; Zool. Abyss, p. 252 

 (1870) ; Bocage, J. Sci. Lisb. (2) iii. p. 193 (1889) {nee Gray). 



Size medium, smaller in var. minor. Mammae 1 — 2 = 6. Fur 

 ordinarily fairly long, at least in tbe highland specimens, but always 

 rather coarse and harsh, never long, soft, and fine, as in P. shoana ; 

 quite short and crisp in the subspecies from the Assab region. 

 Colour a coarsely-mottled grey-brown, varying towards either olive 

 or ferruginous ; some specimens marked by rufous over the greater 

 part of the back. The hairs dark brown at their bases, and black 

 at their tips, witli a broad subterminal band of dirty yellow. 



Dorsal spot very small, oval, more inconspicuous than in any other 

 species, often only to be found after the most minute search, below and 

 between the ordinary hairs, and sometimes not at all. It consists 

 simply of a broadening and brightening of the ordinary subterminal 

 yellow band of the hairs, and when well developed is of a bright 

 orange-yellow colour. In the great majority of specimens the black 

 tips to its hairs so hide the yellow that the spot is not visible at all 

 unless specially searched for. 



SkulP stout and strongly built. Muzzle short. Coronal and 

 parieto-interparietal sutures persistent *. Temporal fossse extending 

 backwards to within 3 or 4 mm. of the hinder edge of the skull. 

 Diastema rather constant in its length, generally about 9 mm., but 

 considerably less in var. minor. Teeth ordinarily very large and heavy 

 in proportion to the size of the animal, tlie breadth of m^ com- 

 monly being about 7'4 to 7'9, but in some specimens, which I cannot 

 otherwise distinguish, they are much smaller and lighter, all the 

 intermediate links being, however, present. The least breadth 

 of m^ among those before me is 67 in the type of " H. irroralus, 

 var. luteog aster" but here the two teeth are considerably worn 

 down, and probably the true breadth would have been^some- 

 what greater. Height of crown of m^ 6-9 or 7 mm. F very 

 small, styUform, single-rooted, early deciduous ; the horizontal 

 length of Its crown only about 2 or 2-2 mm. Ribs ordinarily 21 (but 

 20 in one specimen and 22 in another). 

 Type in the Berlin Museum. 



Hab. Abyssinia from Bogos and Massowa in the north, through 

 the highlands, as far south as Adigrat. Represented in the lowlands 

 more to the east by the variety minor. 



' Misprinted " leucogaster" Hand-l. Edent. &c. p. 42 (1873). 



^ See footnote, p. 70. 



3 Good figures : Gray, Hand-l. Edent. &c. pl.x. fig. 2 (" brucei"), pi. xi. fig. 1 

 {'^ ferrugineub "), pi. xii. fig. 3 (" irrorata "), 1873. 



■* In one specimen (B.M. 69. 10. 24. 37), an old male, the parieto-interparietal 

 sutures are closed, but tbe suture down tbe centre of tbe interparietal bone 

 itself still persists. Tbe latter condition also obtains in 6 out of 18 very young 

 skulls (stages I. and II.) of different species, but in no other specimen of adult 

 age. Among the 12 very young skulls with the central suture closed is at least 

 one taken from a foetus. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1892, No. V. 5 



