66 MR. o. THOMAS ON THE [Jan. 5, 



Subspecific diagnoses : — 



A. P. ahyssinica typica. 



Size larger. Fur longer. Colour as above described. 



B. P. ahyssinica minor, subsp. n. 



Size smaller (see skull measurements in table). Fur short and 

 crisp. Colour much as in tlie typical sabspecies, but, owing to the 

 Shortness of the fur, there is an appearance of a greater general 

 uniformity on the back. 



Dorsal spot not more prominent than in var. typica, its hairs 

 being equally tipped with black. 



Skull small, with a comparatively very short diastema, almost 

 rivalling that of P. pallida, 6*2 and 6'5 mm. in the two co-types. 

 In neither specimen is pi present, so that the tooth is evidently 

 dropped very early in the present form. 



Hub. Alali, between Beilul and Assab, on the west shore of the 

 Red Sea, about 13° N. 



Two specimens of this peculiar little form were obtained from the 

 above-mentioned locality by Dr. V. Ragazzi for the Genoa Museum. 

 Both are somewhat immature, being at stage VI. 



P. abyssinica minor is interesting, as leading on from the true P. 

 a. typica towards P. pallida, found still further east in Somali. Both 

 in size and in its shortened diastema it approaches that species, 

 althougli in colour it shows no tendency to the greater paleness of 

 the back and conspicuousness of the dorsal spot characteristic of 

 P. pallida. 



P. abyssinica, with its variations in colour and size, has always 

 been and still is the most difficult form to work out of all the family, 

 and I cannot at all hope to have satisfactorily settled the many^ 

 problems which arise in the contemplation of any considerable series 

 of specimens apparently belonging to it. In the first place, the 

 original description was founded mainly on a specimen with a black 

 dorsal spot, a character found in the Shoan species, but not ordi- 

 narily in the Abyssinian one, but with this specimen there was a 

 second showing the typical black and yellow spot of the ordinary 

 Abyssinian form. Now, as Mr. Blanford ^ states so directly that 

 "the species identified by Gray with Ehrenberg's //. abyssinicus^ 

 is a very distinct form," and geographical considerations point so 

 strongly in the same direction, I am induced to look upon Ehrenberg's 

 black-backed specimen from Massowa as one of those troublesome 

 individuals of the present species in which the yellow doisal spot is 

 practically absent, and the black tips to the hairs are so develojied as 

 to form a small dorsal black spot ^. In any case I feel I cannot 

 allocate this Massowa specimen * to the Shoan black -backed form 



1 Zo'ol. Abyss, p. 251. 



^ I. cM\\e Shoan Coney. 



3 See, lor instance, Mr. Elanford's specimen No. 886 (B.M. 09. 10. 24. 28). 



^ Dr. Matschie, of the Eei-lin Museum, however, is inclined to hold the op- 

 posite opinion, believing at the same time that the Massowa form is a small 

 local race of the black-backed Shoan one. Should this view be correct, and I am 



