1892.J SPECIKS OF THE HYRACOIDEA, G7 



in the face of the fact that Mr. Blanford thoroughly hunted all the 

 country hetween, specially looking out for Hyraces, without finding 

 any trace of P. shoana until he penetrated as far south as the 

 Wadela plateau, while the yellow-backed form was exceedingly 

 common throughout the country from Massowa southwards. The 

 skulls of the two forms unfortunately give no help in the matter, as 

 they differ only in size ; and although P. shoana ordinarily is far 

 larger than what I consider as P. abyssinica, yet dwarfed individuals 

 seem occasionally to occur, in which the skull is scarcely larger than 

 in the latter species. Still, as a fact, the sizes of the skull and teeth 

 of Ehrenberg's type specimens agree closely with those found in the 

 ordinary Abyssinian form to which I refer them. 



6. Procavia pallida. (Plate III.) 



Procavia pallida, Thos. Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) x. p. 908(1891). 



Size small, form stout and squat. Fur very short, close, and 

 crisp. Colour pale sandy grey, the hairs chocolate-brown basally, 

 with a broad cream-coloured subterminal ring and a black tip. 

 Rump rather more rufescent. 



Dorsal spot small, oval, pale creamy yellow, the peripheral hairs 

 with a hroader and the central ones with a narrower brown basal 

 part, but none of them with darker tips. 



Skull (Plate III.) short, broad, and stout, in general appearance 

 a miniature of the large-toothed Ahyssinian forms P. ubyssinka and 

 ruficeps ; coronal and interparietal sutures persistent. Molars very 

 large in })roportion to the size of the animal, and in consequence of 

 this the diastema is shorter than in any other known species, being 

 only 5*6 mm. between the alveoli, and .5 between the teeth above, 

 while in the lower jaw it is practically non-existent, j? almost 

 touching the outer incisor basally and only distant from it 

 about 1 mm. terminally. It therelore leaves no room for p^^, oc- 

 casionally present in other species. M^ 6*9 mm. broad in the type ; 

 ^ with a high crown, but, as it is somewhat worn, I can only say 

 that it is more than 5*4 mm. high, that being its present height, 

 pi gone in the type ; no doubt small and early deciduous. 



Hah. N. Somali-land. 



Type in British Museum (85. 11. 16. 4). 



This peculiar little species bears, within the typical Procavia 

 with open interparietal sutures and large teeth, very much the same 

 relation to P. abyssinica that P. brucei somalica does in the " Hetero- 

 hyrax " group to P. b. typica, the geographical relations of each pair 



by no means positive about tbe opinion advocatecl in tbe text, tbe name of the 

 Massowa Hyrax would be P. ahyssinica typica, of tbe Sboan one P. abyssinica 

 shoana, and of the ordinary N.Abyssinian one with yellow dorsal spot P. a/^jmf, 

 Gray. In this connection I must again express my sincere thanks to Dr. 

 Matschie for the patience and kindness with which he has borne the brunt of 

 question after question about this unfortunate type of Hemprich and Ehren- 

 berg's, a specimen whicli, in spite of all, must still remain a stumbling-block for 

 naturalists until it is supplemented by a proper series of fresh examples col- 

 lected exactly at the same place. 



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