1892.] Sl'ECIES OF THE HYRACOIDEA. 75 



Hab. Eastern and South-Eastern Africa. Taita Mountains inland 

 of Mombasa, 4500 ft. {Brit. Mus., J. Wray). Mozambique (Pefers). 

 Kiiigwilliamstown {Lieut. H. Trevehjan) and Elands Post {T. C. 

 Afmore), Eastern Cape Colony. 



14. Procavia dorsalis. 



Hyrax dorsalis, Eraser, P. Z. S. 1852, p. 99, pi. xxxiii. (animal). 



Hyrax sylvestris, Temm. Esq. Guin. p. 182 (1853). 



Bendrohyrax dorsalis. Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) i. p. 48 (1868) ; 

 Bocage, t. c. p. 194. 



Hyrax stampflii, Jent. N. L. M. viii. p. 209 (1886). 



Size large, but, owing to the great proportionate length of the 

 head, the general size is not nearly so large as measurements of the 

 skull would imply ; bulk of the body apparently never equal to that 

 found in fine specimens of P. slioana. Fur very long, coarse and 

 shaggy. Muzzle in adult specimens nearly or quite naked in front 

 of the eyes. Mammae — 1 = 2. General colour dark purplish brown 

 or black, the hairs black for about four-fifths of their length, with 

 reddish or purplish-grey tips. Hairs of belly similar but paler. 



Dorsal spot elongate, very prominent, its hairs very long, their 

 basal halves black and their terminal white or pale yellow ; the 

 dorsal glandular region quite naked in adults. 



Skull '^ very large, much flattened ; muzzle elongate, distance from 

 a point between the postorbital processes to the occiput much less than 

 that to the tip of tiie nasals. Frontal region markedly concave. 

 Temporal ridges thick, much developed, but not extending back 

 nearly to the occipital edge, more closely approaching each other in 

 the centre lines of the skull. Interparietal sutures quite obliterated 

 in adults ^ ; clearly visible in a skull at stage III. Orbit completely 

 closed behind in all the specimens examined, however young. 

 Diastema very long, from 17 to 20 mm. in adults. 



Teeth. — Incisors becoming exceedingly large and strong in old 

 males, further apart than in the true large-toothed species, such as 

 P. abyssinica &c. Incisors of female more ridged than usual. 

 Molars and premolars small, rounded, brachyodont, their series more 

 parallel than in most species. Breadth of ^ 6-6 or 6-8 ; height 

 of crown of m^ about 4' 1 to 4'3 mm. P^ very large, larger than in 

 any other species, double-rooted, its horizontal length about A-7 or 

 4'8 mm. 

 Ribs 21. 



Hab. W. Africa from Liberia to the Cameroons and Fernando Po, 

 probably extending further both north-west and south-east, but as 

 yet no trustworthy record has been given beyond the above limits. 



1 Good figures : Gray, Hand-l. Edent. &e. pi. xiii. fig. 1 (1873) ; Jeutink, 

 Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. pi. iv. (1887). 



^ The suture at the anterior edge of the interparietal seems to close first in 

 this species as in P. brucei, while in P. arborea the reverse appears to be the case. 

 Gray's distinction of the skulls of the two species by the positions of the sutures 

 is based on a misconception, the sutures compared by him with each other not 

 being homologous ones. That shown in the figure of D. dorsalis is the pos- 

 terior, while that in the figure of D. arboreus is tlae anterior suture, 



