172 MESSRS. O. THOMAS AND H. SCHWANN ON [Feb. 2, 



After a short stay in the Cape Peninsula, where he obtained 

 useful topotypes of several long-known species, Mr. Grant went 

 to Little Namaqualancl in March 1903, and settled at Klip- 

 fontein, a place some 80 miles inland of Port Nolloth, at an 

 altitude of about 1000 metres. He also stayed foi' shorter pei^iods 

 at Anenous, north of Klipfontein, 50 miles from the coast (alt. 

 600 m.), and at Port Nolloth itself. 



So far as the British Museum is concerned, jSTamaqualaud has 

 been hitherto almost entirely neglected, the few specimens 

 obtained there by Dr. Andi-ew Smith about 1830 (e. g. Petromys 

 typici(,s, Otomys brantsii, &c.) and the little set collected by Dr. 

 R, Broom at Port Nolloth in 1897 (including the type of Otomys 

 broonii) being the only mammals that the Museum has ever 

 received from that country. For the South Afiicaii Museum 

 Mr. Peringuey also collected a certain number at Klipfontein, as 

 recorded by Mr. W. L. Sclater, but he does not seem to have come 

 upon any of the new forms we now find it necessary to describe. 



This is the first occasion in the history of Cape zoology that 

 any considerable series of perfectly made modern skins have been 

 compared, species by species, with another such series as that 

 prepared by Mr. Grant at Deelfontein and the Cape ; and we have 

 thus been able to see what is the influence on the mammal fauna 

 of the more northern and desert climate of Namaqualand. As 

 might be expected, this shows itself in a general pallor, which is 

 well exemplified in such forms as Macroscelides melanotis, Cynictis 

 jyenicillata jxdlidior, Otomys hroomi and hrantsii, and Arvicanthis 

 jmmilio cinereus. On the other hand, the two animals which we 

 have thought worthy to be distinguished as species instead of sub- 

 species, Herpestes rtoddi and Bathyergus janetta, are both darker, 

 especially on the back, than their Cape representatives. 



Of these two the Mongoose is a veiy distinct and handsome 

 animal, easily separable from the Cape Herpestes pulveridentus by 

 its blackened back and tail-tip. Bathyergus janetta again is of 

 interest as being the second species of so peculiar and long- known 

 a genus as Bathyergus, otherwise confined to the Cape. 



In all, therefore, the Namaqua collection, which numbers about 

 160 well-prepared skins, is a most valuable accession to the 

 Museum, and one for Avhich we have every reason to be grateful 

 to its donor, Mr. Rudd. 



The following are Mr. Grant's notes* on the character of the 

 country : — 



" The appearance of the country as we proceed inland by rail, 

 from the coast, strikes one as looking particularly dry and for- 

 bidding. Port Nolloth itself is on white sand which runs inland 

 for perhaps ten miles, dotted here and there with milk- and Tj^- 

 bushes and a little grass in some of the water- courses. About the 

 ninth or tenth mile on the railway the white sand gives place to 



* Mr. Grant's noteis on tlie cluiracter of the country and the hahits of the animals 

 were received too late for reading, but have been inserted since. — Feb. 20, 1904, 



