536 MESSRS. THOMAS AND WROUGHTON ON [May 26, 



the results of Mr. Rudcl's splendid generosity have far surpassed, 

 in their great and permanent value, our most sanguine expecta- 

 tions — a fact for which the fullest credit must also be given to the 

 collector, Mr. C. H. B. Grant, who has risen in the ablest manner 

 to the great opportunity afforded him by Mr. Rudd. 



The total results form the largest collection of Mammals ever 

 received by the National Museum from any one source, the 

 nearest approaches to it being the products of the Simons and 

 Robert expeditions to S. America, and the Duke of Bedford's 

 Exploration of Eastern Asia, the last-named being still in 

 progress. 



In all 1541 mammals, exclusive of duplicates, have been 

 registered as presented to the National Museum by Mr. Rudd, 

 while duplicates have been presented to the Royal Scottish 

 Museum, Edinburgh, and the South African Museum, Cape 

 Town. 



A considerable and quite unexpected number of new species 

 and subspecies have been discovered, and, what is quite as 

 important, most of the old species, insufficiently or inexactly 

 described on specimens now deteriorated, have been definitely 

 identified by topotypes, and are represented by good modern 

 material, which may be made the basis of further progress. 



In this connection the Tette series, of which we give an account 

 in the present papei-, is of especial importance ; for every worker 

 on South African zoology has been hampered by the difficulty 

 of making out with exactitude the species obtained duilng 

 Dr. Peters's famous expedition to Zam'besia, and described by him 

 in his ' Reise nach Mossambique,' of which the ' Siiugethiere ' 

 was published in 1852. 



In order, therefore, to get a series of the species described by 

 Peters, Mr. Grant went to Tette, Peters's chief collecting-place, 

 and formed the series enumerated below. 



While we were working out this series, the definite determination 

 of Peters's species has enabled us to sort out a number of the groups, 

 with the result that many forms hitherto assigned, in our papers 

 and elsewhere, to Peters's species, now prove to need description. 



Mr. Grant's notes on the Tette district are as follows : — 



" It was the driest time of the year when I reached Tette, and, 

 except in the main rivei'S, thei'e was practically no watei' any- 

 where, and as, on the Zambesi near Tette, there were too many 

 natives present for it to be possible to collect, I moved south- 

 wards and pitched my camp at the junction of the Luenya and 

 Mazoe Rivers, which is some 20 miles due south of Tette. 



"The country there is exactly similar to that along the 

 Zambesi,^ being hilly, and in places somewhat mountainous ; 

 the soil is sandy and very stony, especially on the hill-sides, but 

 there are no krantzes that Avould harbour dassies or red hares. 



" All the vegetation, except along the rivers, was dried and dead 

 and the trees leafless, the course of the rivers being plainly shown 

 from a distance by the verdure of the trees on their banks. 



