1922] Allen, Congo Collection 0/ Insectivora 9 



feet, making 23 in all, representing five easily recognizable forms. While 

 their relationships inter se are obvious, the names properly applicable to 

 the two forms from Farad je have raised a serious question of nomen- 

 clature. One of them should apparently be referred to E. albiventris 

 Wagner, as that name has of late been employed, but which of them 

 should be so recognized is indeterminable. This raises the further and 

 more fundamental question of the availability of this name, considered 

 with relation to its origin and history. 



As is well known, Wagner, in 1841, described as new two species of 

 Erinaceus (albiventris and pruneri) on consecutive pages of the same 

 work, 1 for neither of which was given a definite type locality. Erinaceus 

 albiventris, the first in sequence of the two species, was based on a single 

 specimen obtained from a dealer, who stated that it was found in a col- 

 lection from India ("befand er sich unter einer Sendung indischer 

 Thiere"), Wagner himself saying: "Die Heimath kann ich nicht genau 

 bestimmen." The original description of the species was inadequate, 

 merely indicating that it had, like many other species of Erinaceus now 

 known, white underparts, parti-colored spines, and other features of no 

 distinctive significance. In later references 2 to the species he stated that 

 the hind feet have only four toes. This fixed the " Heimath" as Africa, 

 inasmuch as no species of this genus having 4-toed hind feet are known to 

 occur elsewhere. Fortunately, the type remained available for examina- 

 tion by later investigators, confirming its African origin. Erinaceus 

 albiventris Wagner thus became a " blanket name" for all the African 

 species of Erinaceus with 4-toed hind feet. Various forms of the group 

 later became segregated, one after another, under distinctive names as 

 species, and the name albiventris, by some authors, was restricted (appar- 

 ently rather informally) to a Sudan form. 3 



Erinaceus pruneri Wagner, synchronous in publication with his E. 

 albiventris, was based on specimens received from Dr. Franz Pruner, 

 from a locality not definitely stated in the original description, nor in 

 Wagner's later references to the species, 4 where he gives its distribution 

 as "Sennaar, nach Sundevall auch am Senegal." It is to be noted that he 

 synonymized (in 1842 and 1855) E. heterodactylus Sundevall, based on 

 specimens from the Bahr el Abiad (White Nile), Sennaar, with his E. 



!1841, 'Sehreber's Saugthiere,' Suppl., II, pp. 22 and 23. 



2 1843, Wiegmann's Archiv fur Naturg., IX, 2 Bd., p. 27; 1855, 'Sehreber's Saugthiere,' Suppl., V, 

 p. 587. 



3 Thomas and Wroughton, in describing their Erinaceus spiculus, from near Lake Chad, in 1907 

 (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (7) XIX, p. 371), made comparison with "the Soudanese albiventris," 

 and further state: "The nearest neighbors of spiculus are albiventris, Wagner, from the Scvdan ar.d 

 Adansoni, Rochebrune, from Senegal." 



*1855, 'Sehreber's Saugthiere,' Suppl. , V, p 587. 



