16 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History [Vol. XLVII 



series of young sotikas (a slightly differential form of hindei) . The dorsal 

 coloration in both is superficially dark brown in general effect but the 

 single adult of langi is much darker than any of the four adults of hindei 

 available for comparison, 1 while the white tipping of the spines is con- 

 spicuous and uniform in hindei and nearly absent in langi. The spines in 

 langi are blackish brown from tip to base, lacking the light median band 

 present in the hindei group. The interaural spines in both are much 

 longer than those of the body, forming a decidedly lengthened frontal 

 crest, absent in the pruneri (" alhiventris,^) group. 



The type skull agrees in general dimensions with those given for the 

 type of hindei, but differs from it in the nasals being much longer; the 

 short nasal border of the premaxillae, with a naso- maxillary junction as 

 long or longer than the nasal contact with the premaxillae — quite the 

 reverse of the conditions in hindei, in which the premaxillae are " slanted 

 backwards, touching the tips of the frontal processes and shutting off 

 the maxillae from the nasals." The postpalatal region is also much nar- 

 rower, the pterygoid and alisphenoid processes weaker and much less 

 everted, thus giving to this region a quite different aspect. All of the 6 

 young skulls (of which the type is the mother of 5 of them) agree with the 

 type skull in the short naso-premaxillary suture and the long naso- 

 maxillary suture, and the narrow postpalatal region and weak develop- 

 ment of its processes. 2 



Of 12 skulls of the hindei group (5 of hindei and 7 of sotikse [E. albi- 

 ventris sotikx Heller], the latter all from the Guaso Nyiro River) all but 

 one have the nasal border of the premaxillae extended posteriorly 

 (" slanted backwards"), and in all but two they nearly or quite reach the 

 frontal processes, the maxillae not reaching the nasals or barely touching 

 them for usually less than a millimetre. 



The skull of the type of hindei (a female) appears to have been ex- 

 ceptionally large (" greatest length 44; zygomatic breadth 30 mm."), 

 none of the four adult male skulls before me exceeding a total length of 

 43 mm., with an average of 42.1, and a maximum zygomatic breadth of 

 27.6, with an average of 26.7, although the teeth are worn and one 

 (total skull length 41.7) is very old. The author's suggestion that when 



^he specimens of hindei available for comparison are: Nos. 16096 Mus. Comp. Zcol., subadult c\ 

 Upper Ura River ; 16097 Mus. Comp. Zool. ; ad. 9 (skin only) ; No. 161699 Nat. Mus., ad. d\ Kapiti 

 Plains; Nos. 164022 and 164023 Nat. Mus., both ad. 9 , Ulucania Hills; No. 182652 Nat. Mus., very 

 old cf (teeth greatly worn), Lololokwi. All the localities are in British East Africa, not' far from the 

 type locality of hindei (Kitui, about 75 miles southeast of Mt. Kenia). The Mus. Comp. Zool. speci- 

 mens (both ex Wulsin Coll.) are labeled Erinaceus hindei; the Nat. Mus. specimens, Erinaceus albi- 

 ventris hindei. 



2 In respect to this latter feature comparison is made with skulls of hindei from the type region of 

 x he species. 



