KtrNQL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAE. BAND 48. N:0 5. 



55 



Carnivora. 

 CanidaB. 



Canis mesomelas Schrebbr. 



De.Wiijton: Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1899 p. 539. 



North of Guaso Nyiri this Jackal was evidently common in the thornbush 

 country. The specimens which I saw in Febr, and March had remarkably bright 

 colours, the rufous of the hindquarters and flanks appeared especially clear when 

 they ran away through the bushes. 



I had expected to find a small race of the Black-backed Jackal in this country 

 because Noaok has described^ from Somaliland a small variety which he has called 

 Canis mesomelas schmidti. This was, however, not the case. The specimens which 

 I saw were not small. The females are smaller than the males, but a young adult 

 female measured from snout to vent 72 cm., and the tail was 34 cm. without hair. 



In the accompanying table of measurements the dimensions of 9 skulls of 

 Ganis mesomelas from different parts of Africa^ have been recorded. From this 



Maximum length of skull 



Basicranial lengt of skull 



Zygomatic width » » 



Greatest width of brain-case 



Greatest length of nasals 



Distance from hind margin of m" to front surface of i' 

 Distance from orbit to tip of premaxillary ... 



Least interorbital breadth 



Distance between tips of postorbital processus . . . 



Length of p* 



!> » m' laterally 



the superior size of the males in South Africa is quite apparent. On the other hand 

 it is plainly seen that the female skulls from Damaraland, Kilimanjaro, Sotik, the 

 Guaso Nyiri district, and Eritrea agree very closely in size so that there cannot be 

 based any racial difference on the size as far as the Black-backed Jackals of these 



1 Zool. Anz. Bd. XX. 1897, p. 519. 



* I am indebted to Mr. E. J. Cunnighame for two skulls from South Sotik. 



^ This skull has been obtained from Rev. Mr. K. G. Roden. 



