56 EINAR LONNBERG, MAMMALS COLLECTED BY THE SWEDISH ZOOLOGICAL EXPEDITION ETC. 



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countries are concerned. J. A. Allen has communicated^ measurements of 6 skulls 

 from Leikipia, Brit. East Africa. These agree also with the measurements of the 

 material of this museum, De Winton mentions (1. c. p. 540) that he has observed 

 that » specimens from south of the Zambesi — — — are rather larger, and the facial 

 part of the skull appears slightly longer in proportion than those obtained from the 

 north of that river*. The measurements of the present material do not support this 

 except for southern males. It must, however, be borne in mind that male members 

 of the genus Canis often vary a great deal, and some specimens may be bigger than 

 the average. As I only have one male skull from East Africa, and that one is not 

 very old, I cannot say whether the southern males of this species generally are larger 

 in size or not. The measurements of Noack's type specimen of C. mesomelas schmidli 

 are of course decidedly smaller than the corresponding ones of any of the mesomelas 

 skulls in this museum, even than those of females from Eritrea, and the Guaso Nyiri 

 district. In consequence of this it must be assumed either that C. mesomelas schmidti 

 is a race with very restricted habitat in Somaliland, or that the type specimen to 

 which this name was given was a dwarfed individual. 



NoAOK has also indicated that his O. mesomelas schmidti differs from the typical 

 race with regard to the dentition. This difference is said (1. c. p. 620) to consist 

 therein that in C. m. schmidti no lateral cusps (»Nebenzacken») are to be found on 

 pm^ and pm^ which is said to be the case in the true G. mesomelas. This is, how- 

 ever, a very variable characteristic. The small cusps are sometimes present sometimes 

 absent even in southern specimens. In the specimen from Guaso Nyiri the additio- 

 nal cusp of pm^ is very well developed. In a similar way pm^ of C. m. schmidti is 

 said to have only one lateral cusp, while there are two in the true C. mesomelas. 

 The latter is the case in all my material. 



With regard to colour I cannot find any important differences between speci- 

 mens from Eritrea and Guaso Nyiri on one side, and those from Damaraland on 

 the other, except that the former perhaps are a little brighter, and that in the latter 

 the dark line below the eye is only faintly developed, whereas it is distinct in the 

 northern specimens. The presence of this dark line in specimens of this Jackal from 

 the Cape Colony has been stated by De Winton (1. c. 540), and as mentioned above 

 it can be traced in specimens from Damaraland. There are thus new and more 

 constant characteristic needed before any distinction can be made between the East 

 resp. Northeast-African Black-backed Jackals and the South-African ones.^ The type of 

 _G. mesomelas schmidti Noaok is excluded from this, but more material of the same 

 kind is evidently needed before the racial distinctness of C. mesomelas schmidti can 

 be said to be fully proved when there are larger and typical Black-backed Jackals 

 to be found as well in Eritrea as in the country north of Guaso Nyiri. 



1 Bull. Ameriean Museum XXVI p. 172. New York 1909. 



^ 0. Neumajtn has recorded the Black-hacked Jackal of East Africa as y> Canis mesom£las schmidti 'Ho ack» 

 (Zool. Jahrh. Bd. 13, 1900, p. 550) without giving any reason for doing so. 



