KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIBNS HANDLINGAR. BAND 48. N:0 5. 



87 



in the dim light in thick bush they look more like an indistinct greenish shadow 

 than a living animal and disappear very quickly out of sight. 



Paraxerus jacksoni kahari (Heller). 



Hellee: Smiths. Miss. Coll., Vol. 56, 1911, N:o 17, p. 2. 



Five specimens of Scrub Squirrels were collected in the neighbourhood of Meru 

 boma and the native village Kanyakeni, where they mostly were found in the shambas, 

 which were surrounded by hedges and contained small trees planted to support the 

 yams-vines. These specimens looked when alive very much like those collected around 

 Nairobi. A closer examination reveals, however, that the Meru Scrub Squirrel which 

 Heller recently has named P. Jcahari has a considerably smaller skull, with shorter, 

 less constricted preorbital region, narrower occipital region, shorter diastema and so on. 



For comparison a few measurements of a skull from Nairobi and another of 

 similar age from Meru boma are given: 



Maximum length 



Condyloincisive length 



Zygomatic width 



Least interorbital width 



Length of upper molar series = 



Length of nasals 



From behind postorbital process to anterior end of nasal suture 



Xerus rutilus dabagala (Heuglin). 



Heuglin: Nov. Act. Acad. Leop. Car. Nat. Cur., T. XXVIII, p. 4, Tab. 2. 



or: Xerus rutilus rufifrons (Dollman). 



Dollman: Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1.911, Ser. 8, Vol. VTI, p. 518. 



On the southern side of Guaso Nyiri I observed Ground Squirrels in a patch 

 of thornbush, but I could not obtain any specimens there. On the northern side of 

 the same river they were more common, and I collected eight specimens at Njoro 

 and other places, even below Chanler Falls. 



My specimens agree with the description of X. rufifrons which Dollman has 

 based on specimens obtained in the same localities in which short time afterwards I 

 collected some of mine. But, of course, there is some variation in colour even among 

 specimens caught at exactly the same place. Some specimens are entirely pinkish 

 brown (conf. below) all over back and sides with hardly any blackish sprinkling at 

 all visible, not even on the back of the head, and with no difference whatever 



