KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BANB 48- N:0 5. 



109 



Hystrix galeata somalensis n. subsp. 



A couple of years ago I had the opportunity of studying with the kind per- 

 mission of my friend Oldfield Thomas the material of Porcupines in British Museum 

 Nat. Hist. I found then among other things that in Somaliland is to be found a 

 Porcupine which is much smaller than H. galeata of the surrounding countries, Bri- 

 tish East Africa, Abyssinia, and Eritrea. This small Somali Porcupine is represented 

 in British Museum by two specimens both of which are old viz. a male (n:o 6, 5, 

 4, 9) and a female (n:o 6, 5, 4, 10) from Burao. 



The measurements of these specimens are as follows: 



Basicranial length ... 



Distance from occipital crest to tip of premaxillary 



Parietal length mesially 



Frontal » » 



Nasal » » 



Combined breadth of nasals at posterior end of nasopremaxillary suture . 



» » » » » anterior » » » » 

 Width across postorbital processes 



These measurements prove that, taken as a whole, the skull of the Somali Por- 

 cupine even when fuUgrown and old is smaller than the smallest male and semiadult 

 skulls of H. galeata, and it thus deserves to be regarded as a separate race. 



In the thornbush country north of Guaso Nyiri where the fauna also in many 

 other respects resembles that of Somaliland proper, I was fortunate enough to obtain 

 a Porcupine which our native guide speared not far from the waterplace called 

 Njoro, situated about 1° N. lat. This was an adult but not old female in which 

 the last molar is in use but not much worn. The premolar has not yet been changed. 

 Although the posterior portion of the skull has been broken by the spear it is quite 

 clear that this specimen belongs to the same race as those from Burao in British 

 museum, as the following measurements indicate. 



83 mm. 

 54 » 

 34,5 » 



Length of nasals mesially 



Combined breadth of nasals at posterior end of nasopremaxillary suture 

 . » » » » anterior » » » » 



The length of the nasals is thus in all these three specimens measured shorter 

 than the minimum in any adult H. galeata. The combined posterior width of the 

 n^^sals lies within the limits of variation for H. galeata, but the combined breadth of 

 the same bones anteriorly is smaller than in the species mentioned. It approaches 

 by this H. africoe-australis to some degree without, however, reaching the same but 



