MAMMALIA. 279 



to the ground or to rocks, and taking refuge in clefts 

 and holes, never upon trees. The taU is very long and 

 bushy. 



30. X. leuco-umbrinus, Eiipp. 



Kiipp. Neu. Wirb. p. 38, in remarks on the genus Sciurus. 



X. setosus, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 3, vol. ix. p. 332. 



I cannot agree with Dr. Gray in considering the 

 striped Abyssinian Ground-Squirrel identical with the 

 Cape species. Eiippell founded his species on the dif- 

 ference in the ears ; the Cape Xerus setosus having no 

 external conch, whilst the Abyssinian X. leuco-umbrinus 

 has one distinctly developed, although small. On com- 

 paring the specimens procured by myself in Abyssinia 

 with those from the Cape in the British Museum, I find 

 this distinction thoroughly confirmed. X. setosus, more- 

 over, appears to be a much smaller animal. Specimens 

 of Xerus from Western Africa show an intermediate 

 form of ear ; they are of the same size as the Abyssinian 

 species, but much darker in colour. 



Xerus leuco-umbrinus abounded in rocky places about 

 Senaf^ and elsewhere, in Tigrd up to about 9,000 feet, 

 and I found it as low as 4,500 in the Anseba valley. 

 It has six mammse. On the 2d of March, near Takonda, I 

 shot a gravid female containing four well-grown young ; 

 two, a male and a female, in each horn of the uterus. 



31. Bathyergus splendens, Eupp. 



Kuppell, Neu. Wirb. p. 36, t. 12.— Brehm, Habesch, p. 63. 

 This peculiar burrowing rodent is very closely allied 

 in form and habits to the Bamboo Rats (Bhizomys) of 



