58 EINAR LÖNNBERG, MAMMALS COLLECTED IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 



of spöts. The just mentioned unpaired narrow mesial stripe (or series of spöts) can be 

 followed about half way to the loins. On the posterior back it is substituted by a 

 much broader (mostly 10 — 12 mm.) black band formed by confluent spöts which only 

 in the youngest specimen are parti y isolated. The outer pair of upper neck stripes bifur- 

 cates at the shoulders into two longitudinal series of roundish (on the posterior back 

 elongate sometimes rectangnlar) black spöts. Below these are still some series of smaller 

 spöts so that at the middle of the body about six series of spöts may be counted on 

 either side of the median line. On the back and the sides the spöts are well 

 defined from each other in front and bchind, although the interspaces are narrow, 

 but especially in the male they have a great tendency to coalesce in a vertical direc- 

 tion so that irregular transverse bands are formed by the confluence of 2 — 3, or 

 even 4 — 5 spöts. The ground colour is very light yellowish grey (not much darker than 

 Dauthénay's »stone colour», 312, 4) with a shade of fawn on the middle of the back, 

 and on the face. This latter shade is more pronounced in the female and the young ani- 

 mal. On the cheeks there are some small black spöts. Chin and throat greyish white, 

 with a slight buffish suffusion in the female and young. Across the loAver neck about 

 four transverse series of black spöts are to be seen; the foremost of these, which is situated 

 about half way between head and chest, is most conspicuous and forms an almost continuous 

 cross bar in the males. Interbrachial space blackish grey with some scattered black spöts. 

 The belly is lighter by means of whitish tips to the basally dark smoky grey hairs. The 

 frontside of the före legs is grey with black spöts, the inner side of the same and the feet 

 blackish brown. The hind legs and feet are blackish brown to the same extent, but there 

 may be a greyish spöt on the upper side of the latter. The tail is black with 9, in the 

 adult male 10 narrow white rings with a breadth on the dorsal side of about 5 — 8 mm., on 

 the ventral side they are somewhat broader. In this number of rings is not counted the 

 similar band just above the root of the tail. The tip of the tail is black, but in the female 

 as mentioned above, there is a small white spöt just underneath the tip, and in the male 

 the corresponding spöt is not quite black, but påle brownish. Length of fur on the back 

 15 — 18 mm., at the base of the tail not longer, but in the sacral region of the male about 

 20 mm. 



The specimen of mubryana-type » is rather similar, but differs in the following points. 

 The head and back is provided with a rather strong tint of fawn, and isabelline on the 

 sides. This makes the head markings somewhat less prominent. The median pair of 

 stripes of the upper neck is narrower and more broken up in small spöts. The median 

 stripe of the posterior back is narrower and less defined. The spöts on the whole body are 

 comparatively smaller (but about as numerous), separated by somewhat broader inter- 

 spaces and show less if any tendency to become confluent. The lower parts have an isa- 

 belline tint; the interbrachial space is less dark, and the lower neck does not show any 

 definite transverse arrangement of the spöts. The tail is black with 10 white rings, which 

 are considerably broader than in the other specimens, from 12 to 20 mm. on the 

 upper side, broader below. The tip is påle, although not pure white as the rings, 

 but påle brownish at the extreme end, and more whitish subterminally on the lower 

 side. These differences do not appear very important, but might partly, f. i. the 



