294 
THE MAMMALS OF EGYPT. 
Measurements of the skulls of Spalacc. 
Egypt. 
Egypt. 
Merom. 
Erzerum. 
European. 
European. 
139 a, c?. 
140, d. 
Tristram. 
1071 b. 
3181. 
Brandt. 
Length from superior border of foramen 
magnum to anterior border of premaxil- 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
laries in front of incisors. 
From inferior border of foramen magnum 
43 
37 
89o 
47-5 
49 
55 
to end of nasals. 
Greatest breadth across nasal portion of 
46 
40-3 
43 
51 
52-3 
58 
premaxillaries i . 
Anterior extremity (pre-incisorial) of pre- 
9-5 
8-3 
9-2 
11 
12 
13 
maxillaries to posterior border of palate .. 
28 
24 
25-5 
33 
33 
35 
Now in measuring the tooth-row of these specimens we find that there is no 
perceptible difference in the size of the teeth judged by their length ; but a comparison 
of the six skulls—two Egyptian, one Palestine, one Erzerum, and two European— 
brings out at once that the Asiatic and African skulls are distinguished by molars 
considerably narrower than those of the European form, although in the folds of enamel 
they are alike. This difference becomes important when we find that it is associated 
with some differences in the form of the skull, the Asiatic form having the nasal 
portion of the skull more elongated and narrower than in the European specimens, 
but at the same time the nasal portion of the skull of Tristram’s skeleton of Spalax is 
relatively broader than the corresponding portion of my Egyptian skulls. 
I observe also that the skulls undoubtedly of European origin have the nasals of 
equal breadth throughout the first (proximal) half of their length, beyond which they 
suddenly expand, their temporal suture being as broad as the first half of the conjoint 
bones; whereas in my Egyptian animals, and also in the skull of Canon Tristram’s 
skeleton, the nasals contract gradually from before backwards, and the temporal suture 
is the narrowest portion of the conjoint bones. In the Erzerum specimen the 
condition of the nasals is intermediate between the European and the Syrian and 
Egyptian animals, their first half gradually expanding to about their middle and then 
rather suddenly so, as in the European skulls before me, but not to the same extent. 
The naso-intermaxillary portion of the skull, however, has in its narrowness all the 
characters of the Syrian and Egyptian rat-moles rather than those of the European 
ones. 
Besides a stuffed specimen from “ Europe,” there is a skin from Volga, Russia, in 
the British Museum, very much paler than my specimens from Egypt, the upper surface 
1 In the Egyptian specimens the greatest breadth is situated at the fronto-maxillary angle of the 
premaxillaries, whereas the breadth in the Erzerum specimen, about the middle of the length of the nasals, 
is equal to the former, and this is the same in the European specimens, whilst in the Merom stull the 
breadth across the naso-maxillary region is greatest in the middle of its length. These last four 
specimens, which are in the British Museum Collection, are unfortunately not sexed. 
