| OCR Text |
Show 1889.] MAMMALS OF KINA BALU. 233 Skull: tip of nasals to lambda 51; nasals, length 21*8, breadth 6*5 ; interorbital breadth 8*8 ; infraorbital foramen, length of outer wall 7 ; palate, length 32 ; diastema 16*7 ; anterior palatine foramen 8*4 ; combined breadth of upper incisors 4*6; length of upper molar series 10*7. This fine Rat has a certain similarity to the Indian Bandicoot Rats (Nesokia), resembling them both in general external appearance and in the stout and heavy build of the skull and teeth. No species hitherto described can be mistaken for it, as all the Oriental Rats which have external or cranial proportions at all similar are distinguished either by having elongated rump-bristles or parti-coloured white-tipped tails. The single specimen obtained was found lying dead in the forest. 14. Mus RATTUS, L. «, b. 8000 feet. 4 and 5/2/88. c, d. 3000 feet. 1/4/88. The two specimens from an altitude of 8000 feet have their fur long and soft, while in those from 3000 it is short and harsh, so that it seems difficult to believe that both the forms can be referable to the same species. 15. Mus SABANUS1, Thos. Ann. Mag. N. H. (5) xx. p. 269 (1887). «. 1000 feet. 3/87. Type. b. (?) juv. 3000 feet. 21/3/88. Fur short and fine, mixed with slender spines along the centre of the back. General colour rufous, mixed with brown along the top of the head and back, brighter and clearer on the cheeks and sides, the general tone very similar to that of M. jerdoni. Whole of underside pure creamy white, sharply defined from the rufous of the sides. Outsides of limbs like sides, but rather greyer, inner sides white ; lower leg and ankles greyish brown all round. Hands and feet brown along the middle of their upper surfaces, their edges white, the contrast especially strongly marked on the feet, where a broad band of deep blackish brown passes along the centre, edged on each side with pure white. Sole-pads large, smooth, and prominent, the last one about three times as long as broad. Fifth hind toe, without claw, reaching to the end of the first phalanx of the fourth. Ears rounded, rather short, laid forward they barely reach to the posterior canthus of the eyes. Tail enormously long, evenly finely haired, the scales, which are large, averaging from seven to nine to the centimetre, uniformly dark brown above and below throughout, but the hairs black for the proximal two thirds above only, elsewhere pure white. Mammas 2-2 = 8. Dimensions of the type, an adult male, preserved as a skin :- Head and body 280 millim.; tail 340; hind foot 43*5 ; ear, above 1 From Saba, the district of North Borneo in which Mount Kina Balu is situated. |
