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Show 74 MR. O. THOMAS ON THE MAMMALS OF [Jan. 19, Gr., which Dr. Anderson, in his Monograph of the genus \ keeps separate from Pt. nitidus, although he described an intermediate specimen seen by him in the Leyden Museum. As the two forms are not geographically separate, and their skulls are quite identical, I do not think there is sufficient difference in their colour to distinguish them from one another, even as varieties. 17. PTEROMYS TEPHROMELAS, Gunth. a. 3 • Klang, Salangore, 27/8/79. b. 2 • Jaffaria, Johore, 18/3/80. These two specimens are of value as showing that the characters of the fully adult animal are practically the same as those of the young specimen described by Dr. Giiuther. The colours and proportions are almost identical, the only difference I can see being that the shining black hairs on the back are somewhat longer and more prominent in the adult, thus giving a less woolly appearance to the whole animal. The skull of the adult also shows that the species is distinguished by the very small relative size of its molars. The measurements of the male specimen are as follows:-Head and body 330 mm., tail 365, hairs at tip 50, hind foot 73, forearm and hand 148, ear, above crown (shrunk) (c) 25'0. Skull:-Occiput to tip of nasals (c) 64, length of face 30*7; greatest breadth 42 ; nasals, length 18*6, breadth 11 "4; interorbital breadth 15"0 ; palate, length 32-8, breadth outside m216*0, inside ma 8-0 ; diastema 16*0 ; palatine foramen 5'0; molar series (exclusive of pm1) 12-0 ; lower jaw, bone only, 41-5 ; to tip of incisors 450. 18. SCIUROPTERUS DAVISONI, sp. n.2 (Plate VI.) a. Malacca3, 7/77. General colour above much as in S. pearsoni, Gr., viz.:-dark slaty grey, with the tips of the hairs bright rufous orange. Parachute similar to back, its edges, especially along the supporting cartilage, rich orange. Below the belly is pale orange, the orange becoming deeper and richer to the edges of the parachute ; no intermixture of slate except on the parachute just above the hips. Feet and ears brown. Tail markedly distichous, dark brown above, rich rufous orange below, the latter colour showing somewhat on the upper surface between and beyond the brown hairs. Ears large, naked, triangular, obtusely pointed, their greatest breadth nearly or quite equal to their height above the crown of the head. Hind feet slender, unfringed, their soles provided with one proximal and four distal well-defined foot-pads. The skull of the type is unfortunately very imperfect, but there is enough to show that it is distinguished from that of S. pearsoni by its broader interorbital space, more heavily built muzzle, broader 1 Zool. Yunn. Exp. p. 292. 2 Preliminary Diagnosis, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (5) xvii. p. 84, Jan. 1886. 3 The following note is written on the back of the label of this specimen :- " This species occurs also in Tenasserim. Seen near Myawadi by Davison." |