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Show 1881.] INDIAN SPECIES OF MUS. 557 Head and body 2*6 inches, tail 4*3, hind foot 0*71, forearm and hand 0*9, ear-conch length 0*46, muzzle to ear 0*75. I can find no difference of any importance between the types of V. oleracea and V. dumeticola, Hodgs. ; and they appear to be certainly of the same species. The "Mus dumecolus, specimen b," of Gray's Catalogue of Hodgson's collection1, quite agrees with the latter's description of his Mus povensis, and is most probably the actual type. Mus nilagiricus, Jerdon 2, may possibly turn out to be a second species of this subgenus, but more probably is only a rather large hill-form of this one. The head and body measures 3*5 inches, and the tail 5. The colours seem to be much the same in the two forms. There now remains but one of Hodgson's species of Mus which I have not referred to, namely 31. myothrix3. In his ' Mammals of India'4 Jerdon has suggested that this species is related to Golunda ellioti, Gr. On examining the type of 31. myothrix, a very bad skin, without the head, I find that there can be but little doubt that it is a specimen of that species, as it possesses the peculiar grooved spines and the hairy tail characteristic of G. ellioti, and the colours and proportions appear to be quite the same. It is true that the Gulandi has not hitherto been recorded so far north as this ; but there is a specimen in the British Museum, obtained at Dugshai; so that there is nothing surprising in its being found further east in Nepal. Hodgson has the following notes to his drawings of 31. myothrix:- "Got at Kahiilia powa, in central region, about 6700 feet;" and " Found on mountain top, in a burrow, whence it was dug out."5 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. PLATE L. Mus blanfordi. The type, a not fully adult female. P L A T E LI. Figs. 1 & 2. Hind foot and palate-ridges of Mus jerdoni. 3. Anterior zygoma-root of:-a, Mus alexandrinus; b, Mus fulvescens. 4. Side view of the skull of Mus blanfordi, taken from a fully adult male specimen. 5. Upper and under views of the skull of the same species. Taken from the type. 6. Eight hind foot of Mus blanfordi (<$). 7. Left ear of M. cervicolor, showing the measuring-points (a, b). 8 & 9. Skull and right hind foot of M. nitidulus. 10. Teeth of Leggada buduga, from above, taken from the type specimen. 11. Side view of the first upper molars of two specimens of the same species, showing the variable character of the extra anterior cusp (a). 12. Bight hind foot of Leggada platythrix. 13. Right hind foot of Vandeleuria oleracea. 13 a. Upper view of the fifth toe of the same foot, much enlarged, showing the peculiar short nail characteristic of the subgenus Vandeleuria. * lsted. p. 18(1846). 2 Mamm Ind. p. 203 (1867). 3 Ann. & Mag. N. H. xv. p. 267 (1845). 4 M a m m . Ind. p. 214. 6 A full description of Golunda ellioti has been published by Mr. Blanford, J. A. S. B. 1876, p. 165, and 1877, p. 292. |