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Show 1879.] MR. E. R. ALSTON ON ACANTHOMYS LEUCOPUS. 6 15 29. Ornismya longirostris, d'Orb. & Lafr. Syn. Av. ii. p. 29. Guarayos (0.). No specimen in Paris Museum (Elliot, I. c). 30. Noctuaferox, d'Orb. & Lafr. Syn. Av. i. p. 8 ; d'Orb. Voy. Ois. p. 127. Prov. Chiquitos (0.). 31. Ibycter gymnocephalus, d'Orb. & Lafr. Syn. Av. i. p. 2; d'Orb. Voy. Ois. p. 50. Cochabamba (0.). 3. On the Acanthomys leucopus of Gray. By E D W A R D R. ALSTON, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c [Eeceived June 3, 1879.] In the first part of Prof. Schlegel's new periodical, • Notes from the Royal Zoological Museum of the Netherlands at Leyden,' Dr. F. A. Jentink identifies two specimens of a spiny Rat from Celebes with the North-Australian species described by the late Dr. Gray under the name of Acanthomys leucopus1. The specific identity of a 3Ius from Celebes with one from the continent of Australia seemed so unlikely that I suspected that Dr. Jentink might have been misled by Gray's very insufficient description ; and I was consequently induced to reexamine the types in the British Museum. A comparison of the description given below with that of Dr. Jentink will show that the two species are evidently quite distinct, the Celebes animal being a fourth smaller than the Australian, with much smaller feet, and having the tail longer than the head and body, thinly haired and tufted, instead of shorter and naked. In a note to m y report on the Rev. G. Brown's collection, I remarked that Gray's species belonged to the restricted genus Mus and not to Acanthomys, Lesson ( = Acomys, Geoffroy), and that it would require to be renamed, the specific name being preoccupied by the common North-American White-footed Mouse, the 31us leucopus (Rafinesque) of Desmarest and other writers, Hesperomys leucopus of more recent zoologists2. Dr. Jentink also places the Australian species in the genus Mus, but on different grounds; he rejects the genus Acomys or Acanthomys altogether, as being founded merely on the superficial character of the possession of spinous hairs. But that group was founded by the older Geoffroy on the 31us cahirinus of Desmarest; and it has been restricted by subsequent writers to the small group of Ethiopian Mures in which a spiny coat is combined with marked cranial peculiarities, notably with shallow pterygoid fossae, very small incisive foramina and slightly developed eoronoid processes3. 1 P. Z. S. 1867, p. 598. 2 P. Z. S. 1877, p. 124, footnote. 3 Cf. Peters, Kei.se n. Mozambique, i. p. 101; Alston, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 83. |