| OCR Text |
Show 1890.] MR. W. L. SCLATER ON SOME INDIAN MURID.E. 527 of the molars. These points are at once apparent on examination of the second table of measurements of all the skulls (given below, pp. 536, 537), where the measurements have been reduced to a percentage of the total length of the skull. I send figures of the skull (see Plate XLIV. fig. 3). The following are the measurements in inches of examples preserved in spirit, taken in the same way as the measurements given in Mr. Thomas's paper (I. c.):- Head and body .. . Tail Hind foot Forearm and hand . d\ . 4-70 - 0-93 . 1-10 0-58 1-20 ?• 4-40 5-07 0-90 1-08 0-50 1-45 16. Mus URBANUS, Hodgs.; Thomas, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 544. This, the common House-Mouse of India, is doubtfully different from the almost universally distributed Mus musculus, the European House-Mouse; it has been treated by Thomas in his paper as distinct, and has therefore been left so in the present paper. Blyth stated that Mus musculus has larger ears, smaller eyes, and broader paws than Mus urbanus, and further that the tail of Mus musculus is one-fourth shorter ; none of these differences, however, hold good when many specimens are examined. To the synonymy given by Mr. Thomas, Mus kakhyensis and Mus viculorum, described by Dr. Anderson (Yunnan Exp. i. pp. 307, 308) from two specimens procured in Yunnan, may be added, as a careful examination of the specimens fails to show any characters by which they may be distinguished from the ordinary Indian House-Mouse. Mr. Thomas gives the whole of India as the habitat of this species; there are not, however, any examples of it in the Indian Museum from the Punjab or North-west of India, where Mus bactrianus seems to take its place. On the other hand, there are specimens from Ceylon, from various places in Assam and Cachar, from Burma, and from the Andamans and Nicobars. 17. Mus BACTRIANUS, Thomas, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 546. This species replaces the last as the common Houso-Mouse in the North-west of India; it differs from Mus urbanus in its white belly and pale colour; the skull also seems to differ from that of Mus urbanus in being longer and narrower (cf. table of reduced measurements, p. 537). There are examples of this species in the Museum from the Punjab and Sind, from Ladak and the Pir Pinjal Pass, and from Simla; also from Baluchistan, Southern Persia, Palestine, and Egypt. |
