| OCR Text |
Show 560 DR. J. ANDERSON ON RODENTS FROM YARKAND. [Julie 20, species. Dr. Stoliczka *, in a footnote to a notice of Lagomys curzonia, Hodgs., gives it as his opinion that Blyth had good reason to unite Hodgson's A. tibetanus (A. himalayanus) and A. hemachalanus with A. bobac, but does not record the grounds of his belief. Blyth, however, had no materials to sanction the conclusion at which he arrived; and Dr. Stoliczka appears to have been in a somewhat similar position. Hodgson's description of the two species is, in fact, liable to mislead; for he apparently had never seen an adult of A. hemachalanus, a specimen of which before me, procured on the Yarkand Expedition, is 22 inches from the tip of the nose to the vent, while his largest individual measured only 13 inches. The species therefore appear to be nearly of one size ; but their tails are very different. In __. hemachalanus the tail measures a little less than half the length of the body, while in A. bobac it is only one-fourth of the length of the body. There are other characters, however, by which these two forms are separable from each other; and these I shall now indicate by giving a detailed description of each. ARCTOMYS BOBAC. Arctomys bobac, Schreber, Saugeth. iv. p. 738. Mus arctomys, Pallas, Glires, 98, t. 8. Arctomys fulvus, Eversm. & Griffith, A. K. t. 118. Arctomys himalayanus, Hodgs. Journ. As. Soc. Beng. x. p. 777 (cum fig.), xii. p. 409 (potius tibetanus hodie). Arctomys caudatus, Jacquemont, Voy. dans l'Inde, Zool. p. 66. Arctomys bobac, Gray, Cat. of M a m m . B. M . p. 148; Horsfield, Cat. of Mamm., Lond. p. 164 ; Blyth (in part.), Cat. M a m m . As. Soc. Mus. pp. 108, 109 ; Stoliczka, Jouru. As. Soc. Beng. xxxiv. p. 111. Arctomys tibetanus, " Hodgson," Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 521. Twenty to twenty-four inches from tip of nose to vent; tail, exclusive of hair, nearly one-fourth of the length of the body, cylindrical, and bluff-pointed. Above subrufescent cat-grey f, washed with blackish brown on the back and sides and front of face ; chin to vent and fore and hind limbs yellow, the latter inclined to rufous. Fur close, thick, adpressed, rather harsh, 1^ inch to 1| inch long, trebly ringed on all the upper parts with dusky rufescent yellow and blackish brown, the latter most intense on the face, forehead, head, and back. Tail with a blackish-brown tip, 1\ inch long; palm with nails 2\, sole 3^ inches. Sexes alike, of nearly equal size. "Molars 5.4: first above unicuspid and cylindrical in its body, and tuberculous on the crown; the rest double, low, flat, and rather hollow-crowned, but with a slight keel on the inner extremity, and a groove between two transverse ridges towards the cheek." (Hodgson.) Hab. Yarkand. Three specimens of this species are from Yar- * Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, xxxiv. p. 111. t The individual from which this specimen was taken was killed in the month of September. |
