OCR Text |
Show 1 882.] MR. O. THOMAS ON RODENTS FROM PERU. 11 1 I am not quite certain about the identity of these specimens with Mr. Tomes's Ecuadorean species, as H. caliginosus is described as being 5 inches long, with nearly naked ears and feet, but by measuring the largest individual of the present series along the curves, a length of nearly 5 inches may be obtained ; and as the colours and other dimensions agree very fairly, I prefer to regard them as H. caliginosus, rather than to describe them as new. The following is a short description of these specimens :-Fur very soft, of medium length. General colour above dark grizzled orange-black, the colour resulting being as dark as in H. obscurus, Waterh. Belly pale yellowish white, the bases of the hairs grey. Ears, feet, and tail covered with short dark brown hairs. Ears with a rounded projection on their anterior margin. Fifth hind toes reaching to between the base and the middle of the first phalanx of the fourth toes. Tail uniformly black all round, upperside of feet granulated with black, and the soles of the hind feet also deep black. This blackness of all the extremities forms a ready means of distinguishing the present species from the preceding one, in which the tail is brown above and grey beneath, and the soles have scarcely a tinge of black. The British Museum also possesses a specimen certainly identical with these Peruvian ones, which was collected by Mr. T. K . Salmon at Concordia, Medellin ; so that, as Ecuador is just between that locality and the present one, the probability of M . Stolzmann's specimens being the true H. caliginosus is greatly increased. " This is the most diurnal species of all, and on that account is very subject to the attacks of (Estrus. The base of its tail is naked- and white; and the fly deposits its eggs on this spot, as m ay be seen in those specimens which contain the larvae, or from which the latter have escaped." In addition to the above notes on the Rodents collected by M . Stolzmann, it m a y be useful to give the localities and dates for the three species of Opossum obtained by him. These are:- 14. DlDELPHYS NUDICAUDATA, Geoff. fl, b. 2 anu< young, Chirimoto, 5400', July 1880. 15. DIDELPHYS CINEREA, Temm. A. 2, Chirimoto, 5400', July 1880. 16. DIDELPHYS MURINA, Linn. A. 2 > Tambillo, 5800', Feb. 1878. b, c. 2 a n d d» Tumbez, sea-level, June 1876. |