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Show 18S1.J THE S U R V E Y O F H.M.S. ' A L E R T . 5 The tail is very long and but scantily haired; on the upperside the scales are grey and the hairs dark reddish brown, on the lower the scales are pale yellow and the hairs white ; along the centre of the underside, however, there is a distinct narrow line of dark-brown hairs, contrasting with the white ones on either side. The ears possess, at about one third the height of the inner margin, a small projecting lobule, which seems to be present in many species of this genus, and to be well worthy of notice, as being very constant in the species in which it is found. The foot-pads are small but distinct, and the surface of the palms and the distal half of the soles are coarsely granulated, as shown in the woodcut. The skull is that of a typical Hesperomys, but shows only a very faint trace of the supraorbital ridges supposed to be characteristic of the subgenus Calomys, to which, however, the species undoubtedly belongs, as proved by its long tail and murine form. The following are the dimensions of the two spirit specimens, both of which are adult males :- a. b. inches, inches. Length of head and body 4-3 4-2 tail 64 6-1 >> „ head 1 '4 ear 0-55 0-53 >> hind foot without claws .... 1'3 1*22 Distance from muzzle to ear-orifice 108 Measurements of skull of b :- inch. Length 1"2 Breadth 0*65 Breadth between orbits 0*16 Length of nasals 0*4 „ lower jaw, from condyle to tip of incisors . . 0-76 The species to which H. coppingeri appears most nearly allied are H. lutescens, Gay 1, and H. philippii, Landb.2, both from Chili. The first, however, is much larger, being 5"7 inches in length, while its tail is only as long as the trunk. Moreover the skull, as figured by Gay, possesses strong supraorbital ridges, while our three specimens of H. coppingeri, as stated above, show but little trace of them. H. philippii, though somewhat similar in size and colour, may be readily distinguished by the extreme shortness of its tarsus (0*8 in.) ; and by the character of its fur, which is described as being short and fine, while that of H. coppingeri, as mentioned above, is particularly long and soft. 6. HESPEROMYS (HABROTHRIX) XANTHORHINUS, Waterh. A skin from Monteith Bay, and a specimen in spirit from Sandy Point. 1 Hist. Chile, i. p. 118 ; Atlas, pi. vii. fig. 2. 2 Wiegm. Archiv, 1858, i. p. 80. , |