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Show 1881.] INDIAN SPECIES OF MUS. 523 varieties, and also those of about forty species which are considered as synonyms. With regard to what is here called " India," I have only taken the country west of the 90th degree of longitude, so as to exclude Assam and Burmah, as we have not yet sufficient material from these countries for me to work out the numerous species described from them. I hope, however, that Dr. Anderson or some one else to whom the Calcutta Museum is available, will work out these forms, the greater part of the species having been described by Mr. Blyth, and the types preserved there. Before proceeding to a detailed account of the subgenera and species, I have to thank those who have assisted m e in various ways. First, to Mr. W . T. Blanford I owe the most sincere thanks, not only for the generous present of specimens mentioned above, but also for constant aid given throughout the preparation of the paper, an aid which has been of the greatest use to m e from his extensive knowledge of India and its mammal fauna. I also owe m y thanks to Dr. Anderson, for examining for me several of Blyth's types, preserved in the Calcutta Museum ; and to Dr. J. Scully for the use of his specimens from Gilgit, a locality particularly interesting as being just on the line between the Palsearctic and Oriental zoological regions. In this connection I must also record the very deep obligations I am under to m y late friend Mr. E. R. Alston, whose premature death has deprived science of one whose careful and conscientious work upon Mammals is well-known to all zoologists, and who, since I first took up their study, has been a constant friend and helper to me in m y work on that branch of science of which he had so intimate a knowledge. The following are the subgenera into which the Indian species of Mus have been divided :- 1. Nesokia. Incisors very broad, finely sculptured in front. Molars composed of transverse laminae. Size large ; form stout and heavy ; tail rather short; fur coarse, not spiny. 2. Mus. Incisors narrow, smooth in front. Molars tubercular. Pollex only with a nail, the other digits with sharp compressed claws. Other characters variable. 3. Leggada. Like Mus, but the first upper molar with an extra tubercle in front (see Plate LI. figs. 10, 11). Fur generally, but not always, spiny ; size small; tail short. 4. Vandeleuria. Teeth as in Mus. Both 1st and 5th digits of fore and hind feet with a nail. Size small; form slender and agile ; fur soft; tail very long. Subgenus N E S O K I A. Neotoma, Ell. Madr. Journ. x. p. 208 (nee Say and Ord), 1839. Nesokia, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. x. p. 264, 1842. The members of this subgenus may always be readily distinguished bv their bluff-headed and arvicoline aspect. Their dentition is 7 34* |
