OCR Text |
Show 1881.] INDIAN SPECIES OF MUS. 537 between the specimens with long and those with short nasal bones- 46, 49, 52, 54, 57, 59, 62, 64, 66, 69. After examining such a series of figures as this, I think it will be generally admitted that the length of the nasal bones is a character which should be regarded with the very greatest caution before it is used to separate species upon. 7. MUS FULVESCENS. *Musfulvescens, Gray, Cat. Hodgs. Coll. p. 18 (1846). *Mus'candatior, Hodgs. Ann. &M.ag. Nat. Hist. iii. p. 203 (1849); Horsf. Cat. Mus. E.I. C. p. 144 (1851). Mus cinnamomeus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxviii. p. 294 (1859), nee Pictet, Not. Anim. Nouv. Mus. Gen. p. 64, pi. 19 (1844). HaB. Nepal and Sikhim : Pegu (Berdmore). Fur soft and fine, generally spineless, but with sometimes a considerable number of spines intermixed. Colour bright rufous above, with slate-coloured bases to the hairs; belly white, generally quite pure, but sometimes either mixed with slate-colour or with a fulvous-grey stripe down its centre. Tail long, brown above, and but slightly paler beneath, sometimes with a tendency to the development of a pencil of hairs at the tip. I have not been able to find out the number of mammae present in this species. The skull, as in Mus jerdoni, differs from that of M. alexandrinus by the absence of the projecting angle in the front of the exterior wall of the infraorbital foramen, by the more open lower part of the same foramen, by its smaller teeth and shorter anterior palatine foramina. The difference in the zygoma-root will be better understood by a comparison of the figures of the two forms (Plate L. fig. 3 a & B). With regard to the measurements, it unfortunately happens that we have no spirit-specimens of this species; but the following are the nearest that can be made out from skins :-Head and body 4*5 to 5*5 in., tail 5 to 7 in., hind foot *95 to 1*05 in. Mus octomammis, Hodgs., was placed as a synonym of M. can-datior by Gray ; but from Hodgson's drawing it would rather seem to be M. jerdoni, which we know has only eight mammae. The exact position of this species is very doubtful, and can only be settled by the examination of a good series of specimens properly preserved in spirit. Jerdon' placed M.fulvescens as a synonym of M. infralineatus, and quite separate from M. candatior ; the types of this latter and of M. fulvescens, however, are undoubtedly identical. 8. Mus JERDONI. Leggada jerdoni, Blvth, J. A. S. B. xxxii. p. 350 (1863). V'Mus octomammis, Hodgs.," Gray, Cat. Hodgs. Coll. 2nd ed. p. 10 (1863) (sine descr.). HaB. Sikhim ; Khasya Hills, Assam (Blanford); Java {v. Hiigel). Fur long, fine, usually with numerous spines intermixed. Above 1 Mamm. Ind. p. 197 (1867). PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1881, No. XXXV. 35 |