OCR Text |
Show 1889.] MAMMALS OF KINA BALU. 235 11 to the centimetre ; short-haired, sharply bicolor from base brown above, yellowish white below. Dimensions, 2 *-Head and body (probably stretched), 177 m ilm. tail 162 ; hind foot 32 ; heel to front of last foot-pad 16. Skull : tip of nasals to lambda (junction of sagittal and lambdoid sutures) 34; nasals, length 15; interorbital breadth 7*4 ; palate, length 19; length of anterior palatine foramina 6; upper molar series 5*8. This species is most nearly allied to the Nepalese M. niveiventer, Hodgs., but may be distinguished by its unspeckled back, by the more gradual passage of the upper into the lower colour, and by its larger size. So far as its collector has observed, Mus alticola is confined to the higher parts of Mount Kina Balu. 18. Mus MUSSCHENBROECKI, Jent. a, b. 1000 feet. 3/87. c, d. cS 2 • 3000 feet. 18 and 20/3/88. It is of considerable interest to find this species, previously only known from Celebes, in Borneo, on a different side of the line separating the Oriental from the Australian regions. Its occurrence here suggests that other members of the Oriental element in the peculiar Celebean fauna may also prove to have survived on the tops of the Bornean mountains. 19. Mus EPHIPPIUM, Jent. a, b. ad. and juv. 1000 feet. 3/87. It appears rather doubtful whether this species is really distinct from Mus concolor, Bly., found in Burma and the Malay Peninsula; but for the present I do not feel justified in definitely uniting the two forms, and the Kina Balu individual clearly belongs rather to the Sumatran ' ephippium' than to its northern ally. 20. CHIROPODOMYS GLIROIDES, Bly. a. 1000 feet. 1/88. This specimen is immature, but would not apparently have ever reached the dimensions of the two individuals obtained by Mr. Wallace at Sadong, and now in the British Museum. However, it exactly matches some of those collected by Signor L. Fea in Burma and Tenasserim, and is evidently specifically identical with them. In the general account now in course of publication of the collection made by that gentleman T some further details as to the character and synonymy of this beautiful little species will be found. 21. TRICHYS GUENTHERI, nom. nov. Trichys lipura, Giinth. P. Z. S. 1876, p. 739. a. juv. 3000 feet. 3/4/88. This specimen is the fourth example of the interesting genus Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) v. 1889. |