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Show 860 MR. R. Li'DEKKER ON THE EXTINCT [Dec. 3, EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLVII. These figures have been drawn by Mr. Edwin Wilson from the living The colours were very carefully copied, but it was uot thought necessary to reproduce the sizes and shapes of tbe individuals. The figures are about twice the natural size. With the exception of figs. 18, 22, and 27, which represent females, all were taken from males. Figs. 1-6. Series illustrating the change of ground-colour from red to greenish Figs. 1, 7-12 are a series illustrating the progressive invasion of black pigment. Figs. 13-18. Various forms illustrating diminution and increase in amount of black pigment. Figs. 19-24. Forms with light undersides. Figs. 25-30. Unconformable cases. Figs. 25, 26, 28, 29, and 30 show specimens having light undersides, though they have transverse black markings in the position of the spots. Figs. 27 and 28 are peculiar in the fact that, though melanic forms, the ground-colour is yellowish buff instead of red. Fig. 30. Underside of intermediate colour, associated with a slight indication of transverse black marking. Fig. 31. Specimen having right elytron red and the left yellow. Fig. 32. Specimen having patches of yellow on red elytra. The undersides were black in the case of figs. 1-18, 27, 31, and 32 ; light in the case of figs. 19-26; of intermediate colour in tbe case of figs. 28-30. A leg is drawn in some cases, and the small square beside it represents tbe colour of the underside without shading. The elytra are all coloured as if they had no high light on them, in order to give the colour more correctly, but actually they reflect a bright light. 4. On the Affinities of the so-called Extinct Giant Dormouse of Malta. By R. LYDEKKER. [Received October 2,1895.] It has always been a matter of some surprise that while the other extinct Dormice agree with the living members of the family in their comparatively small size, the rodent from the Pleistocene of Malta assigned to the genus Myoxus is a much larger animal, agreeing approximately in dimensions with the Oriental Sciurus bicolor. Eecently Mr. Andrews, of the British Museum, told me that he believed this so-called Dormouse was not a member of the Myoxidee at all; and this induced me to undertake a re-examination of the specimens in the Museum, with the result that I am quite convinced of the correctness of his opinion. Myoxus melitensis was first described by Leith Adams in the Journ. R. Dublin Soc. vol. iv. p. 18 (1863), and more fully in the Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vi. pp. 307 et seq.; while some of its remains were also figured in plate iii. of his * Notes on the Nile Valley and Malta' (1870). The name Myoxus cartei also occurs in the same memoirs, although this appears to be a synonym of the former. Among the remains figured from Malta there is, however, a lower jaw ** assigned to the young of M. melitensis, which appears 1 ' Nile Valley and Malta,' pi. iii. fig. 7. |