OCR Text |
Show 1905.] MAMMALS FROM JAPAN. 3 5 9 Type. Young adult male. B.M. No. 6.1.4.378. Original number 583. Collected 30 June, 1905. This insular form of the common Japanese Field-Mouse is readily recognisable by its much shorter tail, this organ in true speciosus being rarely less than 100 mm. in length. 5. M icromys g e ish a c e la tu s , subsp. n. 3 . 598,611. 5* 581,606. Interior of Dogo Island. 100'. Avei'age size distinctly smaller than in mainland geisha■, and the tail proportionally short. Fur fine and close; hairs of back about 6-7 mm. in length. Colour as in true geisha. Dimensions (in mm.) of three specimens, measured in the flesh:- 3 (Type) Head and body 80 ; tail 80; hind foot 19; ear 15. S „ „ 77; „ 83; „ 19; „ 14. $ ....... „ „ 78; „ 74; „ 19; „ 13: Skull of type-greatest length 24 mm., length of upper molar series 3‘6. Type. Male. B.M. No. 6.1.4.385. Original number 611 Collected 10 July, 1905. These insular examples of the common geisha-mouss are 5- 15 mm. less in the head and body measurement, and 5-20 less in the tail, than specimens from the mainland, but are like the latter in all other respects. 6. L epus b r a ch yu r u s o k ie n s is , subsp. n. 3 . 609 (yg.). 2- 604, 608 (yg.). Dogo Island. 100'. Size and other essential characters as in true brachyurus, but the colour heavily blackened throughout, more or less melanistic. Of the type, the only adult, the general colour above is uniform bistre-brown, the ordinary subterminal buffy rings on the hairs being either absent or much reduced. Central area of face and crown similar to back, as are the cheeks ; a lighter line running from the whiskers past the eyes to the ears. Nape brown. Ears with the proectote * deep black, inconspicuously fringed with buffy; metentote blackish proximally, brownish buffy terminally, outer fringe narrow, dull buffy, inconspicuous ; metectote brown proximally, the terminal half-inch black. Sides little lighter than back. Interramia dull whitish, reduced in size by the extension of the black chin-patcli. Collar deep bistre-brown. Belly dull whitish. Limbs coloured like back, the long hairs of the feet * Every mammalogist in describing specimens has felt the need for names to characterise the different parts of the ear when folded, as in repose. The anterior third and posterior two-thirds of the outer surface, and the same of the inner, make four areas always distinguished from each other by colour or degree of hairiness, and constantly have to be described. If, therefore, the whole outer surface of the ear be called the ectote, we may call its anterior part the proectote and the posterior the metectote. Similarly the inner surface would be the entote, its anterior part the proentote aud the posterior part the metentote. In ordinary specimens, with the ears folded back, it is the proectote and the metentote which are visible and characteristically coloured, while the metectote and proentote are commonly more or less naked and colourless. P roc. Z ool. Soc.- 1905, Y o l . I I . No. X X Y . 25 |