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Show 398 MR. G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON ON [Apr. 3, Outer Hebrides are, like the Lepidoptera of the same islands, small and darkly coloured. In many cases black forms of some common species of animals occur in the British Islands or in mountains, either in certain defined areas or sporadically, but are not yet in a status to be generally recognized subspecifically. Such are the black variety of the Water-Vole, Microtus ater (Macgillivray); the black varieties of the Common Bat, Mus hibernicus Thompson ; the black variety of the Squirrel, Sciurus alpinus Cuvier, of the Pyrenees and Alps ; and the dark variety of the Common Snipe, Gallinago ccelestis sabinii (Vigors). Such forms, however, seem to be in many ways analogous, and it is strongly to be suspected that they owe their origin to some common cause, apparently not, in the ordinary sense, a protective one. 1 recognize 19 subspecies or phases of 3Ius sylvaticus, which are as follows :- 1. MUS SYLVATICUS INTERMED] US. Mus intermedins, C. J. Bellamy, Natural History of South Devon, pp. 195 & 329-330, with Woodcut (1839). 31us campestris, J. J. J. Holandre, Faune de la Moselle, p. 24 (1836),antedated by 31. campestris, A.G.Desmarest, M a m m . Suppl. p. 543 (1822), which is a 31us minutus, Pall, subsp. incert.; see De Selys-Longchamps, ' Etudes de Micromammalogie : Bevue des Musaraignes, des Bats et des Compagnols, suivie d'un Index raethodique des Mammiferes d'Europe' (Paris, 1839), and Barrett- Hamilton, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., April 1899, p. 345. 3Ius sglvaticus fossilis, P. Gervais, Zool. et Pal. Fr. p. 43 (1859). 31us sylvaticus auctorum. Type locality. Devonshire, England. Nomenclature 6c Synonymy. The discovery that the original application of the name sylvaticus by Linnaeus referred to a distinct subspecies, makes it necessary to search for a subspecific name which shall apply to the ordinary lesser subspecies of Britain and the neighbouring continental area. The name intermedins of Bellamy, although undoubtedly applied to a lar^e example, seems to be suitable for this use. It is at all events appropriate to an animal which is distinctly intermediate in its characters between several surrounding subspecies. Description. The colour of the basal two-thirds of all the hairs at all ages and seasons is slate-grey, but this is concealed by the terminal portions, about 2 or 3 m m . in length, which are coloured quite differently and to the tints of which the animal owes its general appearance. In adults the upperside is sandy reddish brown, not usually of rich or intense tints, the lower side pure . white, with a very clear line of demarcation between the colours of the two surfaces passing along the flanks, inner surface of the thighs, fore limbs, and cheeks. Many hairs of the upperside are tipped with black, especially in the median dorsal region, and these black tips, becoming greatly increased in winter, constitute |