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Show 408 MR. G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON ON [-^-Pr* **» Berlin Museum from Biigen. Lastly, a set of eight males and three females collected by Mons. A. Bobert at Lucinges, Haute- Savoie, in December 1899, at an altitude of 1100 metres, although, perhaps, slightly smaller and darker than the largest 31. s. wintoni, and with the chest-spot less strongly developed, agree so closely with this form in the length of tail, coloration of the underparts, and general appearance, that I prefer to unite them with it, at least provisionally. This form doubtless occurs also in numerous other localities. General Remarks. It cannot be denied that the treatment of M. s. wintoni at first presented a good many difficulties, at least as long as we knew it only from isolated localities. It seemed impossible that a large and small form of Mus sylvaticus could occur intermingled throughout the same area without interbreeding. Despite the assertion of Mr. de Winton, who has had such exceptional opportunities of studying these mice in Herefordshire, that the two forms keep quite separate, breed true, and show no intermediates, I was for a long time inclined to treat them as two parallel forms of one dimorphic animal. Even after colonies had been found on the Continent the difficulty remained, and was not dispelled until I had had the opportunity of working out a collection of small mammals taken by the late M r . W . Dodson in Boumania, and which contained a fine series of the local form of Mus sylvaticus of all ages. These all proved to be very different from M. s. typicus, and are a bright Eastern representative of M. tvintoni, which I have now no hesitation in regarding as the Western sporadic representative of the large East European Field-mouse (31. s. princeps). 8. Mus SYLVATICUS PRINCEPS, subsp. nov. (Plate XXV. fig. 1.) 31us sylvaticus var. fiavicollis, auctorum. Type. Original no. 25, a female, Bustenari, Boumania, 13th April, 1899, collector the late W Dodson : caught at foot of dead stump in oak-forest. Distinguishing Characteristics. An extremely large Mouse apparently identical in size and proportions with 31. s. wintoni, but adults are even brighter red in colour above and purer white on the underside. Many examples possess a breast-spot or band, but this character is not universal, and the band is not so extensive as in 31. s. wintoni. Immature specimens are very blue, aud resemble the young of M. s. draco; they frequently retain the dark colour of the upperside until they are fully as large as adults of M. s. typicus. Skull. A large massive edition of that of 31. s. typicus, reaching a total length of from 27 to nearly 30 m m . Distribution. This was the only Long-tailed Field-mouse obtained by W . Dodson in Boumania, whether in the beech aud oak forests of Bustenari, in the Carpathians N . W . of Bucarest, at a height of 480 metres; at Comana, south of Bucarest,: under brushwood on a high plateau near Breba, a large and highly cultivated valley amongst |
