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Show 1903.] MAMMALS FROM BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 199 of the fourth ; claws of medium strength and curvature. Tail about as long as the body without the head, practically naked, the two or three minute hairs which project from below the point of each scale only from | to \ the length of a scale ; scales very large, perhaps the largest among the Murida?, only about 5 to the centimetre ; arranged diagonally, their points unusually perceptible to the touch. Proximal third of tail black, terminal two-thirds yellow. Skull and teeth as described above. Posterior ends of nasals just level with those of premaxillary processes. Interorbital region narrow, parallel-sided, strongly concave mesially; its edges raised up into vertical ridges which run backwards to the lambdoid crests, and have two lateral projections, one at the fronto-parietal suture, and the others in the middle of the parietals. Palatal foramina shorter than m.1 and m.'J combined, narrow, parallel-sided. Dimensions of the type, measured on the skin :- Head and body 390 mm.; tail 345 ; hind foot (s. u.) 63; ear (wet) 26. Skull-greatest length 74 mm.; basilar length 64-5; greatest breadth 41 ; nasals 28 x 12*3 ; interorbital breadth 9 ; interparietal 10-5 x 14*5 ; palate, length from hensilion 37 ; diastema 23'3 ; palatal foramina 8"3 x 4 ; length of upper molar series 17 ; breadth of m.1 5-7 ; combined breadth of upper incisors 8-6. Hab. Avera, Aroa River, British N e w Guinea. Type. Female. B.M. No. 3.12.1.12. Collected by A. S. Meek. One specimen. This huge Rat looked not unlike one of the Indian Bandicoot-rats, but had probably no real affinity with them. It was quite unlike anything hitherto described from the Papuan region, except perhaps Dr. Jentink's Mus armandvillei of Flores, which differed from it, however, in many details. Mallomys rothschildi Thos., another large Papuan rat, had molars of cpiite a different pattern. Hyomys meeki was H O doubt an arboreal animal, as indicated by its shortened hind feet, and it was probable that the large pointed scales of its tail served a purpose analogous to that of the caudal " climbing-irons" of Anomalurus. AXISOMYS, g. n. (Murida?). Size large, form less bulky than in Hyomys. Fur coarse. Pollex with a broad nail. Tail of medium length, smoothly scaled, thinly hairy. Mamma? 1-2 = 6. Skull large, stout and heavy. Nasals long, parallel-sided behind and but little broadened in front. Supraorbital region broad, flat, with heavy edges which are continued backward as low, evenly curved ridges to the back of the skull; a vertical postorbital projection connected with the main ridge on each side. Palatal foramina, very small. Palate with raised lateral ridges edging it between the foramina and the molars; behind, it extends |