148 GLIRES. ‘ 
8. Hesperomys sumichrasti. (Tab. XIV. fig. 2.) 
Hesperomys (Nyctomys] sumichrasti, de Saussure, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1860, p. 107, pl. ix. figs. 2, 3 
(descr. orig.) *. 
Hesperomys (Myoxomys) salvinii, Tomes, P. Z.S. 1861, p. 285, pl. xxxi. (descr. orig.) *. 
Hab. Mexico, east of Cordilleras (de Saussure}; Sallé, Mus. Brit.); British Hon- 
DuRAS, Belize (Blancaneaux, Mus. Brit.); GuatemMaua, Duefias (Salvin, Mus. Brit.*). 
Although I have not had an opportunity of examining the types of M. de Saussure’s 
H. sumichrasti, I have no doubt that he and Mr. Tomes had the same animal before 
them, and that each separately described the same species. The only point of difference 
in their descriptions is as to size, the former giving the length of the head and body in his 
two specimens as 100 millims. and 88 millims. respectively (=3!"95 and 3-50), while 
that of Mr. Tomes’s type was 5'50. But one at least of the Swiss zoologist’s examples 
was immature, as shown by the colour; and Mr. Tomes’s was an unusually large indi- 
vidual ; for in a number of spirit specimens the length varies from 4:90 to 5°30 inches, 
while one example from British Honduras agrees almost exactly with the measurements 
of M. de Saussure’s larger specimen. In every other particular—in the hairy almost 
bushy tail terminating in a pencil of hairs, in the short broad hind feet with propor- 
tionally long second and fifth toes, in the nearly uniform light rufous of the upper 
parts, and in the peculiar character of the lower fur being pure white to the roots— 
the nominal species agree with one another, and differ so much from all the other 
known forms of Hesperomys that each of their describers has proposed a new subgenus for 
his discovery. In point of fact Nyctomys is one of the best-marked of all the subgenera 
of Hesperomys. | 
In Guatemala Messrs. Salvin and Godman tell me that H. suwmichrasti is very common 
in the neighbourhood of Duefias, where the Indians will procure almost any number of 
specimens for a trifle. Most of theirs were obtained,in this way; but they sometimes 
found it themselves in the hedgerows which surround the coffee-plantations of the neigh- 
bourhood; and on one occasion Mr. Salvin poked one out of a nest with a stick, when 
the Mouse dropped into the sleeve of his coat, to the astonishment of both performers. 
The figure in the Plate is taken from one of the Duefias specimens. 
9. Hesperomys palustris. 
Mus palustris, Harlan, Am. Journ. Science, xxxi. p. 386 (1837, deser. orig.) }. 
Hesperomys (Oryzomys) palustris, Baird, Mamm. N. Am. p. 4822; Coues, Proc. Ac. Philad. 1874, 
p- 184°; Mon. N.-Am. Rodent. p. 113+. 
Hab. Nort America, from New Jersey southwards 4.—Mex1co (Sallé, Mus. Brit.), 
Tehuantepec (Sumichrast, Postell, U.S. Nat. Mus.*). 
The Common Rice-Mouse of the Southern United States is the type of Baird’s sub- 
