The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



No. 31] 1899 DULY 



ON TWO RECENTLY DESCRIBED MICE 

 FROM ST. KILDA. 



By G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON, F.Z.S., etc. 



AT a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, I recently 

 described as new two species of Mice from St. Kilda, and, at the 

 request of the Editors of this journal, I practically reproduce my 

 original contribution for the benefit of Scottish naturalists. 



The existence of any wild species of Mouse on the isolated rock 

 of St. Kilda is an occurrence so apparently unlikely, that when in 

 1895 a specimen resembling the Long-tailed Field Mouse (Mus 

 sylvaticus) was found amongst some examples of the House Mouse 

 (Mus musculus) sent to the British Museum in spirit, it was received 

 with an amount of surprise certainly equal to the importance of the 

 discovery. The specimen, a young male, had been collected and 

 was presented to the Museum by Mr. J. Steele Elliott. 1 It was a 

 very remarkable one, and bore unmistakable evidence of having 

 come from an out-of-the-way part of the world. Its characteristics 

 were, a larger foot and a smaller ear than the corresponding organs 

 of typical Mus sylvaticus ; while, what was no less noticeable, the 

 very characteristic snow-white belly of our common Field Mouse 

 was in this individual replaced by a uniform rufous colour shading 



1 Mr. Steele Elliott appears to have been the first person to collect specimens 

 of the Mice of St. Kilda. Their occurrence on the island was, however, known 

 previously to the outer world, and Seton states that "a cat is to be seen in 

 almost every cottage, the mouse being the only wild animal on the island, and 

 rats are still unknown" ("St. Kilda, Past and Present, " 1878, p. 132). 



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