198 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



We caught a female on August 8, which had assumed 

 an inky black pelage, by losing the dark brown tips of the 

 long hairs, on the hinder back and between the ears. 



CUMBERLAND STREET, EDINBURGH. 



ON THE HOUSE MICE OF THE OUTER 



HEBRIDES. 



By WM. EAGLE CLARKE. 



MY friend Mr. James Waterston in forwarding a House 

 Mouse which he had captured at Lochmaddy, North Uist, in 

 June last, called my attention to the light colour of the under 

 surface of the specimen. Since then I have been able to 

 institute a comparison between this specimen and a number 

 of examples of the St. Kilda House Mouse, Mus muralis, 

 Barrett- Hamilton 1 (also sent to me by Mr. Waterston), 

 and it seems to me that the North Uist Mouse belongs to 

 that species or race. It is practically identical in colour and 

 size, but is slightly paler in the tint of the under surface 

 than in the St. Kilda specimens, which are about a score 

 in number, while in size it equals the largest of them, its 

 total length being 7.3 ins. (134 mm.), of which the head and 

 body measure 3.9 ins. (99 mm.). 



Mr. Waterston has since informed me that he found this 

 large, brown-coated, buff-bellied Mouse quite common in 

 houses at Lochmaddy, where its peculiarities were well- 

 known to the inhabitants, and where too the typical form 

 of House Mouse (J\Ius musculus, Linnaeus) also commonly 

 occurs. He did not, however, see any hybrid specimens 

 between the two forms, though it seems likely that such 

 crosses might occur. 



The presence of Mus muralis in one of the large islands 

 of the main Outer Hebridean chain, like North Uist, would 

 not only rob that species of the extreme insular peculiarity 

 which has hitherto been assigned to it, but it suggests that 



1 See "Annals," 1899, pp. 129-140. 



